MPEG-4 compressed video over the Internet

This paper focuses on transport issues of MPEG-4 video over the Internet. Specifically, we present a packetization algorithm for MPEG-4 bit streams at the sync layer and an end-to-end feedback control mechanism. Our packetization algorithm achieves both efficiency and robustness by exploiting the unique video object plane (VOP) feature in MPEG-4 while our feedback control algorithm is capable of estimating available network bandwidth based on the packet loss information at the receiver. Simulation results demonstrate that once our algorithms are employed by an adaptive MPEG-4 encoder, MPEG-4 video is able to achieve good perceptual picture quality at the receiver under low bit rate and varying network conditions and efficiently utilize network resources.