Video coding is the process of encoding a stream of uncompressed video frames into a compressed bitstream, whose bitrate is lower than that of the original stream.
All video codecs in WebRTC are based on the block-based hybrid video coding paradigm, which entails prediction of the original video frame using either information from previously encoded frames or information from previously encoded portions of the current frame, subtraction of the prediction from the original video, and transform and quantization of the resulting difference. The output of the quantization process, quantized transform coefficients, is losslessly entropy coded along with other encoder parameters (e.g., those related to the prediction process) and then a reconstruction is constructed by inverse quantizing and inverse transforming the quantized transform coefficients and adding the result to the prediction. Finally, in-loop filtering is applied and the resulting reconstruction is stored as a reference frame to be used to develop predictions for future frames.
When an encoded frame depends on previously encoded frames (i.e., it has one or more inter-frame dependencies), the prior frames must be available at the receiver before the current frame can be decoded. In order for a receiver to start decoding an encoded bitstream, a frame which has no prior dependencies is required. Such a frame is called a "key frame". For real-time-communications encoding, key frames typically compress less efficiently than "delta frames" (i.e., frames whose predictions are derived from previously encoded frames).
In 1:1 calls, the encoded bitstream has a single recipient. Using end-to-end bandwidth estimation, the target bitrate can thus be well tailored for the intended recipient. The number of key frames can be kept to a minimum and the compressability of the stream can be maximized. One way of achiving this is by using "single-layer coding", where each delta frame only depends on the frame that was most recently encoded.
In multiway conferences, on the other hand, the encoded bitstream has multiple recipients each of whom may have different downlink bandwidths. In order to tailor the encoded bitstreams to a heterogeneous network of receivers, scalable video coding can be used. The idea is to introduce structure into the dependency graph of the encoded bitstream, such that layers of the full stream can be decoded using only available lower layers. This structure allows for a selective forwarding unit to discard upper layers of the of the bitstream in order to achieve the intended downlink bandwidth.
There are multiple types of scalability:
- Temporal scalability are layers whose framerate (and bitrate) is lower than that of the upper layer(s)
- Spatial scalability are layers whose resolution (and bitrate) is lower than that of the upper layer(s)
- Quality scalability are layers whose bitrate is lower than that of the upper layer(s)
WebRTC supports temporal scalability for VP8, VP9 and AV1, and spatial
scalability for VP9 and AV1.
Simulcast is another approach for multiway conferencing, where multiple independent bitstreams are produced by the encoder.
In cases where multiple encodings of the same source are required (e.g., uplink
transmission in a multiway call), spatial scalability with inter-layer
prediction generally offers superior coding efficiency compared with simulcast.
When a single encoding is required (e.g., downlink transmission in any call),
simulcast generally provides better coding efficiency for the upper spatial
layers. The K-SVC concept, where spatial inter-layer dependencies are only
used to encode key frames, for which inter-layer prediction is typically
significantly more effective than it is for delta frames, can be seen as a
compromise between full spatial scalability and simulcast.
Given the general introduction to video coding above, we now describe some
specifics of the modules/video_coding folder in WebRTC.
Built-in software codecs in modules/video_coding/codecs
This folder contains WebRTC-specific classes that wrap software codec implementations for different video coding standards:
Users of the library can also inject their own codecs, using the VideoEncoderFactory and VideoDecoderFactory interfaces. This is how platform-supported codecs, such as hardware backed codecs, are implemented.
Video codec test framework in modules/video_coding/codecs/test
This folder contains a test framework that can be used to evaluate video quality performance of different video codec implementations.
SVC helper classes in modules/video_coding/svc
ScalabilityStructure*- different standardized scalability structuresScalableVideoController- provides instructions to the video encoder how to create a scalable streamSvcRateAllocator- bitrate allocation to different spatial and temporal layers
Utility classes in modules/video_coding/utility
FrameDropper- drops incoming frames when encoder systematically overshoots its target bitrateFramerateController- drops incoming frames to achieve a target framerateQpParser- parses the quantization parameter from a bitstreamQualityScaler- signals when an encoder generates encoded frames whose quantization parameter is outside the window of acceptable valuesSimulcastRateAllocator- bitrate allocation to simulcast layers
General helper classes in modules/video_coding
FecControllerDefault- provides a default implementation for rate allocation to forward error correctionVideoCodecInitializer- converts between different encoder configuration structs
Receiver buffer classes in modules/video_coding
PacketBuffer- (re-)combines RTP packets into framesRtpFrameReferenceFinder- determines dependencies between frames based on information in the RTP header, payload header and RTP extensionsFrameBuffer- order frames based on their dependencies to be fed to the decoder