Asymmetric Multiple Description Coding using Layered Coding and Lateral Error Correction

In this paper we present a method for Asymmetric Multiple Description Coding (AMDC) using Reed Solomon Channel Codes and Layered Coding. Asymmetric MDC can be used when channel conditions are not uniform. For instance peer-to-peer networks or heterogeneous (wired and wireless) networks may offer different channels with different bandwidths and loss characteristics. The AMDC encoder can be designed to fit these network conditions and in many cases outperforms single description coding, symmetric MDC, layered coding and in some cases layered coding with unequal error protections. (A)MDC exploits the diversity offered by multiple (parallel) channels without increasing the delay. In general, optimizing the design and rate allocation for the AMDC method is hard. In this paper we first introduce the general framework of AMDC and give some examples for which the AMDC outperforms other methods.