Earticle

최근 영상 장비와 기술이 발전함에 따라 우리 군에서도 작전지역에 대한 정보를 획득하고, 효율적인 지휘통제에 활용하기 위해 수많은 영상정보가 생산되어 활용되고 있다. 이때 현재 군내에서 활용하고 있는 영상 재생장비는 저성능의 전술용 다기 능 단말기(TMFT)로부터 고성능의 영상서버에 이르기까지 매우 다양하고, 영상이 전송되는 네트워크 또한 저속의 전술정보통 신체계(TICN)로부터 초고속의 국방광대역통합망(M-BcN)에 이르기까지 다양하다. 따라서 이기종(異機種) 통신장비 및 네트 워크 환경에서 국방 영상정보를 효율적으로 전송할 수 있는 스트리밍 기법이 필요하다. 이 문제를 해결하기 위해 본 논문에서 는 확장비디오코딩(SVC) 및 균형선택 알고리즘 기반의 피투피(P2P) 스트리밍 기법을 제안한다. 비토렌트 기반의 시뮬레이터 를 활용한 성능분석결과 우리가 제안하는 균형선택 알고리즘 기반의 스트리밍 기법은 순차선택이나 희소선택 알고리즘에 비해 우수한 성능을 보였다.

Recently, with the rapid development of video equipment and technology, tremendous video information is produced and utilized in military domain to acquire battlefield information or for effective command control. Note that the video playback devices currently used in the military domain ranges from low-performance tactical multi-functional terminals (TMFT) to high-performance video servers and the networks where the video information is transmitted also range from the low speed tactical information and communication network (TICN) to ultra-high speed defense broadband converged networks such as M-BcN. Therefore, there is a need for an efficient streaming technique that can efficiently transmit defense video information in heterogeneous communication equipment and network environments. To solve the problem, this paper proposes a Scalable Video Coding (SVC) and balanced selection algorithm based Peer-to-Peer (P2P) streaming technique and the feasibility of the proposed technique is verified by simulations. The simulation results based on our BitTorrent simulator show that the proposed balanced selection scheme outperforms the sequential or rarest selection algorithm.

본 논문에서는 다양한 채널 환경과 요구 화질 조건에서 사용자의 QoS(Quality of Service)를 만족시키기 위한 영상 전송 방법에 대하여 제안하였다. SVC(Scalable Video Coding) 전송 기법은 비디오 신호를 중요도를 고려한 계층별 신호로 인코딩하여 전송하기 때문에, 비디오 신호 전송에 있어 효과적인 방법이다. 하지만 다양한 채널 환경에 대해서 적응적으로 다수의 사용자가 요구하는 각각의 성능을 선택적으로 만족시키는 기술에 대한 연구는 미비하다. 이에 본 논문에서는 MC-CDMA기반의 SVC 전송 시스템에서 계층 간 차등 OVSF(Orthogonal Variable Spreading Factor) 코드 할당 기법을 통해 SVC 계층 간 protection order를 보장하고 수신부로부터의 피드백을 통해 MC-CDMA의 sub-block과 각각의 계층 신호에 할당된 OVSF 길이를 조절하여 전송함으로써 다양한 채널 환경에서 각각의 사용자의 전송 환경에 따른 최적의 영상품질을 제공하는 적응 전송 시스템을 제안한다. 모의실험을 통해 제안 시스템의 성능분석을 실시한 결과 BER 성능이 향상되어 사용자의 QoS 만족이 가능함을 확인할 수 있었다.

This paper proposes an adaptive video signal transmission scheme in order to ensure the QoS (Quality of Service) of user requirements. SVC (Scalable Video Coding) is an effective transmission scheme, because that can transmit video signal according to the video layer’s weight. However, in previous works, those adaptive transmission systems which are considered about the various channel environments and user requirements have not been insufficiently studied. So, we propose the SVC signal transmission using inter-layer differential OVSF code allocation scheme in MC-CDMA. The proposed scheme is able to obtain each layer signal’s protection order and control the sub-block of MC-CDMA by feedback information from receiver. Therefore, our proposed scheme is possible to provide the video quality for each users according to variable channel environments. The simulation results demonstrate the enhancement of proposed system in terms of BER performance.

Scalable video coding (SVC) is an extension of H.264/AVC for providing three types of scalabilities: temporal, spatial, and quality. These scalabilities can be combined to make use of network bandwidth. As an extension of the H.264/AVC video standard, an inter-mode prediction technique is used for reducing temporal as well as spatial redundancies by using seven variable-sized macroblocks (MBs) for rate-distortion (R-D) optimization, hierarchical bi-directional motion prediction, and inter-layer prediction. These techniques achieve coding efficiency, but they increase the computational complexity of the SVC encoding system. To reduce the complexity of the SVC encoding system, this paper proposes a fast mode selection method based on an adaptive search direction selection for bi-directional motion prediction. We verify that the proposed algorithm can achieve up to a 51% decrease in encoding time with a negligible loss of quality.

Scalable video coding (SVC) is an extension of H.264/MPEG 4 AVC approved by JVT on November, 2007. The characteristic of the SVC is the encoding of a high-quality video bitstream that contains one or more enhancement layer bitstreams in addition to the base layer bitstream. We propose a fast enhancement layer macro block (MB) mode decision algorithm for spatial scalable SVC utilizing statistical characteristics of lower layer. The MB mode of spatial enhancement layer is statistically highly correlated with MB mode of lower layer. The proposed algorithm intelligently limits the possible candidate MB modes of enhancement layer to the modes predicted from the base layer for spatial scalable coding. We implemented our algorithm on JSVM codec to verify the performance of our algorithm. Using our algorithm, we can reduce the encoding time while almost maintaining PSNR and bitrate.

본 논문에서는 암호화된 Scalable Video Coding (SVC) 비트스트림에서의 조건적 접근제어을 위한 키 관리 기법을 제안한다. 스케일러블 비디오 코딩 기술은 한번 인코딩 후 비트스트림 추출을 통해 다양한 확장성(scalabbility)을 가지는 비디오를 생성 할 수 있는 기술로 확장하는 단위마다 다른 키로 암호화 하여 조건적 접근제어를 구성 할 수 있다. 그러나 기존의 조건적 접근제어 기술은 암호화 시 복수의 키가 필요하며 이는 키의 관리와 분배에 어려움을 준다. 이러한 문제를 해결하기 위해 본 논문에서는 기존의 스케일러블 코딩기법에서 조건적 접근제어를 위한 키 관리기법을 살펴보고 SVC 의 확장 구조에 맞는 키 관리 기법을 제안한다. 제안한 방법은 SVC 를 이용한 스트리밍 테스트베드에서 구현되어, 조건적 접근제어를 위한 키 관리기능의 유용성을 확인하였다.

본 연구에 따른 영상 신호의 처리 방법은, 하나의 화면을 중요도에 따라 복수의 영역들로 분할하는 단계 그리고 분할된 화면들 각각에 대응하는 영상 신호를 서로 다른 프레임을 (Frame-rate)로 디코딩하는 단계를 포함한다. 상술한 영상 신호의 처리 방법에 따라 시야에서 민감한 화면만을 인코딩한 최대 화질로 재생하고 덜 민감한 화면 영역은 상대적으로 낮은 화질로 재생하여 이득을 제공할 수 있다.

본 논문에서는 동영상의 계층적 부호화의 효율을 높이기 위한 방안에 대해 연구하였다. 단일 계층부호화에 비해 다 계층부호화는 계산량이 많아진다. 따라서 계층적 부호화의 장점을 살리고 단점을 보완하는 방안을 제시하였다. 우선 인코더에서 고급계층의 복잡도를 줄이기 위하여 고급계층의 참조 형태를 P-VOP (Prediction-Video Object Plane)만으로 정한다. 고급계층의 참조 영역으로 사용되는 업샘플링된 VOP의 횟수를 줄여서 업샘플링에 따른 계산량을 줄인다. 그리고 고급계층의 비트율을 조절하여 Traffic shaping 효과도 얻을 수 있다. 이러한 방법들을 통해 단일 계층 부호화에 비해 다 계층부호화의 장점을 살리고 단점을 보완하는 코덱을 제안한다.

This paper presents a blind video watermarking algorithm that has the robustness against spatial, temporal, and SNR scalability and transcoding for the copyright protection of video contents in heterogeneous multimedia service. The proposed process of watermark embedding and detecting is accomplished on base layer for considering spatial scalability. The watermark consists of the string and the ordering number of string for considering temporal scalability. Thus, each of frames has the bitstream of one character and a ordering number of its character. To robust against FGS, the proposed algorithm quantizes low and middle frequency coefficients in ROI region of each of frames and embeds its watermark bitstream into the specific bits of the quantized coefficients. Experimental results verified that the proposed algorithm satisfies the invisibility of watermark and also has the robustness against spatial scalability, temporal scalability and FGS.

Transmission of video over Internet or wireless network requires coded stream capable of adapting to dynamic network conditions instantly. To meet this requirement, various scalable video coding schemes have been developed, among which the Scalable Video Coding (SVC) extension of the H.264/AVC is the most recent one. In comparison with the scalable profiles of previous video coding standards, the SVC achieves significant improvement on coding efficiency performance. For adapting to dynamic network bandwidth, the SVC employs inter-layer switching between different temporal, spatial or/and fidelity layers, which is currently supported with instantaneous decoding refresh (IDR) access unit. However, for real-time adaptability, the SVC has to frequently employ the IDR picture, which dramatically decreases the coding efficiency. Therefore, an extension of SP picture from the AVC to the SVC for an efficient inter-layer switching is investigated and presented in this paper. Simulations regarding the adaptability to dynamic network bandwidth are implemented. Results of experiment show that the SP picture added SVC provides an average 1.2 dB PSNR enhancement over the current SVC while providing similar adaptive functionality.

A scalable video coding (SVC) extension to the H.264/AVC standard has been developed by the Joint Video Team (JVT). SVC provides spatial, temporal and quality scalability with high coding efficiency and low complexity. SVC is now developing the extension of the first version including color format scalability. The paper proposes to remove some luminance related header and luminance coefficients when an enhancement layer adds only additional color information to its lower layer. Experimental results shows 0.6 dB PSNR gain on average in coding efficiency compared with an approach using the existing SVC standard.

Quantization in video coding plays an important role in controlling the bit-rate of compressed video bit-streams. It has been used as an important control means to adjust the amount of bit-streams to at]owed bandwidth of delivery networks and storage. Due to the dependent nature of video coding, dependent quantization has been proposed and applied for MPEG-2 video coding to better maintain the quality of reconstructed frame for given constraints of target bit-rate. Since Scalable Video Coding (SVC) being currently standardized exhibits highly dependent coding nature not only between frames but also lower and higher scalability layers where the dependent quantization can be effectively applied, in this paper, we propose a dependent quantization scheme for SVC and compare its performance in visual qualities and bit-rates with the current JSVM reference software for SVC. The proposed technique exploits the frame dependences within each GOP of SVC scalability layers to formulate dependent quantization. We utilize Lagrange optimization, which is widely accepted in R-D (rate-distortion) based optimization, and construct trellis graph to find the optimal cost path in the trellis by minimizing the R-D cost. The optimal cost path in the trellis graph is the optimal set of quantization parameters (QP) for frames within a GOP. In order to reduce the complexity, we employ pruning procedure using monotonicity property in the trellis optimization and cut the frame dependency into one GOP to decrease dependency depth. The optimal Lagrange multiplier that is used for SVC is equal to H.264/AVC which is also used in the mode prediction of the JSVM reference software. The experimental result shows that the dependent quantization outperforms the current JSVM reference software encoder which actually takes a linear increasing QP in temporal scalability layers. The superiority of the dependent quantization is achieved up to 1.25 dB increment in PSNR values and 20% bits saving for the enhancement layer of SVC.

In recent years, the development of multimedia devices has meant that a wider multimedia streaming service can be supported, and there are now many ways in which TV channels can communicate with different terminals. Generally, scalable video streaming is known to provide more efficient channel capacity than simulcast video streaming. Simulcast video streaming requires a large network bandwidth for all resolutions, but scalable video streaming needs only one flow for all resolutions. In previous research, scalable video streaming has been compared with simulcast video streaming for network channel capacity, in two user simulation environments. The simulation results show that the channel capacity of SVC is 16% to 20% smaller than AVC, but scalable video streaming is not efficient because of the limit of the present network framework. In this paper, we propose a new network framework with an SVC extractor. The proposed network framework shows a channel capacity 50% (maximum) lower than that found in previous research studies.

In this paper, we propose an efficient and effective selective protection scheme to SVC that exploit the propagation of protection effect by protecting significant frames that can give the maximum visual quality degradation. We model SVC dependency coding structure as a directed acyclic graph which is characterized with an estimated visual quality value as the attribute at each node. The estimated visual quality is calculated by using our model based on the proportions of intra- and inter-predicted MBs, amounts of residual, and estimated visual quality of reference frames. The proposed selective protection scheme traverses the graph to find optimal protection paths that can give maximum visual quality degradation. Experimental results show that the proposed selective protection scheme reduces the required number of frames to be protected by 46.02% compared to the whole protection scheme and 27.56% compared to the layered protection scheme.

The fundamental problem of selective protection scheme for encoded bitstreams is to find an efficient algorithm to select the set of frames required to be encrypted that can maximize protection effect with the minimum amount of protected data is required. In this paper, we propose an optimal selective protection scheme for SVC bitstreams by protecting the best combination of frames for selective protection in the sense that the amount of data required for protection is minimized and the resulting visual quality degradation is maximized. The selection of the frames to be encrypted is done by first expressing R-Q (protection rate - visual quality) relationship with Lagragian cost model. The experimental results show that, compared to protecting SVC bitstreams layer by layer, the proposed scheme gives superior performance in terms of protection effectiveness due to its better selection of frames for protection given protection bit budgets.

In this letter, we propose a new functionality to scalable video coding (SVC), that is, the support of multiple region of interests (ROIs) for heterogeneous display resolution. The main objective of SVC is to provide temporal, spatial, and quality scalability of an encoded bitstream. The ROI is an area that is semantically important to a particular user, especially users with heterogeneous display resolutions. Less transmission bandwidth is needed compared to when the entire region is transmitted/decoded and then sub-sampled or cropped. To support multiple ROIs in SVC, we adopt flexible macroblock ordering (FMO), a tool defined in H.264, and based on it, we propose a way to encode and, independently, decode ROIs. The proposed method is implemented on the joint scalable video model (JSVM) and its functionality verified.

One of the recent and most significant technical properties can be expressed as "digital convergence," which is helping lead the technical paradigm into a ubiquitous environment. As an initial trial of realizing a ubiquitous environment, the convergence between broadcasting and telecommunication fields is now on the way, where it is required to develop a scalable video coding scheme for one-source and multi-use media. Traditional scalable video coding schemes have, however, limitations for higher stable picture quality especially on the region of interest. Therefore, this paper introduces an adaptive scanning method especially designed for a higher regional-stable picture quality under a ubiquitous video coding environment, which can improve the subjective quality of the decoded video by most-preferentially encoding, transmitting, and decoding the top-priority image information of the region of interest. Thus, the video can be more clearly visible to users. From various simulation results, the proposed scanning method in this paper can achieve an improved subjective picture quality far better than the widely used raster scan order in conventional video coding schemes, especially on the region of interest, and without a significant loss of quality in the left-over region.

In this paper, we propose a new error concealment (EC) method using inter-layer correlation for scalable video coding. In the proposed method, the auxiliary motion vector (MV) and the auxiliary mode number (MN) of intra prediction are interleaved into the bitstream to recover the corrupted frame. In order to reduce the bit rate, the proposed method encodes the difference between the original and the predicted values of the MV and MN instead of the original values. Experimental results show that the proposed EC outperforms the conventional EC by 2.8 dB to 6.7 dB.

This paper proposes an efficient computation-aware mode decision and search point (SP) allocation algorithm for spatial and quality scalabilities in Scalable Video Coding. In our proposal, a linear model is derived to allocate the computation for macroblocks in enhancement layers by using the rate distortion costs of the base layer. In addition, an adaptive SP decision algorithm is proposed to decide the number of SPs for motion estimation under the constraint of the allocated computation. Experiment results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm allocates the computation resource efficiently and outperforms other works in rate distortion performance under the same computational availability constraint.