Pattern Smoothing for Compressed Video Transmission

In this paper we introduce a video smoothing algorithm for MPEG compressed live video. This algorithm, called Pattern Smoothing, transmits compressed video via both Constant Bit Rate (CBR) and Variable Bit Rate (VBR) channels. In order to take advantage of the gains achieved through statistical multiplexing of multiple sources over a single link, this algorithm utilizes a CBR channel to reduce the peak rate and variance of the VBR transmission. In addition to presenting this new algorithm, we compare it against three smoothing techniques presented in the literature. Key attributes used for comparison include receiver buffer size, live video support, startup delay, losslessness versus lossiness, and smoothing scale. Because network utilization is the most important performance metric for any smoothing algorithm, we provide a performance analysis of the Pattern Smoothing algorithm via simulation and compare these results to the best of the three presented smoothing algorithms.