Advances of MPEG Scalable Video Coding Standard - Intelligent Multimedia Data Hiding - page 52

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Advances of MPEG Scalable Video Coding
Standard

Wen-Hsiao Peng 1 , Chia-Yang Tsai 1 , Tihao Chiang 1 , and Hsueh-Ming Hang 1

National Chiao-Tung University
1001 Ta-Hsueh Rd., HsinChu 30010, Taiwan
[e-mail] ; [e-mail] ; [e-mail] ;
[e-mail]

Summary. To support clients with diverse capabilities, the MPEG committee is
defining a novel Scalable Video Coding (SVC) framework that can simultaneously
support multiple spatial, temporal and SNR resolutions under the constraints of
low complexity and small delay. In order to fulfill these requirements, two main
approaches have been considered as the potential technologies. One is the Wavelet-
Based Scheme and the other is the Scalable Extension of MPEG-4 AVC/H.264. The
latter has been finally chosen as the MPEG SVC standard to be finalized in 2007.
This chapter gives a brief overview on the latest advances in these technologies with
a focus on the MPEG standard activities.

3.1 Introduction

Scalable Video Coding (SVC) attracts wide attention due to the rapid growth
of multimedia applications over the Internet and wireless channels. In these
applications, the video may be transmitted over error-prone channels with
fluctuating bandwidth. The clients, which consist of different devices, may
have different processing power and spatial resolutions. Fig. 3.1 shows an ex-
ample of Scalable Video Coding in a streaming environment, where a single
bit-stream is broadcast to various clients through various heterogeneous net-
works. As shown, the challenge is how to generate such a bit-stream which
matches the capabilities of the different devices.
To support clients with diverse capabilities in the areas of complexity,
bandwidth, power and display resolution, the MPEG committee is in the
process of defining a Scalable Video Coding (SVC) framework that can si-
multaneously support multiple spatial, temporal and SNR resolutions under
the constraints of minimum complexity and small delay. More than 20 pro-
posals were submitted during the request for proposal stage of the inquiry
[1] in February 2004. These proposals can be roughly classified into the fol-
lowing two categories. One is the Wavelet-Based Scheme and the other the