A Dynamic Video Streaming Scheme Based on SP/SI Frames of H.264/AVC

Video streaming is very important in both wired and wireless communications. Switching among streams of different bit-rates and/or views is always necessary in related applications. The techniques of SP/SI frames in H.264/AVC have been developed to facilitate bit-stream switching without causing drift errors. However, the frames that are allowed for switching have to be determined in advance so real-time switching may not be achieved effectively. In this research, a dynamic video switching mechanism is proposed. An inter-predicted frame will be separated into a residual frame and a motion-compensated frame. The latter will be encoded based on the methodology of SP/SI-frames. In addition to the advantage of dynamic switching, the quality of video frames is maintained more consistently and the volume of data that have to be sent during switching is reduced. The experimental results show the feasibility of the proposed scheme.