Inter-layer-decoding aided self-concatenated coded scalable video transmission

In this treatise, we investigate an inter-layer (IL) decoded self-concatenated coded system conceived for scalable video coding (SVC). In SVC, when the base layer (BL) is corrupted due to channel-induced decoding errors, the enhancement layers (ELs) are discarded by the SVC decoder. The proposed IL coding technique implants the systematic information of the BL into the systematic bits of the ELs using exclusive-OR (XOR) operations. The IL coding is combined with a self-concatenated code, which is a near-capacity iterative detection aided channel codec using a single encoder and a single decoder. At the receiver, the IL decoding technique is activated for correcting the errors residing in the error-infested BL. In our experiments, the proposed system is combined with a number of the traditional unequal error protection (UEP) arrangements for benchmarking the system performance. Our simulation results demonstrate that the proposed technique is capable of further improving the system performance of the traditional UEP assisted system by an E_b/N₀ of about 3 dB at a peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) of 36 dB. When viewed from a different perspective, the attainable gain can be quantified as a PSNR improvement of 2.9 dB at E_b/N₀ = -5 dB, while imposing a marginal complexity increase of 1.5%.