Scalable Video Coding

This chapter covers the topic of making use of scalable video content in streaming frameworks and applications. Specifically, the recent standard H.264/SVC, i.e., the scalable extension of the widely used H.264/AVC coding scheme, and its deployment for adaptive streaming, the combined activities of content adaptation and streaming, are considered. H.264/SVC is regarded as a promising candidate to enable applications to cope with bandwidth variations in networks and heterogeneous usage environments, mainly diverse end device capabilities and constraints. The relevant coding and transport principles of H.264/SVC are reviewed first. Subsequently, a general overview of H.264/SVC applications is given. The chapter then focuses on presenting architectural/implementation options and applications of H.264/SVC for adaptive streaming, emphasizing the aspect of where, i.e., on which network node and on which layer in the networking stack, in the video delivery path the content adaptation can take place; also, methods of content adaptation are covered. This pragmatic perspective is seen as complementing more general discussions of scalable video adaptation issues in the existing literature.