Wireless image transmission using multiple-description based concatenated codes

Abstract

Summary form only given. This work introduces a multiple-description product code which aims at optimally generating multiple, equally-important wavelet image descriptions from an image encoded by the popular SPIHT image coder. Because the SPIHT image coder is highly sensitive to errors, forward error correction is used to protect the image against bit errors occurring in the channel. The error-correction code is a concatenated channel code including a row (outer) code based on RCPC codes with CRC error detection and a source-channel column (inner) code consisting of the scalable SPIHT image coder and an optimized array of unequal protection Reed-Solomon erasure-correction codes. By matching the unequal protection codes to the embedded source bitstream using our simple, fast optimizer, we maximize expected image quality and provide for graceful degradation of the received image during fades. To achieve unequal protection, each packet is split into many Reed-Solomon symbols. The i/sup th/ symbol in each packet forms an (n,k) Reed-Solomon code or "column". A fast, nearly-optimal optimizer, based on Lagrange multipliers and optimal to within convex hull and discretization approximations, chooses k for each Reed-Solomon "column" to minimize the expected mean-square error at the receiver. We validated our use of this structure by evaluating its performance in the context of transmitting images over a wireless fading channel. The performance of this scheme was evaluated by simulating the transmission of the Lena image over a Clarke flat-fading channel with an average SNR of 10 dB and a normalized Doppler frequency of 10/sup -5/ Hz.