Still image transmission using unequal error protection coding in mobile radio channel

With the advent of multimedia mobile communication, image transmission in the fading channel is becoming more and more important. This paper discusses the highly efficient coding where the image coding and the channel coding are integrated. More precisely, the following hierarchical image transmission is proposed. Assuming Joint Photograph Experts Group (JPEG) progressive image coding, discrete cosine transform (DCT) transform coefficients or the bit planes are divided into groups so that the unequal channel coding rates are assigned according to the effect of the channel error on the image quality. The proposed system is examined and evaluated by a computer simulation. As a result, it is shown that the reconstructed image suffers from less deterioration compared to the case where the channel coding rate is assigned uniformly.