Enabler for Next-Generation Mobile Video Applications

The High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard under development is the next-generation video compression standard, which is destined to revolutionise the world of video applications thanks to the expected high compression efficiency compared with the current standard. Nevertheless, to turn the vision into reality, substantial research efforts are necessitated since HEVC is still at its early standardisation stage and there is little research on networked HEVC applications. The proposed project targets mobile HEVC video delivery in an emerging and challenging networking paradigm, multihomed mobile networks, which are moving networks with a number of mobile users onboard (e.g., passengers on public transport vehicles). A multihomed mobile network has access to multiple complementary wireless networks such as 3G and beyond, WiFi and WiMAX, each of which provides a different network path to onboard multihomed mobile routers managing the multihoming and the mobility of the whole moving network. Compared with individual multihomed mobile hosts, a distinctive advantage of a multihomed mobile network is that the mobile users' devices do not need being multihomed or mobility aware. Such multihoming and mobility transparency substantially reduces the requirements on users' devices and the costs for deploying and operating such a system.
The proposed research will attempt to enable bi-directional real-time video transmission between the mobile users within a multihomed mobile network and the infrastructure to support various applications and services for business, entertainment, safety, security or other purposes. A typical application scenario is in the public transportation context. In this case, the onboard passengers receive high-quality downlink HEVC-based video streamed from an HEVC media server. Meanwhile, the live onboard scenes are captured by a camera, encoded by an HEVC encoder, and streamed upwards to a monitoring station for public security and incident management. It is expected that the mobile user's quality of experience (QoE) will be significantly improved compared with latest standards H.264 Advanced Video Coding (AVC) and Scalable Video Coding (SVC) through the proposed research.
The proposed research can be easily adopted in a range of application scenarios such as intelligent transportation systems, emergency/urgency management, telemedicine, personal area networks, and home and camping entertainment. Therefore, there is a strong technological and economic need for further research into the theory and application of the proposed topic. Moreover, joint contributions with Qualcomm to the JCT-VC meetings will enable us to set benchmarks in mobile HEVC applications and contribute to the standardisation of HEVC, which can lead to a long-lasting global impact. Dissemination and exploitation plans will promote the research outcome to the academic community as well as companies (such as AIMS (INT) Ltd., another partner of the project) related to video networking applications to exploit potential commercial product development.

Video content has become a ubiquitous presence in everyday life with ever-growing demands for higher quality at any time, any location and an expanding variety of user equipment. The next-generation video coding standard HEVC is destined to change the world of mobile video applications thanks to its doubled compression efficiency compared with the latest H.264/AVC standard. The proposed research will design and implement a real-time high-quality HEVC video delivery system for mobile users within a moving network that can access to multiple wireless access networks simultaneously.
Such a mobile HEVC system can be applied in numerous applications that will directly enhance our well-being. An immediate application scenario is in the transport industry with intelligent transportation systems. The downlink video streaming to the passengers from content providers can be used for entertainment and business purposes, and such applications can create new business models for the public transportation operators and content providers. By offering such value-added services, more people will be attracted to use public transportation instead of private cars, thereby helping to protect the environment with less carbon emission. Furthermore, the onboard live video can be streamed to a surveillance centre for monitoring passenger safety etc.
The application platforms can be extended beyond public transportation to public service vehicles (e.g., NHS ambulances) and rescue teams for telemedicine, emergency/urgency management and post-disaster recovery. Bi-directional real-time high-quality videos between the emergency site and the control centre (hospitals etc.) are highly useful in assisting timely decision making and rescue operations.
The mobile network users (such as commuters, travellers and tourists) will be able to enjoy real-time high-quality next-generation video applications enabled by this research thanks to its user's quality of experience (QoE) oriented design approach. This will introduce great fun to the journey for general travellers, and greatly facilitate tourists to learn the interested places. Mobile workers that need video instructions will also enjoy improved experience.
Moreover, the mobile network paradigm for a group of users can be scaled down to a personal area network, where a single mobile user can utilise his/her multihomed smartphone as the mobile gateway router to manage his/her other personal electronic devices such as laptop, tablet PC and camera. Finally, although the more challenging mobile scenario is targeted, the proposed system will work for static premises such as a camping van or an actual business or residential house. In these cases, the multihomed mobile routers are fixed in the premise to provide multihoming for improved QoE whilst the mobility support functionality is simply not triggered.
Overall, many companies related to video networking applications can exploit potential commercial products based on the outcome of the proposed research. For instance, the applicant has recently helped AIMS (INT) Ltd., a hi-tech company in the region, in developing an IPTV testing platform based on the H.264/AVC standard. It will be a great selling point if the platform is upgraded to support the next-generation standard HEVC.
In addition to the above socio-economic benefits and the academic benefits mentioned, the proposed research will be a valuable asset to the JCT-VC standardisation team, who will be interested to learn the project's results such as the performance of the candidate HEVC codec of different configurations for mobile network users. Such timely knowledge will help the JCT-VC team to determine the choice of future standard HEVC codec for mobile user. Moreover, if any of our contributions are included in the final specification of the HEVC standard, long-lasting global impact can be ensured as video chipmakers and network operators will use the standard in a wide gamut of their products.