Hierarchical constellation for multi-resolution data transmission over block fading channels

We propose a new technique for multi-resolution video/image data transmission over block fading channels. The proposed scheme uses an adaptive scheduling protocol employing a retransmission strategy in conjunction with a hierarchical signal constellation (known also as nonuniform, asymmetric, multi-resolution constellation) to give different transmission priorities to different resolution levels. Transmission priorities are given in terms of average packet loss rate as well as average throughput. Basically, according to the transmission scheduling and channel state (acknowledgment signal) of the previous transmission, it dynamically selects packets from different resolution levels to transmit for the current transmission. The bits from the selected packets are assigned to different hierarchies of a hierarchical 4/16-quadrature amplitude modulation to transmit them with different error protections. The selection of packets for transmission and the assignment of these selected packets to different hierarchies of the hierarchical constellation are referred to as the scheduling protocol in our proposed scheme. We model this protocol by a finite state first order Markov chain and obtain the packet loss rate and the packet transmission rate over Nakagami-m block fading channel in closed-form. Some selected numerical results show that the proposed scheme can control the relative packet loss rate and the packet transmission rate of different resolution levels by varying the priority parameter (or equivalenty, the asymmetry) of the hierarchical constellation and the maximum number of allowed retransmissions.