ADAPTING ADVANCED VIDEO CODING to CABLE NETWORKS Mukta Kar, Ph.D
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ADAPTING ADVANCED VIDEO CODING TO CABLE NETWORKS Mukta Kar, Ph.D. and Yasser Syed, Ph.D. Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. Abstract researchers understood the power and flexibility of migrating to digital technology, This paper describes the current cable and it started being practical to do so. environment and what demands it has on development of a cable-friendly AVC video However, the delivery of uncompressed coding stream. It considers what the further digital audio/video to consumer homes is restrictions on AVC are for recreating the not an acceptable solution as it takes a huge same services already provided by MPEG-2 amount of bandwidth to deliver. To tackle plus coexistence in the same network with this problem, researchers had been working MPEG-2 video streams and other digital on how to compress digital audio/video services. The paper also looks at what are effectively for consumer-oriented the requirements for multiplexing, random applications. Towards the end of the last access to support existing broadcast century, audio-video compression services, and how this affects the coding technology matured to the level that it can design. Furthermore it looks at additional be practically used for consumer emerging needs to address services like applications, and MPEG-2 standards were Personal Video Recorders (PVRs), Video- created in 1994 to broadcast digital on-Demand (VOD), and Digital Program audio/video to consumer homes and offices. Insertion (DPI) and how this can constrain MPEG-2 technology takes much less the design on the video stream and the video bandwidth than analog delivery (today coding layer. This paper concludes by approximately 10:1 bandwidth efficiency) saying it is not enough to just have a highly while providing same or better fidelity efficient video coding standard developed, (quality of audio/video) even in a noisy the cable environment (or any application environment. environment) imposes its own set of demands that trades off the advanced video AVC: EMERGING DEMANDS coding design and some compression FOR VIDEO CODING efficiency for expected viewer experience. Over the last few years MPEG-2 INTRODUCTION technology has become very popular and received global acceptance which has led to In the last century television contents many new innovations such as HDTV, PVR (video and audio) have been delivered to (DVR), VOD, streaming media, interactive consumers mostly in analog format. It was TV, etc. These applications were realized then that the fidelity of analog unthinkable in the analog format and did not reception is good in noiseless or less noisy exist as MPEG-2 standards were created. environments, and also the analog system is While these new applications can help either inefficient or inflexible in the generate more revenues for the broadcast important areas such as service security, industries (cable, satellite and terrestrial), bandwidth usage, interactivity, etc. Around they also require more digital bandwidth to the 80’s and 90’s of the last century, deliver. For example, an HDTV channel requires a bandwidth 15-20 Mbits/sec ISO/MPEG (MPEG-4 part 10) and H.264 in whereas a SDTV channel takes only 2-3 ITU in May, 2003 [4]. AVC may be Mbits/sec using the MPEG-2 video standard considered as an aggregation of tools, some [1,2]. of which are enhanced MPEG-2 tools and a few additional new tools that have been Besides broadcast industries, other video added to increase compression efficiency industries such as DVD, streaming media, while providing the same or better picture etc. also needed an advanced video codec quality. In brief, AVC achieved two that has significantly better compression important objectives - better compression than MPEG-2. For example, an HD movie efficiency than MPEG-2 and convergence in cannot be stored on a current DVD disc. As hardware across major consumer video MPEG-2 video needs more bandwidth, applications - but sacrificed backward today’s streaming media technologies use compatibility with the MPEG-2 video proprietary codecs to deliver their content compression standard. However, backward but encounter storage and software compatibility has been addressed by the challenges due to a lack of convergence on a silicon designers at the AVC codec chip compression standard. In another industry, level such that it becomes transparent to conversational video applications (video users. conferencing and video telephony) use another video codec standard, but are also AVC tools consist of enhanced MPEG-2 facing similar challenges to streaming tools, some new tools, and error resiliency media. This shows that each of the major tools. MPEG-AVC or AVC is a large tool video industries today use diverse video box which can meet the needs of most major standards and different hardware platforms video applications such as broadcast video, for delivery and storage which impede conversational applications, and streaming consumer acceptance of multiple video video. The AVC system has created an applications. opportunity to change the paradigm of coding in AVC. The new tool box allows One of the answers to the problems multiple reference frames to be used for above is to compress digital audio/video predictions as opposed to the two reference even more efficiently than that in MPEG-2 frames allowed in MPEG-2. It also in order to be useable across different introduces spatial prediction in intra-coded industries. A better answer will be to create frame and adaptive motion compensation. a new video standard that will not only Motion compensation resolutions’ block provide significantly better compression size may be 16x16, 8x16, 16x8, 8x8, 8x4, than MPEG-2 but also a convergence in 4x8 or 4x4 pixels. It supports block hardware platforms across major video transforms of 8x8 and 4x4 pixels for luma applications. which may be used adaptively. It also introduces in-loop filtering to smooth the To have better compression efficiency as sharp edges which are an artifact of using well as to eliminate divergent requirements block transforms. AVC also added a few in hardware, the video experts in ITU and error-resilient tools (not present in MPEG-2) ISO/MPEG formed a joint video team (JVT) to support video delivery over non-QOS to investigate a solution. Their collaborative networks such as public IP networks and work over two years resulted in the creation wireless networks. of an advanced video coding (AVC) in CURRENT STATE OF CABLE: and video telephony, using the same AVC THE NEED FOR AVC IN CABLE hardware platform. In a way, to future-proof our industry with respect to delivery of About ten years ago, the cable industry multiple applications, the cable industry was delivering premium TV programs needs to consider all these factors mentioned primarily in analog only format. Over the above. last ten years evolutionary changes have been taking place in cable. Today cable ADAPTING THE AVC STANDARD TO delivers not only analog video but also a few CABLE digital enabled services such as digital TV, high speed data, and telephony. Cable is also Although AVC created profiles and in the process of using non-linear video levels geared towards major video services in addition to scheduled types of applications, still it is not well tailored services. At present cable delivers linear towards the cable environment. The video applications like broadcast television but stream may have a much better compression also is adding non-linear services such as efficiency using all tools in the standard, but VOD, PVR, VOIP. Also we are shifting the expected viewer experience for cable TV from the broadcast television model to a has not been designed in the AVC standard. personal television one. As a result cable The adaptation of MPEG-2 to cable was an faces a real bandwidth crunch as it has to easier process than what is now being support the legacy analog and digital considered because the standard was broadcast television services due to optimized more towards a broadcast regulatory and logistical reasons, while application, while the AVC standard tries to adding an array of the new digital services encompass more than that. Additionally to actively engage with new competition. cable has also been changing at the same VOD, MOD, and PVR services require a time to address other applications than just significant amount of storage at the headend broadcast. and in client devices. So we need better compression of the digital content than Constraints need to be written on the MPEG-2 can provide. AVC will certainly AVC standard (or any future advanced help in delivering more channels over the coding standard) to maintain current same digital bandwidth as well as in storing expected services and viewer experience the digital content at the headend or in while improving the plant bandwidth usage PVRs. efficiencies and expanding on these services. This constraint document will be It was mentioned earlier that MPEG-2 similar to the standard document SCTE 43 technology has been accepted widely across 2005 [6] that is written for MPEG-2 video. the global broadcast industry. It provides The network infrastructure and legacy tremendous business continuity in terms of equipment need to continue operating content, equipment (transmission, storage, without disruption. Existing services such as and test & measurement), etc. It is expected the Electronic Program Guide, Emergency that the general video industry will migrate Alert Messages, and audio-video to AVC in a next few years, especially in the synchronization need to be maintained and area of HDTV delivery and storage. AVC be agnostic to any new video coding may also provide opportunity for adding standard. Viewer experiences like channel new services, such as video conferencing switching/surfing, PVR recording and interactive video services still need to be matured MPEG-2 infrastructure should not maintained transparent to different video be reinvented.