Preferred transmission/streaming order of fine-granular scalability

• US 20020037037A1
• Filed: 09/24/2001
• Published: 03/28/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Funai Electric Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Philips Electronics North America Corporation (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Van Der Schaar, Mihaela
• Granted Patent: US 7,020,193 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/240.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/115 Selection of the code volume for a coding unit prior to coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/147 according to rate distortion criteria rate-distortion as a criterion for motion estimation H04N19/567
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/154 Measured or subjectively estimated visual quality after decoding, e.g. measurement of distortion use of rate-distortion criteria H04N19/147
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/159 Prediction type, e.g. intra-frame, inter-frame or bidirectional frame prediction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/172 the region being a picture, frame or field
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/29 involving scalability at the object level, e.g. video object layer [VOL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/31 in the temporal domain
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/34 Scalability techniques involving progressive bit-plane based encoding of the enhancement layer, e.g. fine granular scalability [FGS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/36 Scalability techniques involving formatting the layers as a function of picture distortion after decoding, e.g. signal-to-noise [SNR] scalability
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/37 with arrangements for assigning different transmission priorities to video input data or to video coded data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/60 using transform coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/61 in combination with predictive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234327 by decomposing into layers, e.g. base layer and one or more enhancement layers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2402 Monitoring of the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. bandwidth available traffic monitoring in data switching networks H04L43/00; monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2662 Controlling the complexity of the video stream, e.g. by scaling the resolution or bitrate of the video stream based on the client capabilities

Abstract

A method for streaming enhancement layer video frame data on a variable bandwidth network involves coding original uncoded video data with a non-scalable codec to generate I and P base layer frames; generating residual temporal B frames and SNR I and P frames from the original uncoded video data and the base layer frames; coding the temporal and SNR frames with a scalable codec; determining an available bandwidth of the variable bandwidth network; transmitting at least portions of the scalable coded temporal frames when the available bandwidth is a first bandwidth ranging between a minimum bit-rate allocated for transmitting only base layer frames and a predetermined bit-rate which is below a maximum bit-rate of the network; and additionally transmitting remaining portions of the scalable coded temporal frames and at least portions of the scalable coded SNR frames when the available bandwidth is a second bandwidth extending between the predetermined bit-rate and the maximum bit-rate of the network.

Claims

1. A method for streaming enhancement layer video frame data on a variable bandwidth network, the enhancement layer video frame data having scalable coded residual temporal video frame data and scalable coded residual quality signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) video frame data, the method comprising:

coding original uncoded video data with a non-scalable codec to generate base layer frame data;

generating residual temporal and SNR video frame data from the original uncoded video data and the base layer frame data;

coding the residual temporal and SNR video frame data with a scalable codec to generate the enhancement layer video frame data with the scalable coded residual temporal and SNR video frame data;

determining an available bandwidth of the variable bandwidth network;

transmitting at least portions of the scalable coded residual temporal frame data when the available bandwidth is a first bandwidth ranging between a minimum bit-rate allocated for transmitting only base layer frame data and a predetermined bit-rate which is below a maximum bit-rate of the network.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising additionally transmitting remaining portions of the scalable coded residual temporal frame data and at least portions of the scalable coded SNR frame data when the available bandwidth is a second bandwidth extending between the predetermined bit-rate and the maximum bit-rate of the network.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the second bit-rate extends to the maximum available bandwidth of the variable bandwidth network.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the base layer frame data includes data for only I and P frames.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the scalable coded residual temporal frame data includes data only for B frames.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the scalable coded SNR video frame data includes only data for I and P frames.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the scalable coded residual temporal frame data includes data only for B frames.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the scalable coded SNR video frame data includes only data for I and P frames.

9. A system for streaming enhancement layer video frame data on a variable bandwidth network, the enhancement layer video frame data having scalable coded residual temporal video frame data and scalable coded residual quality signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) video frame data, the system comprising:

means for coding original uncoded video data with a non-scalable codec to generate base layer frame data;

means for generating residual temporal and SNR video frame data from the original uncoded video data and the base layer frame data;

means for coding the residual temporal and SNR video frame data with a scalable codec to generate the enhancement layer video frame data with the scalable coded residual temporal and SNR video frame data;

means for determining an available bit-rate of the variable bandwidth network;

means for transmitting at least portions of the scalable coded residual temporal frame data when the available bandwidth is a first bandwidth ranging between a minimum bit-rate allocated for transmitting only base layer frame data and a predetermined bit-rate which is below a maximum bit-rate of the network.

10. The system according to claim 9, further comprising means for additionally transmitting remaining portions of the scalable coded residual temporal frame data and at least portions of the scalable coded SNR frame data when the available bandwidth is a second bandwidth extending between the predetermined bit-rate and the maximum bit-rate of the network.

11. The system according to claim 10, wherein the second bit-rate extends to the maximum available bandwidth of the variable bandwidth network.

13. The controller according to claim 12, further comprising means for additionally transmitting remaining portions of the scalable coded residual temporal frame data and at least portions of scalable coded SNR frame data when the available bandwidth is a second bandwidth extending between the predetermined bit-rate and the maximum bit-rate of the network.

15. The memory medium according to claim 14, further comprising code for additionally transmitting remaining portions of the scalable coded residual temporal frame data and at least portions of the scalable coded SNR frame data when the available bandwidth is a second bandwidth extending between the predetermined bit-rate and the maximum bit-rate of the network.

12. A video rate controller comprising:

means for determining an available bandwidth of the variable bandwidth network;

means for transmitting at least portions of scalable coded residual temporal frame data when the available bandwidth is a first bandwidth ranging between a minimum bit-rate allocated for transmitting only base layer frame data and a predetermined bit-rate which is below a maximum bit-rate of the network.

14. A memory medium for streaming enhancement layer video frame data on a variable bandwidth network, the enhancement layer video frame data having scalable coded residual temporal video frame data and scalable coded residual quality signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) video frame data, the memory medium comprising:

code for coding original uncoded video data with a non-scalable codec to generate base layer frame data;

code for generating residual temporal and SNR video frame data from the original uncoded video data and the base layer frame data;

code for coding the residual temporal and SNR video frame data with a scalable codec to generate the enhancement layer video frame data with the scalable coded residual temporal and SNR video frame data;

code for determining an available bandwidth of the variable bandwidth network;

code for transmitting at least portions of the scalable coded residual temporal frame data when the available bandwidth is a first bandwidth ranging between a minimum bit-rate allocated for transmitting only base layer frame data and a predetermined bit-rate which is below a maximum bit-rate of the network.