Energy-aware joint source-channel coding control for quality-optimized wireless multimedia communications

In this paper we propose an energy-aware scheme using joint source-channel coding (JSCC) with unequal error protection (UEP) for scalable video delivery over packet-lossy networks. The proposed cross-layer approach jointly consider the error protection at the physical layer, the energy consumption at the MAC layer, and the quality of service (QoS) at the application layer. Bits are optimally allocated based on the source compression and the channel correction coding, in accordance to both the wireless channel conditions and the energy constraints. For a certain intra refreshing rate of source coding, the UEP scheme is capable of optimally allocating the channel redundancy among frames, with the lowest video distortion and energy consumption in wireless transmission. Simulations demonstrate that the proposed energy-aware JSCC scheme can significantly improve the video QoS, while the energy constraint is satisfied and the complexity associated with performing the cross-layer JSCC grouping algorithm is acceptable.