Complexity model based load-balancing algorithm for parallel tools of HEVC

Load balancing algorithm supporting parallel tools for HEVC encoder is proposed in this paper. Standardization of HEVC version 1 was finalized and which is known that its RD performance is two times better than H.264/AVC which was the most efficient video coder. However, computational complexity of HEVC encoding process derived from variable block sizes based on hierarchical structure and recursive encoding structure should be dealt as a prerequisite for technique commercialization. In this paper, basic performances of slice- and tile-level parallel tools adopted in HEVC are firstly presented and load balancing algorithm based on complexity model for slices and tiles is proposed. For four slices and four tiles cases, average time saving gains are 12.05% and 3.81% against simple slice- and tile-level parallelization, respectively.