Joint source-channel coding at the application layer for parallel Gaussian sources

In this paper the multicasting of independent parallel Gaussian sources over a binary erasure broadcast channel is considered. Multiresolution embedded quantization and layered joint source-channel coding schemes are used in order to serve simultaneously several users at different channel capacities. The convex nature of the rate-distortion function, computed by means of reverse water-filling, allows us to solve relevant convex optimization problems corresponding to different performance criteria. Then, layered joint source-channel codes are constructed based on the concatenation of embedded scalar quantizers with binary rateless encoders.