Continuous presence video bridging based on H.261 standard

Multi-point videoconferencing provides the full benefits of teleconference but also incurs more involved technical issues. This paper does a detailed analysis of a continuous presence video bridge using the H.261 video coding standard. We first describe the architecture and the required operations of a coded domain bridge using H.261. We then derive the bounds of the bridge delay and the required buffer size for the implementation of the bridge. The delay and the buffer occupancy of the video bridge depend on the order, complexity, and the bit- distribution of the input video sources. To investigate a typical case, we simulate the delay and the buffer occupancy of a video bridge. We also provide a heuristic method to estimate the delay in a typical case. Several techniques were discussed to minimize the bridge delay and the buffer size. Finally, we simulate an intra slice coding and show that the delay and the buffer size can be reduced significantly using this technique.© (1993) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.