H.264/AVC interleaving for 3G wireless video streaming

Abstract

We present a streaming system that utilizes interleaved transmission for real-time H.264/AVC video in 3G wireless environments with benefits shown especially in the presence of link outages. In the 3GPP packet-switched streaming Service Rel. 6, H.264/AVC and its RTP payload format are specified. The RTP payload format allows interleaved transmission of NAL units of H.264/AVC. Our simulations also include audio into the interleaving framework and are conducted within a testbed that emulates a 3G network including block error rates on the physical layer, a buffer for retransmission on the link layer for different error rates, and link outages. The experimental results demonstrate the superior performance of interleaving for typical link outage settings.