Overview of Bitstream Syntax and Parser Description Languages for Media Codecs

This paper reviews various bitstream syntax and parser description (BSPD) languages used in MPEG multimedia standards. Traditionally, the bitstream syntax and semantics have been described in human-readable form. Several languages have been developed to describe the bitstream syntax using a computer-readable language and allow the automatic generation of bitstream parsing function from the description. The languages were designed for different objectives and applications but have a range of commonalities in functionality. The aim of this paper is to provide a historical overview of BSPD languages. The background and target application of the BSPD languages are reviewed. In addition, the technical features of each languages, including the linguistic basis (e.g., XML-based) and parser generation method, are discussed and evaluated. In addition, previous studies based on each language are introduced and categorized according to their objectives. Finally, the relevant technical issues that suggest the direction of the future researches are reported.