Multistate vs. single-state video coding over error-prone channels

Multiple description coding (MDC) is a forward error correction scheme where two or more descriptions of the source are sent to the receiver over different channels. If only one description is received the signal can be reconstructed with distortion D₁ or D₂. If both channels are received on the other hand, the combined information is used to achieve a lower distortion D₀. Multistate video coding (MSVC) is a specific MDC scheme where the video is coded into multiple independently decodable streams each with its own prediction process and state. In this paper we compare MSVC to single description coding (SDC) at different loss rates and coding options under the assumption that the motion vectors are always available. Results show that when motion vectors are received, SDC performs better than MSVC at every coding option tested. The performance difference is bigger for low motion sequences.