Bandwidth saving architecture for scalable video coding spatial mode

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10085017-B2
Application number	US-201213689212-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 29, 2012
Priority date	Nov 29, 2012
Publication date	Sep 25, 2018
Grant date	Sep 25, 2018

Abstract

A system and method for scalable video coding that includes base layer having lower resolution encoding, enhanced layer having higher resolution encoding and the data transferring between two layers. The system and method provides several methods to reduce bandwidth of inter-layer transfers while at the same time reducing memory requirements. Due to less memory access, the system clock frequency can be lowered so that system power consumption is lowered as well. The system avoids having prediction data from base layer to enhanced layer to be up-sampled for matching resolution in the enhanced layer as transferring up-sampled data can impose a big burden on memory bandwidth.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for scalable video coding comprising:
a base layer encoder configured to encode a frame to a base layer;
the base layer encoder further configured to generate and transmit inter-layer data to an enhanced layer encoder, wherein the inter-layer data includes any one or a combination of residual data, reconstruction data, or motion data and a bit indicating whether the inter-layer data includes residual data; and
the enhanced layer encoder configured to receive the inter-layer data from the base layer encoder and upsample the received inter-layer data, wherein the residual data or reconstruction data included in the inter-layer data is received from the base layer encoder in the same number of data channels;
the enhanced layer encoder further configured to encode the frame to an enhanced layer using the upsampled inter-layer data based on a micro-block (MB) type of the base layer, wherein the MB type of the base layer indicates whether the inter-layer data includes either residual data or reconstruction data, wherein the resolution of the enhanced layer is greater than the resolution of the base layer.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein:
the base layer encoder and the enhanced layer encoder are spatial scale encoding engines.

3. The system of claim 1 further comprising at least one data channel between the base layer encoder and the enhanced layer encoder for transmitting the reconstruction data and the residual data, wherein the at least one channel has less than all of the bits for transmitting the reconstruction data and the residual data.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the base layer encoder further includes an output multiplexer configured to control the transmission of the reconstruction data and the residual data to the enhanced layer encoder.

5. A method for performing scalable video coding comprising:
encoding a frame to a base layer using a base layer encoder;
generating and transmitting, by the base layer encoder, inter-layer data to an enhanced layer encoder, wherein the inter-layer data includes any one or a combination of residual data, reconstruction data, or motion data;
receiving, by the enhanced layer encoder, the inter-layer data from the base layer encoder and upsampling the received inter-layer data, wherein the residual data or reconstruction data included in the inter-layer data is received from the base layer encoder in the same number of data channels; and
encoding, by the enhanced layer encoder, the frame to an enhanced layer using the upsampled inter-layer data based on a micro-block (MB) type of the base layer, wherein the MB type of the base layer indicates whether the inter-layer data includes either residual data or reconstruction data, wherein the resolution of the enhanced layer is greater than the resolution of the base layer.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein:
the base layer encoder and the enhanced layer encoder are spatial scale encoding engines.

7. The method of claim 5 including:
transmitting the reconstruction data and the residual data using at least one data channel, wherein the at least one channel has less than all of the bits for transmitting the reconstruction data and the residual data.

8. The method of claim 7 including:
controlling the transmission of the reconstruction data and the residual data to the enhanced layer encoder using an output multiplexer in the base layer encoder.

9. A computer readable non-transitory medium including instructions which when executed in a processing system cause the processing system to provide scalable video coding comprising:
a base layer encoder configured to encode a frame to a base layer;
the base layer encoder further configured to generate and transmit inter-layer data to an enhanced layer encoder, wherein the inter-layer data includes any one or a combination of residual data, reconstruction data, or motion data; and
the enhanced layer encoder configured to receive the inter-layer data from the base layer encoder and upsample the received inter-layer data;
the enhanced layer encoder further configured to encode the frame to an enhanced layer using the upsampled inter-layer data based on a micro-block (MB) type of the base layer, wherein the MB type of the base layer indicates whether the inter-layer data includes either residual data or reconstruction data, wherein the resolution of the enhanced layer is greater than the resolution of the base layer.

Assignees

• Advanced Micro Devices Inc
• Ati Technologies Ulc

Inventors

• Zhang Lei
• Zhou Ji
• Chen Zhen
• Yu Min

Classifications

• H04N19/80

  Details of filtering operations specially adapted for video compression, e.g. for pixel interpolation (H04N19/635, H04N19/86 take precedence) · CPC title

• H04N19/33 Primary

  in the spatial domain · CPC title

• H04N19/187

  the unit being a scalable video layer · CPC title

• H04N19/423 Primary

  characterised by memory arrangements (H04N19/433 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04N19/59

  involving spatial sub-sampling or interpolation, e.g. alteration of picture size or resolution · CPC title