Page 25 - Video Coding for Mobile Communications Efficiency, Complexity, and Resilience

2 Chapter 1. Introduction to Mobile Video Communications

layout, etc.), numerical media (spreadsheets, databases, etc.), audio media
(voice, music, etc.), visual media (images, graphics, video, etc.) and any other
form of information representation.
Current second-generation mobile communication systems, like the Global
1
System for Mobile (GSM), already support a number of basic multimedia
communication services. Examples are voice, basic fax=data, short message
services, information-on-demand (e.g., sports results, news, weather), e-mail,
still-image communication, and basic internet access. However, many techno-
logically demanding problems need to be solved before real-time mobile video
communication can be achieved. When such challenges are resolved, a wealth
of advanced services and applications will be available to the mobile user.
Examples are:

• Video-on-demand.
• Distance learning and training.

• Interactive gaming.
• Remote shopping.
• Online media services, such as news reports.

• Videotelephony.
• Videoconferencing.
• Telemedicine for remote consultation and diagnosis.
• Telesurveillance.
• Remote consultation or scene-of-crime work.

• Collaborative working and telepresence.

1.2 Main Challenges

The primary focus of this book is mobile video communication. In particular,
the book focuses on three main challenges:

1. Higher coding e ciency. The radio spectrum is a very limited and
scarce resource. This puts very stringent limits on the bandwidth avail-
able for a mobile channel. Given the enormous amount of data generated

1 Originally, GSM was an acronym for Group Sp ecial Mobile.