HEVC-SIM: A Simulation and analysis tool for H.265 packet transmission

Video compression and decompression are essential parts of multimedia communications. Lowering the bit rate while maintaining good video quality remains a considerable challenge with increasing video resolutions and frame rates. In particular, the introduction of 4K and 8K video resolution has created a significant demand for efficient video compression appropriate for these high resolutions. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) have introduced High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC, also known as H.265) that has better compression efficiency at the same or higher video quality, compared to earlier video coding standards. In this project, a video coding and simulation tool was developed based on open-source implementations of HEVC encoders and decoders. The tool, named HEVC-SIM, can be used to encode raw video, analyze the packet structure and simulate packet loss. In addition, two error concealment methods were implemented to help the video decoder recover from packet loss. Simulations were carried out to assess the effectiveness of the various algorithms implemented in HEVC-SIM.