Error control for video multicast using hierarchical FEC

Bit-rate scalable video compression with layered multicast has been shown to be an effective method to achieve rate control in heterogeneous networks. We further propose the use of hierarchical FEC as an error control mechanism that allows receivers to individually trade-off latency for received video quality. The scheme is efficient since FEC packets are used to protect only the more important data layers and is multicast only to receivers that need them, thereby improving network utilization. Furthermore, there is no loss in error correcting capability by using hierarchical FEC when maximum distance separable codes are used. Actual MBONE experiments are performed to evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme