Signalling and extraction in compressed video of pictures belonging to interdependency tiers

1. A method, comprising:

providing a video stream, wherein successive pictures in the video stream are provided in a transmission order; and

providing a first instance of plural flags, said plural flags associated respectively to plural picture interdependency tiers, wherein a first flag value in any of the plural provided flags asserts the presence of a field corresponding to a picture interdependency tier associated with the respective flag, wherein a picture of the video stream is associated to at most one interdependency tier, wherein a tier number for a picture represents hierarchy of decodability of the picture, and wherein the field corresponding to the picture interdependency tier is provided at a predetermined increment of pictures in the video stream.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

providing a first set of fields, wherein the number of provided fields in the first set of fields corresponds to the number of plural provided flags having the first flag value in the first instance, wherein the first set of fields is associated with a first plurality of successive pictures in the video stream (FPOSPITVS), wherein each field of the first set of fields corresponds respectively to a respective picture interdependency tier, wherein each field of the first set of fields comprises of ordered sub-fields, wherein the first of the ordered sub-fields in each field of the first set of fields corresponds to the first picture in transmission order of the FPOSPITVS, wherein each successive ordered sub-field after the first sub-field in each field of the first set of fields correspond respectively to each successive picture in transmission order after the first picture of the FPOSPITVS, and wherein each of the successive pictures in the FPOSPITVS is identified by at most one corresponding ordered sub-field of the first set of fields.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

providing a second plurality of successive pictures in the video stream (SPOSPITVS) after the FPOSPITVS, wherein the first provided picture of the SPOSPITVS is provided after the last provided picture of the FPOSPITVS.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising providing a second instance of the plural flags.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising providing a second set of fields, wherein the number of provided fields in the second set of fields corresponds to the number of plural provided flags having the first flag value, providing a second set of fields associated with the SPOSPITVS, wherein each of the second plurality of fields corresponds respectively to a picture interdependency tier, wherein each of the second plurality of fields comprise of ordered sub-fields, wherein the first of the ordered sub-fields in each of the second plurality of fields corresponds to the first picture in transmission order of the SPOSPITVS, wherein each successive ordered sub-field after the first sub-field in each of the second plurality of fields correspond respectively to each successive picture in transmission order after the first picture of the SPOSPITVS, and wherein each of the successive pictures in the SPOSPITVS is identified by at most one of its corresponding plural ordered sub-fields of the second plurality fields.

6. A method, comprising:

receiving a video stream;

processing of compressed video and information identifying pictures corresponding to respective interdependency tiers wherein provided flags associate respectively to the interdependency tiers, wherein a first flag value in any of the plural provided flags asserts the presence of a field corresponding to an interdependency tier associated with the respective flag, wherein a picture of the video stream is associated to at most one interdependency tier, wherein a tier number for a picture represents hierarchy of decodability of the picture, and wherein the field corresponding to the picture interdependency tier is provided at a predetermined increment of pictures in the video stream; and

processing bitmap related information for interdependency tiers above a certain tier in a hierarchy.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein receiving the video stream further comprises receiving the information that identifies the pictures in the video stream, wherein the pictures comprise compressed pictures.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising extracting one or more of the identified pictures from the video stream.

9. A method, comprising:

providing a video stream;

providing information identifying compressed pictures in the video stream corresponding to respective picture interdependency tiers, wherein the provided information comprises flags associated respectively to the interdependency tiers, wherein a first flag value in any of the plural provided flags asserts the presence of a field corresponding to an interdependency tier associated with the respective flag, wherein a picture of the video stream is associated to at most one interdependency tier, wherein a tier number for a picture represents hierarchy of decodability of the picture, and wherein the field corresponding to the picture interdependency tier is provided at a predetermined increment of pictures in the video stream; and

providing bitmap related information for interdependency tiers above a certain tier in a hierarchy.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the field corresponding to the picture interdependency tier is provided at every 16 th picture the video stream.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the field corresponding to the picture interdependency tier is provided at every 32 nd picture the video stream.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein a length of the field corresponding to the picture interdependency tier is fixed.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein a length of the field corresponding to the picture interdependency tier is variable and is based on a number of tiers present in the video stream.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the field corresponding to the picture interdependency tier is provided at a location of the video stream corresponding to a random access point (RAP).