Patent ID: 8300708

Claim:
A method of determining operating parameters for a multimedia data transmission channel, comprising the steps of: receiving information about a state of the channel; utilizing the received information to determine sensitivity values for a plurality of predetermined pairs of compression ratio and protection ratio, for a given overall fixed source bit-rate of the channel; comparing the sensitivity values obtained for the given overall fixed source bit-rate of the channel; and selecting a preferred sensitivity value, the preferred sensitivity value taking into account a desired source bit-rate and a compression ratio; wherein the sensitivity value is determined according to the following relationship: D ^ gop = ∏ i = 0 N ⁢ ⁢ ( 1 - P e ) β i ⁢ n i · D o + ∑ i = 0 N ⁢ [ ∏ j = 0 i - 1 ⁢ ( 1 - ⁢ P e ) β j · n j · ( 1 - ( 1 - ⁢ P e ) β i · n i ) · D loss i ] wherein {circumflex over (D)} gop is a distortion of a group of pictures, P e is a probability of error for a bit, β i is a correction factor for an i th frame, β j is a correction factor for an j th frame, N is a number of frames, n i is a size of an i th frame, n j is a size of an j th frame, D o is distortion observed when a frame is correct, and D loss i is distortion observed when an i th frame is lost.