DIGITAL VIDEO CODING STANDARDS AND THEIR ROLE IN VIDEO COMMUNICATIONS

The efficient digital representation of image and video signals has be en subject of considerable research over the past 20 years. With the g rowing availability of digital transmission link, progress in signal p rocessing, VLSI technology and image compression research, visual comm unications has become more feasible than ever. Digital video coding te chnology has developed into a mature field and a diversity of products has been developed-targeted for a wide range of emerging applications , such as video on demand, digital TV/HDTV broadcasting, and multimedi a image/video data-base services. With the increased commercial intere st in video communications the need for international image and video coding standards arose. Standardization of video coding algorithms hol ds the promise of large markets for video communication equipment. Int eroperability of implementations from different vendors enables the co nsumer to access video from a wider range of services and VLSI impleme ntations of coding algorithms conforming to international standards ca n be manufactured at considerably reduced costs. The purpose of this p aper is to provide an overview of today's image and video coding stand ards and their role in video communications. The different coding algo rithms developed for each standard are reviewed and the commonalities between the standards are discussed.