Peer-to-peer videoconferencing with H.264 software codec for mobiles

Abstract

A rapidly growing number of carriers offer wireless video services to their customers, taking advantage of high quality video codecs implemented in dedicated hardware of selected mobile devices. In this paper we introduce a video conferencing \em software, which seamlessly integrates mobile with stationary users in a provider and device independent fashion. Innovations of this work are twofold. At first we report on a mobile realization of an H.264 video codec and its performance on a standard consumer Smartphone. Operating within the tight bounds of real-time compliance on mobiles, this software is an adapted version of a highly optimized H.264 codec. This DAVC codec, which we introduce along the line, significantly outperforms compatible H.264 realizations and allows for a scalable adaptation of its frame rate. In the second part we present a barrier-resistant peer-to-peer group communication scheme, which scales well for medium-size conferences and accounts for the heterogeneous nature of mobile and stationary participants. An outlook on mobility related group communication issues and future optimizations based on structured communication layers concludes the work.