Application-layer error resilience for wireless IP-based video broadcasting

Wireless IP-based video broadcast suffers from heavy packet losses caused by multipath fading and interference variations in the wireless channels. This paper addresses this issue by proposing an application-layer error-resilience scheme, called the replicate multiple descriptor coding scheme (RMD). In principle, RMD extends the conventional multiple descriptor transmission strategy with two new features, the selective-frame-based replication and a time-shifted descriptor transmission. We show that with these two features, we are able to exploit the time diversity in a time-sharing channel to mitigate the damage impact and provide more efficient protection for the video. The simulation results confirm that when the packet loss rate is heavy (e.g., 15%–35%), RMD outperforms other schemes in terms of PSNR improved, while only requiring moderate data overheads.