Assessing the Minimum Bandwidth Requirement for Transmitting MPEG-4 over Space

The use of MPEG-4 for both scientific analysis and public outreach in the next phase of NASA Space missions is considered and the minimum bandwidth required is assessed. The video contents typical to the mission scenarios are analyzed to provide the tuning parameters for the video encoding process and the quality of service required at the IP network layer. Realistic space link simulation is then used to generate a-priori video quality assessment for a given set of space link conditions. The intent of this study is to provide the basis for tradeoff between bandwidth allocation for video traffic and quality of the video.