Evaluation of quality scalability layer selection for bit rate adaptation of scalable video content

Scalable Video Coding (SVC), which offers a comprehensive set of scalability options including spatial, temporal, and quality scalabilities, is considered to be one of the core enabling technologies for realising the universal multimedia access (UMA). Efficiently utilising the functionalities of these options to satisfy the demand of better visual quality for collaborative networking environments is an important issue that needs attention. In this paper, we investigate the effects of asymmetrically adjusting the balance of quality enhancement layers in key and non-key frames on rate-distortion (R-D) performance of the adapted video bit streams. Experimental results presented in the paper demonstrate that the asymmetric bit rate adaptation scheme is capable of not only improving the R-D performance but also increasing the number of achievable bit rate points.