The goal of this research is the development of enhanced service options for low bit rate video applications to improve their transmission over packet based wireless channels. The encoding process will be studied in detail to better understand the underlying characteristics of the service. This research will draw on expertise gained from previous work in the area of variable bit rate video transmission over ATM based BISDN networks. Current work will focus on the H.263 standard which encompasses a very complex encoding process that incorporates several different options. The impact of these options on the transmission of video data over a packet based wireless channel has not yet been studied extensively. The research plan involves studying the different encoding options and then investigating network access and error recovery schemes for the transmission of packetized video data. The orthogonal frequency division multiplexing and multicarrier modulation (OFDM and MCM) wireless transmission schemes and antenna diversity strategy studied are interesting for video applications because of the flexibility with which channel resources may be dynamically allocated for layered video coding transmission. Nonlinear receiver structures and nonlinear processing for image quality enhancement to combat the effects of interference on video quality will also be studied. The research project includes the set-up of a wireless testbed that will be housed in both the Signal Processing Research Laboratory and the Video Processing and Telecommunications Laboratory. The testbed will be used to conduct experiments on indoor wireless video transmission.
