Model-driven Video Decoding: An Application Domain for Model Transformations

Modern serialization formats for digital video data are designed in a way that they allow for the combination of high compression rates, high quality as well as performant enand decoding. As the capability for real-time decoding often is a requirement, concrete decoders are usually implemented in a way that they best fit a specific architecture and, thus, are not portable. In scenarios, where it is essential that the capability to decode existent video data can be retained, even if the underlying architecture is changed, portability is more important than performance. For such scenarios, we propose decoder specifications that serve as templates for concrete decoder implementations on different architectures. As a high level of abstraction guarantees system-independence, we use (meta)models and model transformations for that purpose. Consequently, every decoder specification is (partially) executable, which simplifies the development process. In this paper, we describe our concepts for model-driven video decoding and give an overview of a prototypical implementation.