Integrated joint source-channel decoding for H.264 video transmission

Abstract

This paper proposes an integrated joint source-channel decoder (I-JSCD) using Max-Log-MAP method for sources encoded with exp-Golomb codes and convolutional codes, and proposes a system applying this method to decoding the VLC data, e.g. motion vector differences (MVDs), of H.264 across an AWGN channel. This method combines the source code state-space and the channel code state-space together to construct a joint state-space, develops a 3-D trellis and a maximum a-posterior (MAP) algorithm to estimate the source sequence symbol by symbol, and then uses max-log approximation to simplify the algorithm. Experiments indicate that the proposed system gives significant improvements on peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) (maximum about 15 dB) than a separate scheme. This also leads to a higher visual quality of video stream over a highly noisy channel.