Unequal error protection for MPEG-2 video transmission over frequency-selective Rayleigh fading channels

In this paper, we investigate the effects of errors on different parts in each slice of coded pictures of each type in MPEG-2 video sequences. We conclude, based on the simulation results, that the bits at the beginning of each slice are far more important than those near the end of the slice. Thus if the bits at the beginning of each slice are better protected while letting errors corrupt other bits in the slice, better video quality could be achieved while minimizing the overhead due to forward error control (FEC). We then propose a new unequal error protection (UEP) scheme, which gives better video quality than the existing schemes. In our scheme, each slice is first split into a number of segments. Then the segments at the beginning of each slice are better protected, while other segments in the slice are less protected. Our simulation results show remarkable (up to 4 dB improvement in peak signal to noise ratio) improvement in video quality, compared to the equal error protection (EEP) and one existing UEP schemes, without bandwidth expansion. We conclude that the proposed UEP scheme is robust for MPEG-2 video transmission over frequency-selective Rayleigh fading channels.