Subjective and Objective Quality Assessment of the SoftCast Video Transmission Scheme

SoftCast-based linear video coding and transmission (LVCT) schemes have been proposed as a promising alternative to traditional video coding and transmission schemes in wireless environments. Currently, the performance of LVCT schemes is evaluated by means of traditional objective scores such as PSNR or SSIM. Nevertheless, since the compression is performed in a very different way from traditional coding schemes such as HEVC, visual artifacts are also quite different and deserve to be subjectively assessed. In this paper, we propose a subjective quality assessment of SoftCast, pioneer and standard of the LVCT schemes. This study aims to better understand the tradeoffs between the LVCT parameters that can be tuned to improve the quality. These parameters, including different GoP-sizes, Compression Ratios (CR) and Channel Signal-to-Noise Ratio (CSNR), are used to generate a dataset of 85 videos. A Double Stimulus Impairment Scale (DSIS) test is performed on the received videos to assess the perceived quality. Results show that the key characteristic of SoftCast, the linear relation between CSNR and PSNR, is also observed with the Mean-Opinion Scores (MOS), except at high CSNR where the quality saturates. In addition, Bjøntegaard model is used to quantify the trade-offs between CR, GoP-size and CSNR, depending on the intended application. Finally, the performance of objective metrics compared to the obtained MOS is evaluated. Results show that Multi-Scale SSIM (MS-SSIM), SSIM and Video Multimethod Assessment Fusion (VMAF) metrics offer the best correlation with the MOS values.

基于SoftCast的线性视频编码与传输（Linear Video Coding and Transmission, LVCT）方案，已被提出作为无线环境下传统视频编码与传输方案的极具潜力的替代方案。当前，LVCT方案的性能通常通过PSNR、SSIM等传统客观评分指标进行评估。然而，由于其压缩原理与HEVC等传统编码方案差异显著，所产生的视觉伪影也截然不同，因此有必要对其开展主观质量评估。本文针对作为LVCT方案先驱与行业标准的SoftCast展开主观质量评估研究。本研究旨在深入探究可用于优化视频质量的LVCT可调参数间的权衡关系。本研究选取包括不同图像组（Group of Pictures, GoP）尺寸、压缩比（Compression Ratios, CR）以及信道信噪比（Channel Signal-to-Noise Ratio, CSNR）在内的可调参数，生成了包含85段视频的数据集。针对接收端视频开展双刺激损伤量表（Double Stimulus Impairment Scale, DSIS）测试，以评估主观感知质量。实验结果表明，SoftCast的核心特性——CSNR与PSNR间的线性关系——在平均意见得分（Mean-Opinion Scores, MOS）中同样得以体现，仅在高CSNR区间内出现质量饱和的例外情况。此外，本研究采用Bjøntegaard模型，根据具体应用场景量化CR、GoP尺寸与CSNR三者间的权衡关系。最后，本研究评估了各类客观质量指标与实测MOS值的相关性表现。结果表明，多尺度结构相似性（Multi-Scale SSIM, MS-SSIM）、SSIM以及视频多方法评估融合（Video Multimethod Assessment Fusion, VMAF）这三项指标与MOS值的相关性表现最优。