Model-based rate control implementation for low-power video communications systems

• Published in: IEEE transactions on circuits and systems for video technology Vol. 13; no. 12; pp. 1187 - 1194
• Main Author: De Vleeschouwer, C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01-12-2003; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Algorithms; Applied sciences; Bit rate; Broadcasting. Videocommunications. Audiovisual; Circuits; Coding; Communication system control; Computation; Control systems; Exact sciences and technology; Feedback; Frames; Image processing; Information, signal and communications theory; Mathematical models; Quantization; Radio control; Rate-distortion; Reinforced concrete; Signal processing; Signal processing algorithms; Systems, networks and services of telecommunications; Telecommunications; Telecommunications and information theory; Teletraffic; Video coding; Video compression; Videocommunications (networks and services); Video coding; Signal compression; rate control (RC) system; Control system; Telecommunication system; Rate distortion theory; Traffic control; Serial processing; Low power; Algorithm; Videoconference; Video signal processing
• ISSN: 1051-8215; 1558-2205
• DOI: 10.1109/TCSVT.2003.819181

This paper focuses on a major requirement of rate control (RC) algorithms when implementing a low-power video coding system: RC must be compatible with a one-pass, sequential and local processing of the frame data. This requirement prevents direct use of the most efficient RC algorithms, i.e., the ones that rely on rate-distortion (R-D) models whose parameters are computed from a pre-analysis of the input frame. The paper proposes to circumvent the problem by predicting the R-D model parameter(s) without accessing the current input frame data. It avoids the pre-analysis stage while keeping the benefit from R-D based rate control. The method is designed and illustrated for standardized and conventional hybrid coding schemes (H.26x, MPEG-x). Specifically, the mean absolute difference (MAD) of the motion prediction error, which is the key R-D model parameter, is predicted before the sequential processing of the input blocks. In order to validate the prediction, the behaviors of rate control systems using either the actual (computed) or the estimated (predicted) MAD parameter are compared.