Trade off between source and channel distortion for a data-partitioned video in a capacity constrained network

Video transmission is affected by two types of distortions: source distortion, which is caused by the encoder parameters; and channel distortion for which the error prone characteristics of the wireless network is responsible. In this paper, we vary the quantization parameter (QP) to determine the effect of source distortion. In a capacity constrained network, changing QP has contradictory effects: smaller QP decreases the source distortion but the bit rate is increased, leaving small room for employing error protection techniques. In a highly lossy environment, this might not be the optimal solution. In this paper, by changing the QP we determine the trade off between source and channel distortion that leads to the best possible picture quality performance.