One of the main issues is the robustness to bit errors while transmitting JPEG 2000 images over error-prone wireless channels. Examples of application include 2.5G (GPRS), 3G (UMTS), DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale), and wireless LAN.

The JPWL system supports three functionalities:
· protection of the codestream against transmission errors,
· description of the degree of sensitivity of different parts of the codestream to transmission errors,
· description of the locations of residual errors in the codestream.

The error protection encoder and decoder consist in techniques to protect a codestream against transmission errors. The error protection encoding process modifies the codestream to make it more resilient to errors, e.g. by adding redundancy or by partitioning and interleaving the data. In particular, provisions are made to specifically protect the image header, as it is the most critical part of the codestream. Techniques to protect the codestream include Forward Error Correcting (FEC) codes, data partitioning and interleaving, and unequal error protection. The error protection decoding process detects the occurrence of errors and corrects them whenever possible.

The error sensitivity descriptor describes the degree of sensitivity of different parts of the codestream to transmission errors. This information is typically generated when the image is encoded using a JPEG 2000 Part 1 encoder, but it can also be directly derived from a Part 1 codestream. This information can subsequently be used when protecting the image. More specifically, sensitive parts of the codestream can be more heavily protected than less sensitive parts (unequal error protection).

The residual errors descriptor specifies the locations of residual errors in the codestream. The residual errors are the errors which cannot be corrected by the error protection decoder. This information is typically generated during the error protection decoding process. This information can subsequently be used in the JPEG 2000 Part 1 decoder to prevent decoding corrupted portions of the stream.

For this purpose, the 2KAN consortium will build, test, integrate and validate the specifications developed in JPWL. Specifically, the specifications will be optimized and implemented into real working conditions, in order to provide, at the end of the project, an industrially stable and strong working system in the wireless environment.

2KAN will bring to JPEG 2000 Part 9 its knowledge of narrow band transmission and error resilience, to facilitate recovering images in a noisy environment, using metadata and markers to allow for resynchronization of the bitstream. Simulation of the noisy environment will result in the possibility to test and evaluate the efficiency of the proposed solutions.