Joint product code optimization for scalable multimedia transmission over wireless channels

State-of-the-art systems for the transmission of images over wireless channels generate an embedded bitstream and protect it with a product code where the row code is a concatenation of an outer cyclic redundancy check (CRC) code and an inner rate-compatible punctured convolutional (RCPC) code, and the column code is a Reed-Solomon (RS) code. In previous works, the product code was optimized by searching for the best RS protection for each RCPC code rate. We present a local search algorithm that jointly optimizes the RS and the RCPC codes. Experimental results show that our algorithm provides an approximately optimal solution, while its time complexity is much lower than that of the previous works.