Efficient Target Bit Allocation Scheme in a Rate-Distortion Sense

Bit allocation is a critical problem in video encoding such as MPEG. To improve the quality of the reconstructed sequence for a given bit rate, the assigned target bits for a group of pictures (GOP) must be allocated to each picture efficiently. In this paper, we derive a target bit allocation algorithm for more efficient rate control, by assuming that the average rate-distortion curve for an input source is logarithmic. This target bit allocation is based on Shannon's rate-distortion theory, which deals with the minimization of source distortion subject to a channel rate constraint. Simulation results show that the proposed target bit allocation algorithm provides better performance than the one in MPEG-2 Test Model 5 (TM5).