Multipath Routing of Multiple Description Coded Images in Wireless Networks

Multiple description coding (MDC) generates multiple decodable bitstreams for a source to combat information loss. In this paper, multipath routing problem for two-description coded images is investigated for traditional and coded wireless networks without and with coding capability at intermediate nodes, respectively. Firstly, we formulate an interference-aware MDC multipath routing for traditional networks by employing a time-division link scheduling method to eliminate wireless interference, and ultimately obtain an optimal path selection corresponding to the minimum achievable distortion. Secondly, for coded networks, we evaluate practical wireless network coding (NC) in delivering descriptions of multiple unicast sessions. While NC increases maximum supporting flow rate of MDC descriptions in wireless networks, possible undecodability of NC mixed information is alleviated by MDC. To minimize achievable distortion, a proposed interference-and-coding-aware MDC multipath routing strikes a good balance between minimizing side effect of wireless interference avoidance and maximizing NC opportunity. Simulation results validate the effectiveness of the two proposed schemes.