Packet Loss Resilient Transmission of MPEG Video Over the Internet

A method is proposed to protect MPEG video quality from packet loss for real-time transmission over the Internet. Because MPEG uses inter-frame coding, relatively small packet loss rates in IP transmission can dramatically reduce the quality of the received MPEG video. In the proposed High Priority Protection (HiPP) method, the MPEG video stream is split into high and low priority partitions, using a technique similar to MPEG-2 Data Partioning. Overhead resilient data for the MPEG video stream is created by applying Forward Error Correction coding to only the high priority portion of the video stream. The high and low priority data and resilient data, are sent over a single channel, using a packetization method that maximizes resistance to burst losses, while minimizing delay and overhead. Because the proposed method has low delay and does not require re-transmission, it is well suited for interactive and multicast applications.