Layered hybrid ARQ/FEC for increasing quality of service for MPEG 1--2 video communication over networks: Design and practical implementation

This thesis details the design and implementation of a new technique, called the Layered Hybrid ARQ/FEC, for increasing the Quality of Service (QoS) of MPEG video bitstreams while they are transmitted over networks and enduring data loss. This new technique, which is the major focus of this thesis, can be achieved by first combining the two error control methods: Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ) with RS-FEC (the Reed Solomon Forward Error Correction method), and second by defining different layers of protection for each type of frame in the MPEG video stream. This thesis starts by explaining the structure of MPEG video bitstreams and the different levels of importance of each type of frame (I, P, or B frames). Also, the thesis explains in details some ARQ and FEC techniques, focusing on Reed-Solomon mechanism. The thesis then introduces the Layered Hybrid ARQ/FEC technique being applied on MPEG video; the method is first theoretically detailed and then implemented as a server/client application-layer software using C language. Data are collected, and analysed, and compared with other methods. Finally, conclusions are derived and suggestions for future improvements are highlighted.