This book deals with the problem of joint source-channel video transmission, i.e., the joint optimal allocation of resources at the application layer and the other network layers, such as data rate adaptation, channel coding, power adaptation in wireless networks, quality of service (QoS) support from the network, and packet scheduling, for efficient video transmission. Real-time video communication applications, such as videoconferencing, video telephony, and on-demand video streaming, have gained increased popularity. However, a key problem in video transmission over the existing Internet and wireless networks is the incompatibility between the nature of the network conditions and the QoS requirements (in terms, for example, of bandwidth, delay, and packet loss) of real-time video applications. To deal with this incompatibility, a natural approach is to adapt the end-system to the network. The joint source-channel coding approach aims to efficiently perform content-aware cross-layer resource allocation, thus increasing the communication efficiency of multiple network layers. Our purpose in this book is to review the basic elements of the state-of-the-art approaches toward joint source-channel video transmission for wired and wireless systems. In this book, we present a general resource-distortion optimization framework, which is used throughout the book to guide our discussions on various techniques of joint source-channel video transmission. In this framework, network resources from multiple layers are assigned to each video packet according to its level of importance. It provides not only an optimization benchmark against which the performance of other sub-optimal systems can be evaluated, but also a useful tool for assessing the effectiveness of different error control components in practical system design. This book is therefore written to be accessible to researchers, expert industrial R&D engineers, and university students who are interested in the cutting edge technologies in joint source-channel video transmission. Contents: Introduction / Elements of a Video Communication System / Joint Source-Channel Coding / Error-Resilient Video Coding / Channel Modeling and Channel Coding / Internet Video Transmission / Wireless Video Transmission / Conclusions

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Fan Zhai joined Texas Instruments (TI), Dallas, TX, in 2004. He is currently with the Department of Digital Entertainment Products, DSP Systems, where he is responsible for algorithm development and key intellectual property identification and management in image/video post-processing. His primary research interests include image and video signal processing and compression, multimedia communications and networking, and multimedia analysis. He has authored more than thirty publications, including one book chapter and eight journals, in the area of video compression and communications. He also holds one issued patent with five additional disclosures pending in the area of video post-processing, all of which have been implemented in TI's key video processing products. He has been on technical program committees for numerous prestigious international conferences including IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), 2006, IEEE Globecom, 2006, IEEE Consumer Communications and Networking Conference (CCNC), 2007, IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications and Networks (ICCCN), 2007, and IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo (ICME) 2007. Dr. Zhai received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China, in 1996 and 1998, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering from Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, in 2004.Aggelos K. Katsaggelos received the Diploma degree in electrical and mechanical engineering from the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki, Greece, in 1979 and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees both in electrical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, in 1981 and 1985, respectively. In 1985 he joined the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Northwestern University, where he is currently professor. He was the holder of the Ameritech Chair of Information Technology (1997-2003). He is also the Director of the Motorola Center for Seamless Communications and a member of the Academic Affiliate Staff, Department of Medicine, at Evanston Hospital. Dr. Katsaggelos has served the IEEE in many capacities (i.e., current member of the Publication Board of the IEEE Proceedings, editor-in-chief of the IEEE Signal Processing Magazine 1997-2002, member of the Board of Governors of the IEEE Signal Processing Society 1999-2001, and member of the Steering Committees of the IEEE Transactions on Image Processing 1992-1997). He is the editor of Digital Image Restoration (Springer-Verlag 1991), co-author of Rate-Distortion Based Video Compression (Kluwer 1997), co-editor of Recovery Techniques for Image and Video Compression and Transmission, (Kluwer 1998), co-author of Super-resolution for Images and Video (Claypool, 2007) and Joint Source-Channel Video Transmission (Claypool, 2007). He is the co-inventor of twelve international patents, a Fellow of the IEEE, and the recipient of the IEEE Third Millennium Medal (2000), the IEEE Signal Processing Society Meritorious Service Award (2001), an IEEE Signal Processing Society Best Paper Award (2001), and an IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo Paper Award (2006). He is a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Signal Processing Society (2007-08).