Issues in multiple description coded video communications: coding, routing and scheduling

Multiple description coding (MD coding or MDC), which generates multiple decodable bitstreams for a single source, is a promising technique to provide robustness for video communications over lossy networks, especially for real-time communications where retransmission may not be feasible. In this thesis, we focus on the design, analysis, and applications of MD coded video communications in different unreliable networks. Proper MDC techniques, routing, and scheduling algorithms are designed or jointly considered to adapt to network conditions and received video quality. Specifically, three issues are considered, namely, i) interference-aware multipath selection (multipath routing) for wireless ad hoc networks; ii) packet scheduling for receiver-driven peer-to-peer (P2P) video streaming; and iii) redundant slice based description generation for H.264/AVC.Doctor of Philosophy (EEE