Abstract
In this work, we present an evaluation of the performance and error robustness of RTP-based broadcast streaming of high-quality high-definition (HD) H.264/AVC video. Using a fully controlled IP test bed (Hillestad et al., 2005), we broadcast high-definition video over RTP/UDP, and use an IP network emulator to introduce a varying amount of randomly distributed packet loss. A high-performance network interface monitoring card is used to capture the video packets into a trace file. Purpose-built software parses the trace file, analyzes the RTP stream and assembles the correctly received NAL units into an H.264/AVC Annex B byte stream file, which is subsequently decoded by JVT JM 10.1 reference software. The proposed measurement setup is a novel, practical and intuitive approach to perform error resilience testing of real-world H.264/AVC broadcast applications. Through a series of experiments, we evaluate some of the error resilience features of the H.264/AVC standard, and see how they perform at packet loss rates from 0.01% to 5%. The results confirmed that an appropriate slice partitioning scheme is essential to have a graceful degradation in received quality in the case of packet loss. While flexible macroblock ordering reduces the compression efficiency about 1 dB for our test material, reconstructed video quality is improved for loss rates above 0.25%.
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Project supported by the Research Council of Norway, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), and the Norwegian Research Network (UNINETT)
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Hillestad, O.I., Jetlund, O. & Perkis, A. RTP-based broadcast streaming of high definition H.264/AVC video: An error robustness evaluation. J. Zhejiang Univ. - Sci. A 7 (Suppl 1), 19–26 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1631/jzus.2006.AS0019
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1631/jzus.2006.AS0019