Abstract

This paper motivates the need for Multiple Path Transport #MPT# of video and image information in a multihop mobile radio network. The video and image information is encoded non-hierarchically into multiple descriptions #MDC# with the following objectives. The received picture quality should be acceptable even if only one description is received and every additionally received description contributes to enhanced picture quality.Typical applications will need a higher bandwidth#higher reliability connection than that provided by current mobile networks. For supporting these applications a mobile node may need to set up and use multiple paths to the desired destination, either simply because of the lackofraw bandwidth on a single channel or because of its poor error characteristics, which reduces its e#ective throughput. In the context of this work, the principal reasons for considering suchanarchitecture are providing high bandwidth and more robust end-to-end connections. We describe a protocol architecture that addresses this need and, with the help of simulations, we demonstrate the feasibilityofthis system and compare the performance of the MDC-MPT scheme to that of a hierarchical coding scheme.

Citations