Video compression: Tackling at source traffic growth

Streamed video services are placing significant demands on network infrastructure.

The issue is the same whether it is IPTV services and over-the-top video sent over fixed networks, or video transmitted over 3G wireless networks or even video distributed within the home.

According to Cisco Systems, video traffic will become the dominant data traffic by 2013. Any technology that trims the capacity needed for video streams is thus to be welcomed.

"The algorithm uses a combination of maths and how images are perceived to filter out what is not needed while keeping the important information.

Angel DeCegama, ADC2 Technologies

Massachusetts-based start-up ADC2 Technologies (ADC2 stands for advanced digital compression squared) has developed a video processing technology that works alongside existing video coder/decoders (codecs) such as MPEG-4 and H-264 to deliver a 5x compression improvement.

ADC2 uses wavelet technology; a signal processing technique that for this application extracts key video signal information. “We pre-process video before it is fed to a standard codec,” says Angel DeCegama, CEO and CTO of ADC2 Technologies. “The algorithm uses a combination of maths and how images are perceived to filter out what is not needed while keeping the important information.”

The result is a much higher compression ratio than if a standard video codec is used alone. At the receiving end the video is decoded using the codec and then restored using ADC2’s post-processing wavelet algorithm.

DeCegama says the algorithm scales by factors of four but that any compression ratio between 2x to 8x can be used. As for the processing power required to implement the compression scheme, DeCegama says that a quad-core Intel processor can process a 2Gbit/s video stream.

ADC2 Technologies envisages several applications for the wavelet technology. Added to a cable or digital subscriber line (DSL) modem, operators could deliver IPTV more efficiently. And if the algorithm is included in devices such as set-top boxes and display screens, it would enable efficient video transmission within the home. 

The technology can also be added to smart phones with the required wavelet processing executed on the phone's existing digital signal processing hardware. More video transmissions could be accommodated within the wireless cell and more video could be sent from phones via the upstream link.

ADC2 Technologies demonstrated the technology at the Supercomm trade show held in Chicago in October. Established in 2008, the 5-staff start-up is looking to develop hardware prototypes to showcase the technology.

The first market focus for the company is content delivery. Using its technology, operators could gain a fivefold improvement in network capacity when sending video. Meanwhile end users could receive more high-definition video streams as well as greater content choice. “Everyone benefits yet besides some extra hardware and/or software in the home, the network infrastructure remains the same,” says DeCegama.