This paper proposes an optimal rate allocation scheme for Fine-Granular Scalability (FGS) coded bitstreams that can achieve constant quality reconstruction of frames under a dynamic rate budget constraint. In doing so, we also aim to minimize the overall distortion at the same time. To achieve this, we propose a novel R-D labeling scheme to characterize the R-D relationship of the source coding process. Specifically, sets of R-D points are extracted during the encoding process and linear interpolation is used to estimate the actual R-D curve of the enhancement layer signal. The extracted R-D information is then used by an enhancement layer transcoder to determine the bits that should be allocated per frame. A sliding window based rate allocation method is proposed to realize constant quality among frames. This scheme is first considered for a single FGS coded source, then extended to operate on multiple sources. With the proposed scheme, the rate allocation can be performed in a single pass, hence the complexity is quite low. Experimental results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed scheme under static and dynamic bandwidth conditions. This work may not be copied or reproduced in whole or in part for any commercial purpose. Permission to copy in whole or in part without payment of fee is granted for nonprofit educational and research purposes provided that all such whole or partial copies include the following: a notice that such copying is by permission of Mitsubishi Electric Information Technology Center America; an acknowledgment of the authors and individual contributions to the work; and all applicable portions of the copyright notice. Copying, reproduction, or republishing for any other purpose shall require a license with payment of fee to Mitsubishi Electric Information Technology Center America. All rights reserved.  This paper proposes an optimal rate allocation scheme for Fine-Granular Scalability (FGS) coded bitstreams that can achieve constant quality reconstruction of frames under a dynamic rate budget constraint. In doing so, we also aim to minimize the overall distortion at the same time. To achieve this, we propose a novel R-D labeling scheme to characterize the R-D relationship of the source coding process. Specifically, sets of R-D points are extracted during the encoding process and linear interpolation is used to estimate the actual R-D curve of the enhancement layer signal. The extracted R-D information is then used by an enhancement layer transcoder to determine the bits that should be allocated per frame. A sliding window based rate allocation method is proposed to realize constant quality among frames. This scheme is first considered for a single FGS coded source, then extended to operate on multiple sources. With the proposed scheme, the rate allocation can be performed in a single pass, hence the complexity is quite low. Experimental results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed scheme under static and dynamic bandwidth conditions.
Based on the obtained R-D curves, a sliding window bit allocation scheme was proposed in REF , which can completely fulfill the aim of constant quality.
Constant quality constrained rate allocation for FGS-coded video
IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst. Video Techn.
Computer Science