Redundant slice optimal allocation for H.264 multiple description coding

In this paper a novel H.264 multiple description technique is proposed. The coding approach is based on the redundant slice representation option, defined in the H.264 standard. In presence of losses, the redundant representation can be used to replace missing portions of the compressed bitstream, thus yielding a certain degree of error resilience. This paper addresses the creation of two balanced descriptions, based on the concept of redundant slices, while keeping full compatibility with the H.264 standard syntax and decoding behavior in case of single description reception. When two descriptions are available still a standard H.264 decoder can be used, given a simple pre-processing of the received compressed bitstreams. An analytical setup is employed in order to optimally select the amount of redundancy to be inserted in each frame, taking into account both the transmission conditions and the video decoder error propagation. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed technique favorably compares with other H.264 multiple description approaches.