Format-compliant perceptual video encryption based on multiple description coding

This paper proposes a new format-compliant perceptual encryption scheme based on the Multiple Description Coding (MDC). The proposed technique exploits the scalable property of MDC which results in multiple encrypted format-compliance video streams. An unbalanced MDC was specially designed to serve the purpose of perceptual encryption in such a way that it provides the control over quality differences and number of achievable qualities. In general, the perceived quality is directly proportional to the number of video descriptions that can be correctly decrypted. In order to preserve format compliant property of the encoded video streams, the proposed scheme was designed based on a pre- and post-processing multiple description video coding method and an encryption process at bit stream level. Hence, no alterations are required for both coding and encryption processes. Even though the proposed framework is format independent, this paper focuses on the H.264/AVC video coding standard. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed scheme can successfully integrate encryption and a multiple description coding technique while preserving other multiple description video coding characteristics such as scalability and robustness.