Complexity Analysis of HEVC Decoding for Multi-core Platforms

The High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) is the latest standard, providing the same quality as its predecessor H.264/AVC at about half of the bit-rate. An increasing demand for higher quality and better resolutions in mobile applications require the use of more efficient video codecs, but the high computational complexity of HEVC poses problems to resource-constrained devices and portable equipment with limited batery-life. Despite the fact that video coding complexity is much higher than decoding, in most user devices, video decoding is used more often than encoding, thus particular attention must also be given to HEVC decoders. This paper presents an experimental study and complexity analysis of the HEVC decoder’s behaviour when decoding 4k ultra high definition (UHD) and HD video sequences on multi-core platforms, such as those of the most recent mobile devices. It is shown that when tile partitioning is used, different tiles have different decoding complexities. These findings are relevant for devising dynamic tile partitioning schemes capable of achieving load balancing in video decoders running on multi-core platforms.