Cell loss protection using hierarchical coding in video packet communication

As a promising means of realizing broadband ISDN, the ATM (asynchronous transfer mode), which is based on fast packet switching, is considered interesting. In video communication by ATM, the constancy and improvement of picture quality by variable rate coding is expected, while the quality deterioration by cell loss is a serious problem. This paper proposes a video coding method introducing hierarchical coding to cope with the cell loss problem. The proposed hierarchical coding extracts the low‐frequency components of the image by iterating the hierarchical processing based on the spatial filter. Then it is possible to suppress the effect of the quality deterioration caused by cell loss, as long as the low‐frequency components are retained. First, the configuration of the proposed system is discussed. Simulations are executed to observe the effect of the cell loss and the coding characteristics, demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed method in coping with the cell loss. Then discussions are made on the optimal number of hierarchical processings to cope with the cell loss and the protection level for hierarchical information. Furthermore, it is shown that a new type of video communication can be realized by introducing hierarchical coding.