Efficient Multimedia Multicast Using Distributed Source Coding

We propose a system for real-time multimedia multicast over heterogeneous wireless-wireline networks. The encoded source is transmitted from the base station over the wireless radio link to numerous Internet servers. Each server performs distributed source coding (as quantization followed by Slepian-Wolf coding) by exploiting mutual correlation among packets received at different servers. The resulting packets are forwarded to the clients for joint decoding. We provide an algorithm for optimal nonuniform scalar quantizers design at the server side that minimizes the required rate under the decoder bit error rate constraint. For scalable multimedia codes, we develop joint source-channel coding scheme which combines error-protection at the base station and distributed source coding at the servers. Our experimental results show significant performance improvements over conventional solutions due to spatial diversity and distributed source coding gains.