In this work, we propose a cross-layer solution to robust video multicast in erasure networks based on random linear network coding (RLNC) in the network layer and video interleaving (VI) in the application layer, and call it the joint RLNC-VI scheme. In the RLNC implementation, we partition one video coding unit (VCU) into several priority levels using scalable properties of H.264/SVC video. Packets from the same priority level of several VCUs form one RLNC generation, and unequal protection is applied to different generations. RLNC provides redundancy for video packets in the network layer and has proved to be useful in a multicast environment. Then, we propose a new packet-level interleaving scheme, called the RLNC-facilitated interleaving scheme, where each received packet corresponds to a new constraint on source packets. As a result, it can facilitate the RLNC decoding at the destination node. Furthermore, we study the problem of optimal interleaving design, which selects the optimal interleaving degree and the optimal redundancy of each generation. The tradeoff between delay and received video quality due to the choice of different VCUs is also examined. It is shown by simulation results that the proposed RLNC-VI scheme outperforms the pure RLNC method for robust video multicast in erasure networks. This can be explained by two reasons. First, the VI scheme distributes the impact of the loss (or erasure) of one VCU into partial data loss over multiple neighboring VCUs. Second, the original video content can be easily recovered with spatial/temporal error concealment (EC) in the joint RLNC-VI scheme. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
