The scalability structure in the SVC draft may be characterized by three syntax elements: “temporal_id,” “dependency_id” and “quality_id.” The syntax element “temporal_id” is used to indicate the temporal scalability hierarchy or, indirectly, the frame rate. A scalable layer representation comprising pictures of a smaller maximum “temporal_id” value has a smaller frame rate than a scalable layer representation comprising pictures of a greater maximum “temporal_id”. A given temporal layer typically depends on the lower temporal layers (i.e., the temporal layers with smaller “temporal_id” values) but does not depend on any higher temporal layer. The syntax element “dependency_id” is used to indicate the CGS inter-layer coding dependency hierarchy (which, as mentioned earlier, includes both SNR and spatial scalability). At any temporal level location, a picture of a smaller “dependency_id” value may be used for inter-layer prediction for coding of a picture with a greater “dependency_id” value. The syntax element “quality_id” is used to indicate the quality level hierarchy of a FGS or MGS layer. At any temporal location, and with an identical “dependency_id” value, a picture with “quality_id” equal to QL uses the picture with “quality_id” equal to QL-1 for inter-layer prediction. A coded slice with “quality_id” larger than 0 may be coded as either a truncatable FGS slice or a non-truncatable MGS slice.
For simplicity, all the data units (e.g., Network Abstraction Layer units or NAL units in the SVC context) in one access unit having identical value of “dependency_id” are referred to as a dependency unit or a dependency representation. Within one dependency unit, all the data units having identical value of “quality_id” are referred to as a quality unit or layer representation.