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FEATURE

The Design Challenges Of A 3G Video Cell Phone


NEXT-GENERATION CELL-PHONE DESIGN REQUIRES A STRATEGY TO OPTIMIZE THE QUALITY OF VIDEO AND PICTURES SENT OVER A 2.5G OR 3G NETWORK.
B Y L E S W I L S O N A N D B O W U

(2G) teractive video phone enables a richer communication. A cell phones are quite common in industrialized regions of video phone may be used for chatting, or for other common the world, with rapid proliferation continuing as the cost of voice-type communications. However, the extra bandwidth service declines. Now, network providers are seeking the will cost more, so users are likely to reserve usage where next generation of technology, typically referred to as 2.5G video adds significant value in the communication. For exor third-generation (3G) networks capable of delivering ample, a realtor could perform a walk-through of a house to data at much higher rates. This article will help define the help a prospective out-of-state buyer decide whether to fly challenge of designing 3G cell-phone products that have a out and view it personally. Or, a technical-support process video component, and the methods used to design and ver- could be improved because a problem could be viewed live, ify the algorithms for managing errors in transmission and thus reducing the down time of a manufacturing facility. These high-value applications are examples of how netproviding the best-perceived quality of service (QoS). Todays data rates are typically 14 to 30 kb/s. The work providers hope to increase revenues to survive in an 2.5G/3G networks will be able to support 64 kb/s to 2 Mb/s increasingly competitive voice-only market. To support increased data rates, network service data rates. The increased data rate is expected to enable providers will upgrade or replace existing networks. In many new applications beyond simple voiceaddition, consumers will purchase new 2.5G or 3G based systems. With increased wireless data cell phones or an integrated derates, the services will expand from voicevice, like a camera/cellonly to include: two-way data messagphone combination. The ing, picture with data message, video simple voice-only phone clip with data message, video clip will become a phone with with audio, and two-way a more flexible keyinteractive video with audio board, a color LCD (Fig. 1). with usable resoluThese services will be tion, and a local used to support applicawireless link such tions such as simple eas Bluetooth to mail, or video content inconnect desktop cluding news, financial resources. The cirstories, sports highlights, cuits of 3G wireshort entertainment less data networks clips, traffic, and are estimated by weather reports. Domestic uses include 1. The increased data rate of 3G wireless networks is expected to enable experts to be seven games, day care, or many new applications beyond simple voice-based systems, including a two- to 10 times more complex than that security. Two-way in- way interactive video cell phone with audio.
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rection techniques, which remove the errors and restore the original information, are more difficult for real-time data than for non-real-time data. The real-time nature of video transmission means that it cannot tolerate the delay that would be associated with a traditional retransmissionbased error-correction technique such as automatic repeat request (ARQ). Delay is introduced in the acknowledgment of receipt of frames, as well as in waiting for the timeout to expire before a frame is retransmitted. Unequal-error-protection (UEP) methods can be used to conserve bandwidth and protect important information for the decoder.1 For example, the header that gives information about image size, quantization tables, and other parameters essential for reconstructing the compressed images needs better protection. In other situations, transmission of compressed images and video on a noisy communications channel might be enhanced by providing higher degrees of error protection to the more significant portions of the compressed stream, at the expense of reduced protection of less-significant portions. Error concealment is a method of reducing the magnitude of errors and frame loss in the video stream. It does not remove the errors, but manages them in a way that makes them less noticeable to the viewer. These methods include temporal concealment, spatial concealment, and motioncompensated concealment. With temporal concealment, the erroneous data in the current frame is replaced by the data from the previous frame that is not in error. In video sequences where there is little motion in the scene, this method will be quite effective. Another method of concealing errors

2. With increased data rates, the simple voice-only phone will become a phone with a
more flexible keyboard, a color LCD with usable resolution, and a local wireless link such as Bluetooth to connect desktop resources. The circuits of 3G wireless data networks are estimated by experts to be seven to 10 times more complex than that of the 2G wireless network.

of the 2G wireless network (Fig. 2). The increased complexity of video over wireless creates new design challenges. For example, the video is compressed at a much higher ratio than the voice so it becomes much more sensitive to data errors. The quality of video and pictures sent over a 3G network may be critical to the success of some applications. Design teams will need a strategy to optimize the design and deliver adequate QoS for each application. There are technical bottlenecks for wireless multimedia access, such as the unreliability caused by the adverse multipath propagation channel and severe interference from other transmissions. It is well known that the wireless environment is often nonstationary due to fading of the transmitted signal. Fading is the consequence of summation of multiple delayed copies of the signal with different phase relationships due to reflections of the signal from various surfaces. Moreover, mobilephone users may move when talking into the phone, so the surrounding environmentwhich will affect communicationis always changing. This makes mobile communication more unpredictable than wired communication. Another challenge in wireless communication-system design is to mitigate the co-channel interference (CCI), which becomes a severe problem when many users are using the channel at the same time. Due to the time-varying nature of the propagation channel and the unpredictability of the interference, bit-error rates (BERs) will
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vary widely and cause error process to be bursty, which may lead to loss of complete video frames. Measures are taken in 3G standards to combat these effects: turbo coding, transmission diversity, variable rate coders with bit-rate control mechanisms, interleaving, and an advanced multi-user detection algorithm. Proper cell-planning and smart-antenna techniques will also greatly reduce the impact of CCI. Bit errors and frame loss in video transmissions tend to cause noticeable picturequality degradation. Error-correction and concealment techniques provide methods for the decoder to deal with errors in a way that minimizes the quality loss. Error-cor-

3. A design methodology aided by software simulations in Cadences Signal Processing Worksystem (SPW) can be used to simulate 3G wireless video systems. From a high level, the solution requires the systems and implementation engineers to use SPW as a common design and system-level verification platform.
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From a high level, the solution requires the systems and implementation engineers to use SPW as a common design and systemlevel verification platform. Hardware or software designers may use the SPW models as executable specifications and system-level test benches for testing their modules. SPW helps specify the algorithms clearly and becomes the modulelevel test bench, thereby increasing the chance of first-time success (Fig. 3). The most important step is the clear definition of simulation goals. The primary advantage of any simulation is the use of abstraction. Abstraction means reducing the complexity of a system or a sub-system to a tolerable level of approximation as dictated by the desired result. Using abstraction, it is possible to design, test, and verify a given subsystem within the context of an end-to-end system without all the unnecessary implementation details. The greatest challenge with simulations is choosing the right level of abstraction. If the abstraction level is too low, the simulation run time will be longer than necessary. On the other hand, if the abstraction level is too high, the simulation results will be less accurate than desired. Given the complexity of 3G systems, there is much to be gained from thinking ahead and planning the simulation stages and the required abstraction level for each stage. A complex system such as the 3G communication device has several components that contribute to the overall quality of results, and thus the end users perceptions of the product. In the terminal performing image capture, the lens, image

4. All major elements of the video-cell-phone system will contribute to the overall performance and should be considered in the simulation studies. This high-level diagram shows the components included in the simulation model. is spatial concealment. Spatial concealment involves interpolating the data that surrounds an erroneous block in a frame. This method is most useful if the data does not contain a high level of detail. Motioncompensated concealment involves estimating the motion vectors from neighboring error-free blocks. This method could be used to enhance spatial or temporal concealment techniques. The error-correction codes in the 2.5G/3G wireless system reduce the effective BER, which brings the number of bit errors remaining in the bitstream thats sent to the video decoder down to a level at which the error-resilience tools can work. Video telephony requires medium to high bandwidth, low delay (two-way), medium-to-high quality, and continuous connection. To provide video of acceptable quality to the mobile user, the wireless network must provide certain QoS. Framedelay variation, bit errors, and frame loss can have severe effects on the video quality. A transmission link with a BER of 105 might be acceptable for non-real-time data transmission with some form of error correction. In a video stream, however, this error rate would cause a serious degradation in the quality of the received video. Similarly, frame-delay, frame-loss, and ratecontrol issues also have a significant impact on the quality of video received. Simulation is needed to assess the picture quality under different propagation channels and error-correction and/or concealment schemes. Algorithm engineers, usually working closely with systems engineers, design the
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appropriate signal-processing techniques to meet the system requirements. These may include channel encoders/decoders and video-compression algorithms. The algorithm engineers perform mathematical analysis and simulations to design, evaluate, and refine their algorithms. The designs are at the algorithmic and behavioral level and, therefore seldom have any architectural or implementation details. Usually the lowest level of detail at this stage is a behavioral fixed-point model. A design methodology aided by software simulations in Cadences Signal Processing Worksystem (SPW) can be used to simulate 3G wireless video systems.2

5. Image-quality algorithms or probes can be inserted into the video-cell-phone system to


observe the cumulative effects of the entire network as it influences the final rendered image.
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sensor, image processing, and image compression (possibly MPEG4 or JPEG2000) all contribute to the sourcing of the image and conservation of the important information.3 A critical loop may exist between the lens and the compression algorithm. As the handheld device moves, the autofocus algorithms will attempt to adjust. While the lens moves into focus, the image is somewhat blurred. This may temporally increase the efficiency of the video compression, and the frame rate may increase. If the autofocus is not yet optimized, the results may indicate false performance, as the image quality may be lower. Its important to understand interactions in the system and how to measure and maximize the performance of the algorithms. Additional major elements of the videocell-phone system will contribute to overall performance and should be considered in the simulation studies. The image sensor plays a significant role in source image quality. After the image is compressed, it is sent via the wideband-code-divisionmultiple-access (WCDMA) transmitter. The antenna can influence the strength of the signal and provide better mobility coverage. Beam-forming may be modeled to evaluate the effects on system BER and whether it can be cost-justified. If transmitted video quality is enhanced, beamforming may provide effective value to the QoS. The wireless channel should be modeled. The IMT2000 standard provides several channel models for typical mobility scenarios (Fig. 4). Although each scenario and application may have differences, at the receiver side the data stream is decoded. Receiver qualities will influence the system BER. Now the data is decoded, scaled (MPEG4 or JPEG2000), and presentedtypically to a small, flat LCD. The display should be able to render all the colors and intensities required for the intended applications. While the wireless channel can be observed by measured BER or signal-tonoise ration (SNR), the video channel and rendered results are much more subjective and may require human blind studies to select final designs. To help automate the process of selecting the best video algorithms and their parameters, we use algorithms that attempt to model human perception of image quality. Possible algorithms for image perception are: modulation transfer-function area (MTFA), integrated contrast sensitivity (ICS), subjective quality factor (SQF), square-root integral (SQRI), folded SQRI,
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folded MTFA, and the ever-popular peak signal/noise ratio (PSNR). These imagequality algorithms or probes can be inserted into the video-cell-phone system to observe the cumulative effects of the entire network as it influences the final rendered image (Fig. 5). There are many ways for vendors to differentiate their products in a given application. For example, a vendor may include a better-quality image sensor and display, thus the product is capable of sending and rendering a better image. The differentiation may be better audio quality. Audio quality has a strong perceptive impact on the quality of the video. The bottom line about video quality is capture the best image practical, compress it, and dont lose it over the air. And if some data is lost, can it be masked or hidden so the user does not perceive the loss? Error masking, forward-error correction (FEC), relevance-coding, and other techniques are important methods of preserving and reconstructing the image stream sent through a lossey network such as a 3G WCDMA. Each scenario, including the source environment, channel, and receiver with appropriate MPEG4 profile and level can be simulated to evaluate sufficiency to the product specification in a total system context.4 During refinement, algorithms may be dropped from consideration due to poor results or potential power consumption, or anticipated cost of implementation. Designing a complex communication system with voice, data, and video capabilities introduces a new degree of complexity and challenge to achieve appropriate performance. Simulation is key to understanding system performance and optimizing the algorithms to achieve a market-differentiated product. As the WCDMA markets mature, price and timeto-market will become even more important aspects of the terminal products. A tool such as Cadences Virtual Component Co-Design (VCC) tool is capable of integrating all aspects of the functional video-cell-phone system for evaluating architecture choices. The SPW C-language models can be exported to VCC products for architecture performance analysis and evaluation of integration aspects. The platform integration includes all hardware and software modules.5 SPW-generated register-transfer-level (RTL) models can be exported to VCC to create the integrated hardware-/software-implementation platform. Quick modification or reuse of this video-cell-phone platform enables a rapid
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response to changing market conditions with a derivative product (Fig. 3). Designing the 3G video cell phone will be a sizable challenge to system engineers. It is important to have a simulation environment in which both video-processing algorithms and 3G wireless physical-layer processing can be simulated, and the performance can be studied with special considerations of transmitting video over wireless channels. Ideally, this simulation environment will also provide a link to implementation and be used as a test bench for system verification. SPW with its libraries, such as Multimedia Development Kit (MDK), 3GPP WCDMA, GPRS/EDGE, and Bluetooth, and its link to implementation provides such a development platform for 2.5G/3G video cell phone. A new design methodology aided by simulation is key to better utilize limited resources, achieve first-time success, and meet shortening market cycles. WSD REFERENCES 1. Gharavi, H. and Alamouti, S.M., Multipriority Video Transmission for Third-Generation Wireless Communication Systems, Proceedings of IEEE, Vol. 87, No. 10, 1999, pp. 1751-1763. 2. Sturgill, M.R., Cortez, G., Avinun, R., and Alamouti, S.M.,Design and Verification of Third Generation Wireless Communication Systems, www. cadence.com/systems, January 2001. 3. Koomullil, G., Representation of Color in the Modeling of Color Imaging Sensors, Proceedings of SPIE, Vol. 3965, 2000. 4. Budagavi, M., Heinzelman, W.R., Webb, J., and Talhuri, R., Wireless MPEG-4 Video Communication on DSP Chips, IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, January 2000, pp. 36-53. 5. Chang, H., Cooke, L., Hunt, M., Martin, G., McNelly, A. and Todd, L., Surviving the SoC Revolution: A Guide to Platform Based Design, Kulver Academic Press, November 1999.
LES WILSON, Director of Marketing, Cadence Design Systems Inc., 2655 Seely Avenue, Building 11, San Jose, CA 95134; (408) 428-5681, e-mail: lesw@cadence.com. BO WU, Ph.D., Technical Leader, Core Competence and Research and Development, System-Level Design, Cadence Design Systems Inc., 20122 27th Avenue SE, Bothell, WA, 98012; (425) 398-5067, e-mail: bwu@cadence.com.
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