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前景的替代方案。当前，LVCT方案的性能通常通过峰值信噪比（Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio, PSNR）、结构相似性指数（Structural Similarity Index, SSIM）等传统客观指标进行评估。然而，由于其压缩方式与高效视频编码（High Efficiency Video Coding, 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评估。本文针对LVCT方案的先驱与标准——SoftCast，提出了一种主观质量评估方法。本研究旨在深入理解可用于优化视频质量的LVCT可调参数间的权衡关系。这些参数包括不同的图像组（Group of Picture, GoP）大小、压缩比（Compression Ratio, CR）以及信道信噪比（Channel Signal-to-Noise Ratio, CSNR），基于上述参数生成了包含85个视频的数据集。随后针对接收视频开展双刺激损伤等级（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，在平均主观得分（Mean Opinion Score, MOS）中同样得以体现，仅在高CSNR场景下质量趋于饱和。此外，本研究采用比约特加德（Bjøntegaard）模型，根据目标应用场景量化了压缩比、GoP大小与信道信噪比之间的权衡关系。最后，评估了多种客观指标与所得MOS的相关性，结果显示多尺度结构相似性指数（Multi-Scale Structural Similarity Index, MS-SSIM）、SSIM以及视频多方法评估融合（Video Multimethod Assessment Fusion, VMAF）指标与MOS值的相关性最优。

搜集汇总

背景与挑战

背景概述

该数据集专注于SoftCast线性视频传输方案的质量评估，包含85个在不同参数（GoP大小、压缩比和信道信噪比）下生成的视频，以及21名参与者的主观评分（MOS）和客观指标（如MS-SSIM和VMAF）。其核心特点是分析LVCT参数对视频质量的影响，并验证客观指标与主观感知的相关性，以支持无线环境中的视频传输优化。