Progressive Video Coding for Noisy Channels

We extend the work of Sherwood and Zeger [1, 2] to progressive video coding for noisy channels. By utilizing a three-dimensional (3-D) extension of the set partitioning in hierarchical trees (SPIHT) algorithm [3], we cascade the resulting 3-D SPIHT video coder [4, 5] with the ratecompatible punctured convolutional (RCPC) channel coder [6] for transmission of video over a binary symmetric channel (BSC). Progressive coding is achieved by increasing the target rate of the 3-D embedded SPIHT video coder as the channel condition improves. The performance of our proposed coding system is acceptable at low transmission rate and bad channel conditions.