Joint power allocation and rate control for real-time video transmission over wireless systems

We propose a novel rate control algorithm for real-time video transmission over wireless systems, which encompass power control technique, region-based rate control strategy and a macroblock-based segmentation method. By allocating more power as well as more bits to the regions of interest of a video frame and less power & fewer bits to the rest regions, the algorithm improves the visual quality of the regions of interest while saving bits, and also adapts to time-varying wireless channels. When compared with the fixed power MPEG-4 rate control algorithm, the proposed algorithm successfully improves perceptual quality, reduces frame skipping and enhances motion continuity in wireless video transmission, while the total power is kept at the original level