Error Resilient Image Transmission Over a Bluetooth Network

Abstract -- This paper proposes the use of an Error-Resilient Entropy Coding (EREC) scheme for the transmission of JPEG images across a Bluetooth wireless network. Bluetooth, being an ad-hoc networking standard, can be used in multiple environments, often under difficult conditions, leading to limited bandwidth and significant Bit Error Rates (BER). Compression and transmission provisions, that avoid catastrophic failure caused by lost, delayed, or errant packets, are crucial. This paper evaluates the transmission of JPEG images through a high BER channel with varying levels of Forward Error Correction (FEC). The EREC is presented as a method for modifying the JPEG compressed images to give increased error resilience while still maintaining a high compression ratio. Keywords – Image compression, Bluetooth, JPEG, EREC. _________________________________________________________________________________________ I INTRODUCTION Wireless systems, such as Bluetooth, are characterised by their limited bandwidth and high bit error rates, and sometimes cannot provide the necessary quality of service guarantees for compressed image data transmission [1]; therefore compression and transmission provisions, that avoid catastrophic failure caused by lost, delayed, or errant packets, are crucial. JPEG images are transmitted across a high BER Bluetooth network and the performance is evaluated with varying levels of Forward Error Correction. This paper proposes the EREC scheme [2] for transmission of JPEG images across a Bluetooth wireless network. Section II describes Bluetooth with emphasis on the aspects of the technology directly responsible for transmission rates and error correction . Section III describes the process of standard JPEG image compression. Section IV shows how the EREC can be applied to a standard JPEG with Huffman coding, and shows how the use of EREC increases the error resilience of the compressed image. Section V provides simulated results from image transmission through a high BER Bluetooth system.