Encoder-based rate smoothing and quality control for low delay video coding and communication

An encoder-based rate smoothing technique is developed to reduce the rate burstiness in video coding. At first, we propose a new source model to accurately estimate the rate-distortion (R-D) function of each video frame with very low computational complexity. Based on the estimated R-D function, in the second step, we propose a rate smoothing algorithm to make a tradeoff between the constant bit rate and the constant picture quality. The tradeoff forces the output video stream to have both a smoothed rate shape and a consistent video presentation quality, which is highly desirable in video coding and transportation.