P.O. Box 521 Solomons, Maryland 20688
Office: 410-326-3001 - Fax: 410-414-8496
http://www.ciffbe.com
CIFF System, Image/Video Compression - The “Next-Generation Technology”
Document Prepared for:
Mr. Bob Atkins
Northrop Grumman IS/DTD/IIS
3200 Samson Way
Bellevue, NE 68123
CIFF SYSTEM CAPABILITIES ("COMPRESSED VIDEO/IMAGE FILE FORMAT")
CIFF as I-frame CIFF (each frame compressed independently from the others) and IP-frame CIFF
(heuristic group of predicted frames without motion vectors) provides very low bitrates, such as full HD
1920x1080p with 384kbit/s @ 30fps, 256kbit/s @ 20fps and 128kbit/s @ 10fps in addition to highest error
resilience, because CIFF does not use any motion vectors.
Measured CIFF latency, before the compression by the encoder and after the decompression and playing by
the decoder, is between one and two frames, (33..66ms @ 30 fps), which makes it a perfect tool for UAV,
Targeting and Smart Weapons.
CIFF PERFORMANCE - TESTS- PAX NAVAL AIR BASE MD TO L3 AND NGC
1) CIFF delivers- live full HD 1920x1080P 30 FPS through a 356Kbps link (or comparable Verizon air-card)
from location near Pax Naval Air base Maryland to L3, NGC, locations. In addition, we deliver HD video
over 123Kbps 10 FPS. We can stream HD video over Link 16.
2) CIFF delivers all three CIFF scalabilities, i.e. Quality, Spatial and Temporal all on the fly to achieve the socalled “sweet spot” for video transmission over any IP link in a secure, robust, military order. Briefly, CIFF
enables the militaries fastest most elite “QOS” quality of service video system ever due to all three
scalabilities changing on the fly within one frame (33ms).
3) CIFF delivers two frame latency (66ms) in the entire video chain. From capture, display, compress, stream,
decompress, display.
4) CIFF delivers compression and decompression of gigapixel size images with 2 year old off the shelf
notebook computer within seconds. This enables soldiers in the field to capture and send extreme
resolutions through already deployed assets.
5) CIFF delivers streaming of Ultra HD (4 times the resolution of HD) with off the shelf consumer grade
notebook computers. Once compressed, this high quality video can be streamed though TCDL’s and CDL’s
already deployed.
6) CIFF delivers robust error resilience even without FEC (forward error correction).
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7) CIFF will enable extremely small “micro” form factors for leave behind sensors, micro UAV’s, longer
endurance, or increased payload on already deployed assets.
8) Where standard definition sensors are, still deployed CIFF enables orders of magnitude better efficiency in
transmission than already deployed technologies. For example, if an “asset” uses the entire bandwidth in a
CDL link, range or distance is short. If compressed with CIFF at half the capable bit-rate of CDL or less the
distance or range will be extended in some cases more than twice.
9) CIFF is a linear technology, in that whatever you can sacrifice you will gain somewhere else, by selecting:
resolution, frame rate, quality, and bitrate.
CIFF PERFORMANCE - TESTS - VIZADA SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS
Initial Test Results – BGAN (Vizada-USA to Internet)
1920x1080 HD or 720x480 SD Source (Highway Traffic)
Link
Resolution
Frame Rate
[fps]
Notes
384K Streaming
1920 x 1080
30
Good quality picture, very smooth movements
384K Streaming
1920 x 1080
15
Excellent quality picture, medium smooth movements
256K Streaming
1920 x 1080
20
Good quality picture, smooth movements
256K Streaming
1920 x 1080
10
Excellent quality picture, abrupt movements
128K Streaming
1920 x 1080
10
Good quality picture, abrupt movements
128K Streaming
1920 x 1080
5
Background
720 x 480
30
Acceptable quality picture, very smooth movement
Background
720 x 480
15
Good quality picture, medium smooth movement
Background
720 x 480
5
Excellent quality picture, very abrupt movement
Excellent quality picture, very abrupt movement
Company Confidential
June 2010
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CIFF PERFORMANCE - TESTS
 Drug Enforcement Agency
 Beverly Hills Police Department
 Los Angeles Police Department
(Add others as you see of importance)
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CIFF PERFORMANCE - TESTS – NGC
NGC –Defense System Division
NGC –Intelligence System Division
NGC –Mission Systems Sector
NGC –Mission Systems, Ground and Space Networks Operating Unit
NGC –Aerospace Systems
NGC –IT, Commercial, State & Local Group
During NGC tests, CIFF Team received the following observations:

CIFF preformance and capability to stream gigabyte size high-resolution ultra high-definition video
compression and decompression in real-time have been verified, with NGC tests –Defense, Intelligence,
Mission Systems, Aerospace Systems and IT Commercial.
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CIFF delivers all three CIFF scalabilities, i.e. Quality, Spatial and Remporal all on the fly to achieve the socalled “sweet spot” for video transmission over any IP link in a secure and robust order.
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Picture-in-Picture (PiP) display from all available streams: (the other methods can do 0,1 or max 2 PiPs in
high-end systems due to very high processing requirements for each PiP - full size decode+ scale down),
while CIFF can provide video-wall functionality.
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CIFF is designed in such way that frame decompression is done incrementally, starting from smallest
resolution thus decoding can stop at any point and deliver only chosen sub-resolution frame.
CIFF PERFORMANCE - LAB/FIELD TESTS – USSOCOM
CIFF system tests of CIFF (“Compressed Video/Image File Format”) and “CIFF Container Format”
Brief Points Provided by the Lead Team at USSOCOM:

CIFF System has the ability to take in just about any video or imagery stream, WMV, AVI and MPEGJPEG and decompile it and then re-encode it with CIFF on the fly with little processor power and a delay
that was measured in milliseconds. This is significant advantage because most tools have to buffer the
stream, analyze the stream, correct the stream and then re-encode the stream, thus being the complete
processor hogs.

CIFF System has optional forward error correction (FEC) algorithm, so when the video is sent over a
wireless link like satellite or a bad radio link it still has the ability to stream smooth video.
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CIFF System is finalized with the 256-bit AES-GCM-AEAD security module (AES in GCM IP-packet
mode with authentication), but the user can drop in any encryption module they choose instead of dictating
what the user will use. So one could drop any other AES, RSA or a proprietary algorithm with very little
programming.
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The uniqueness of CIFF System is the symmetrical compression and decompression time, mathematically
lossless or lossy compression performed in the same algorithm, still image and intraframe video
compression using the same algorithm, integer arithmetic's without multiplication and division operations.

Orders of magnitude smaller compression and decompression memory requirements, being approximately 3
lines of a single frame each for hardware or one frame each for software codec.
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
CIFF System requires 50% less bandwidth, partly due to better compression efficiency and partly due to
better error resilience, requiring less percentage of FEC bits, also Servers and Data Centers will benefit from
CIFF compression efficiency and power consumption reduction.
How CIFF Delivers Low bit-rates:

For low bit rates, CIFF select IP-frame codec instead of I-frame codec as "Encoding method", while H.264
is using I, P and B-frames.
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For even lower bit rates, CIFF uses optional Frame Preprocessing and Video Preprocessing on CIFF
Capture side, as well as optional Frame Postprocessing and Video Postprocessing on CIFF Player side.
CIFF filters are optimized for multi-threaded support, which increased speed of operation and the CIFF
encoder and decoder are multi-threaded.

For very low bit rates, CIFF decreases frame rate by using Temporal scale smaller than default 100%. For
example, 50% will show half of the original frame rate, while 75% will display 3/4 of the original frame
rate.
The concluded laboratory/field tests of CIFF System (July 2008 to July 2010), were performed in the
Unclassified Test Bed (UTB) laboratory in the presence of USSOCOM, USCENTOM, NSA, NGA and CIA
representatives, under the supervision of USSOCOM. CIFF team was not present, the feedback we received is:
“CIFF System met all claims and has already performed 100% beyond their expectations”.
PROJECTS OF IMPORTANCE TO USSOCOM
During testing at UTB, the Lab asked for specific applications of “CIFF Video/Image File Format” and
“CIFF Container Format” which required specific developments, focusing on the projects of importance to
SOCOM such as:
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Mobile Ad-Hoc Networking Technology (UAV + small battery powered ground units)
SIGINT (Signal Intelligence) Payloads for UAS
Unattended Persistent Surveillance
Advanced Digital Image Processing and Compression Techniques
Hi-Definition Video Anywhere, Anytime
Downsized/Miniaturized Radio and Imaging Technology
3D Active Sensors
Advanced Massive Storage Solutions (with lossless CIFF compression as add-on)
Secure High-Speed Wireless Networking Technology
Net-Centric Enterprise System (NCES)
Technical Surveillance Equipment (audio and video surveillance systems)
Video & Audio Studio Modernization Technologies
Video & Audio Processing Enhancement Technologies
Media dissemination and reception in telephone, cell phone devices, including text messaging, video and
television streaming, etc.
CIFF SYSTEM TECHNOLOGY MATURITY
CIFF software application interfaces were 100% completed during UTB tests, so delivering solutions for
“SOCOM projects of importance” will require a small development effort on the application interfaces per
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client requirements, estimated at no more than 5% of the total effort.
CIFF New Design & Architecture is evident in software size:
CIFF.dll 1.2MB (common for both CIFF Capture and CIFF Player).
CIFF Capture 1.8MB
CIFF Player 1.7MB
CIFF Capture + CIFF.dll = 3MB
CIFF Player + CIFF.dll = 2.9MB
CIFF Capture + CIFF Player + CIFF.dll = 4.7MB
1. CIFF Technology provides:
a) Smaller power consumption of UAVs, UGVs, LAMs, ground control stations,
computing centers and portable devices: toughbooks, desktops, notebooks,
netbooks, PDAs, mobile phones and players
b) Smaller heat dissipation of UAVs, UGVs, LAMs, ground control stations,
computing centers, and portable devices
c) Smaller energy for production of encoders/decoders due to smaller weight,
size and complexity
d) Smaller energy for delivery of encoders/decoders due to smaller weight and size
e) Smaller batteries in portable devices
f) Longer battery lifetime in portable devices
g) Faster Web server (faster reading from hard drives and transmission of smaller
CIFF images and video files instead of bigger JPEG images and MPEG-2 video files)
h) Faster Web browsers (faster receiving and decompression of smaller CIFF images
and video files instead of bigger JPEG images and MPEG-2 video files)
i) More than 50% reduction of JPEG images and MPEG-2 video related Internet and
Intranet traffic without noticeable quality loss
j) Reduced IT power consumption (Watts of power per IT delivered to users)
k) Reduced heat dissipation, Carbon footprint (CO2 emission) and energy costs to owners
l) Increase of the efficiency of datacenter utilization (more clients per server)
m) Increase in the efficiency of remote client computer utilization by faster Web page access & download
n) Affordability due to low complexity and low cost
Besides features from 1. CIFF codec (encoder and decoder) major features versus current state-of-the-art
methods (such as MPEG, MJPEG or H264) are:
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Smaller I-frame CIFF bitrate for the same quality in comparison with current state-of-the-art still image and
intraframe (I-frame) video compression methods.
Similar I-frame CIFF bitrate for the same quality as best state-of-the-art interframe (IPB-frames) video
compression methods for fast and medium video.
Similar IP-frame CIFF bitrate for the same quality as best state-of-the-art interframe (IPB-frames) video
compression methods for any video.
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Spatial (resolution extraction) scalability, i.e. inherent extraction of lower resolutions from higher resolution
bitstream (original resolution, original / 4, original / 16, original / 64,...) in the decoder.
Quality (processing reduction) scalability, i.e. inherent extraction of lower quality frames from higher
quality frames in both encoder and decoder.
Temporal (frame dropping) scalability, i.e. dropping of any number of frames in both encoder and decoder
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Highest error resilience due to I-frames or unique IP-frame format with error concealment.
No error propagation from frame to frame in case of I-frame CIFF.
Limited error propagation from frame to frame in case of IP-frame CIFF.
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The same speed of I-frame compression and decompression.
Twice slower IP-frame compression than I-frame compression.
The same speed of I-frame and IP-frame decompression.
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The same latency of I-frame and IP-frame compression and decompression.
Very low latency of one frame for I-frame or IP-frame encoder plus decoder combination.
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Integer arithmetic without multiplication and division operations.
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Orders of magnitude smaller compression and decompression memory requirements, being approximately 3
lines of a single frame each for hardware or one frame each for software codec.
Smallest weight of both encoder and decoder.
Smallest size of both encoder and decoder.
Inherent parallelism due to encoding of the same frame or subsequent frames on separate CPU cores.
Inherent parallelism due to decoding of the same frame or subsequent frames on separate CPU cores.
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Multithreading with CPU core balancing in both encoder and decoder.
Portability to any platform, Windows DirectShow, Linux, or any other.
Direct support for 4:4:4, 4:2:2 and 4:2:0 YUV and grayscale formats.
Faster and better operation with increasing resolution than current methods, which means that both near and
far future belongs to CIFF.
Besides features from 2, CIFF provides the following network benefits:
 Smaller bandwidth.
 Faster transmission.
 Smaller congestion.
 UDP/IP and UDP Lite transmission possible.
 No need for TCP/IP Retransmission.
 Instantaneous switching between streamed video channels.
 IP Payload Error Corrections using forward error correction (FEC).
 Reconstruction of lost IP Packets using additional correction packets.
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IP Header Error Corrections (optional) for transmission in closed end-to-end systems, for the reconstruction
of IP Packets with damaged IP Header for ultimate infrastructural solutions.
CIFF Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation (low latency bandwidth change on frame-by-frame basis).
Faster Quality of Service (QoS).
Fast JPEG, MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and H.264 Transcoding.
Extremely fast opening of Web pages with image and video.
CIFF provides seamless plug-in approach for other codecs.
Simple upgrades in the future.
Inherent compatibility of CIFF container format, with already archived streams (no need to reformat).
Inherent compatibility of old container format with new container format (no need to upgrade).
Simple upgrades in the future.
CIFF COMPRESSION DELIVERED TO THE END-USER:
Question: If data is compressed on the server-side (1 GB file compressed to 10 MB file) and delivered to the
end-user, will the end-user receive the data in compressed form (10 MB), or will it be de-compressed (1 GB)?
Answer 1: In case of downloading, depending on user selection, CIFF Player can:
1) receive 10MB file, decompress and play decompressed file on user display, or
2) receive 10MB file, store 10MB file, decompress and play decompressed file on user display, or
3) receive 10MB file, decompress, store 1GB file on a hard drive and play decompressed file on user display.
Answer 2: In case of streaming, depending on user selection, CIFF Player can:
1) receive 10MB bitstream, decompress and play decompressed bitstream in real-time on user display, or
2) receive 10MB bitstream, store 10MB file on a hard drive, decompress and play decompressed bitstream in
real-time on user display, or
3) receive 10MB bitstream, decompress, store 1GB file on a hard drive and play decompressed bitstream in
real-time on user display.
WHY CIFF AND NOT THE "COMPETITORS" - “HOW CIFF DIFFERS FROM "COMPETITORS"
CIFF "competitors" did not invent new codec as CIFF team did. They are using existing MJPEG,
MJPEG2000, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 or H264 video/image and compression technology, which are unable to
support neither current nor future requirements, vital for the government and commercial markets.
CIFF System is completely new - image/video compression algorithms in architecture and design.
CIFF Quality of Video/Moving Image Compression – streaming high-resolution ultra high-definition
video compression and decompression in real-time; the compression and decompression of high-resolution,
high-definition and standard-def video at speeds faster than real-time; symmetrical times for compression and
decompression with both being faster than existing methods for both lossless and lossy compressions; latency in
video transport in milliseconds that allows real-time targeting, real-time two-way videoconferencing for critical
operations; and the use of video/moving image frames to produce high-resolution still image photos with pixelto-pixel accuracy from any frame selected on the video.
“Network Centric CIFF” supports both network centric warfare and IPTV requirements, through the
maximization of the coding efficiency and error resilience by providing packetizing operation inside CIFF
Image/Video Codec instead of relying on an external software or hardware packetizer. CIFF System provides
high operational value due to solving all practical problems with video/image capture, compression, storage,
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encryption, forward error correction, transmission, decompression and display, thanks to its unique set of
features confirmed by best video/image specialists of several prime government contractors and commercial
corporations.
CIFF System is designed and developed to deliver precisely what it claims with absolute accuracy and
guaranteed performance.
Detailed CIFF comparison with MJPEG, MJPEG2000, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and H.264 can be provided
upon request.
CIFF SYSTEM & GIG COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS
CIFF System will deliver the next generation architecture configuration to GIG communications systems,
necessary to support global requirements during next 20 + years, and at the same time extending life to current
platforms, by providing easy transition from the old platforms to the Next-generation Hybrid Systems and
Products.
CIFF significantly enhance the quality of image and video transmissions over wired and wireless networksprovided connectivity, including low data rate pipes, used by many global networks.
CIFF PERFORMANCE - BANDWIDTH MANAGEMENT-FIXED AND DYNAMIC BANDWIDTH
CIFF DYNAMIC BANDWIDTH PROCESSOR
CIFF provides opportunity to perform dynamic bandwidth allocation on a frame-by-frame basis
CIFF can compress video for either:
· chosen fixed quality of each frame
· chosen fixed bitrate of each frame
· chosen variable quality of each frame
· chosen variable bitrate of each frame
Variable frame rate, with chosen fixed bitrate, utilizes our fast compression and our ability to play variable
frame rate where we save bandwidth by reducing frame rate where it is visually possible and reusing that
savings to improve frame quality. In slow scenes we have less fps and more details in the frame while in fast
scenes we have more fps and fewer details. Visually, that is very much justified and more desirable. Fixed
quality is usually a better choice for downloaded movies, while fixed bitrate can fulfill stringent
telecommunication channel requirements.
However, CIFF can also compress for chosen variable quality or bitrate of each frame, and additionally
provide dynamic bandwidth allocation on a frame-by-frame basis, because every frame can have the
different bitrate / quality / frame size, while state-of-the-art MPEG based methods require seconds to settle
between two different chosen bitrates. In addition to classic delivery system architecture with fixed quality or
bitrate through any transmission media, including fiber optic, ADSL2, wireless or satellite, between a video
server and a set-top box or PC software in either near or distant homes, CIFF can be delivered using the
dynamic bandwidth allocation delivery.
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CIFF Dynamic Bandwidth Processor: Namely, the video server can comprise the highest quality copy of the
content, for example 1080p HDTV at 15Mb/s, which can be dynamically sealed in real-time using fast CIFF
Dynamic Bandwidth Processor into any lower bitrate, for delivering to CIFF enabled device (set-top box, PC, or
any mobile device with a screen), and thus varying bitrate and quality from near to far homes, with actual
resolution of display.
FIBER-OPTIC & CABLE & SATELITE & ADSL2 + PROBLEMS: The video server in the current
delivery systems comprises either only one copy of the content, which quality is limited by the available bitrate
for homes far from the video server, so all homes will get the same (bad) video quality independently of a
distance between the video server and homes or several copies of the content encoded in different bit-rates and
resolution. This model is time & money consuming in preparation of content on the server, requires expensive
equipment for extensive time and still delivers sub-optimal solution.
CIFF Advantage is that stream starting from the best quality source, read from the storage is dynamically
optimized (scaled for best target bitrate, framerate, resolution, and quality) for best viewing experience for each
customer optimizing not only bandwidth but power on display device as well. Even most disadvantaged
customers at far end of link reach will not be left behind.
CIFF Format at Full Quality & Intelligently Applying Current Channel Bandwidth: CIFF takes high
quality source (for example 30+ Mb/sec 1920x1080p60 pre-encoded in CIFF format at full quality) and then
for each customer it is scaled on the server, to exact target display windows size, encoded to current channel
bandwidth intelligently applying available methods to maximize user experience in any given moment.
On top of that we consider remaining power and consumption rate on user display device and calculate optimal
quality for available power to ensure that device will have enough power to finish current movie or other
program. This is possible because CIFF is at least two orders of magnitude less computationally demanding
than competition and it does not require specialized hardware. Everything is done on standard Intel/AMD
processor.
CIFF BITRATE AND QUALITY FOR NEAR AND FAR HOMES: The video server in CIFF delivery
systems can use the same delivery fixed bitrate method as in current delivery systems. However, CIFF can
deliver high-quality video for homes close to the video server and still deliver best possible video for homes far
from the video server.
CIFF PROVIDES HIGHER AVERAGE BITRATE FOR ALL HOMES: CIFF provides higher average
bitrate than state-of-the-art MPEG codecs for all homes, starting from homes close to the video server to homes
far from the video server, plus single-frame latency for switching between channels, unlike seconds latency for
MPEG based methods.
CIFF PROVIDES DYNAMIC BANDWIDTH ALLOCATION: CIFF can easily provide dynamic
bandwidth allocation by decreasing bitrate for currently transmitted channels in favor of newly transmitted
channels in a matter of one frame. For example, one HDTV channel is transmitted through ADSL2 lines at the
best available quality, which will be decreased in order to provide the additional HDTV channel or two SDTV
channels.
Visual quality of CIFF image/video compression is selected by:
 Quality (approximate bandwidth selection)
 Compression ratio (exact file size selection)
 Target size of each frame (accurate bandwidth)
 Target bitrate (exact average bandwidth selection with chosen maximum frame size)
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CIFF compression ratio (CR) of:
 2.5:1 to 3.5:1 is mathematically lossless
 15:1 is visually lossless for best experts
 50:1 is visually lossless for most viewers
 100:1 is visually lossless for high resolutions
 400:1 is visually lossless for large images and preprints
 800:1 is visually lossless for many medical and astronomical images
CIFF spatial (resolution) scalability benefits are:
 Simultaneous existence of all resolutions in the same bitstream
 Instant resolution change on frame-by-frame basis
 Instant bandwidth change on frame-by-frame basis
 Encoder power savings
 Decoder power savings
 Direct extracting of lower resolution video streams from higher resolution video stream without
decompression and subsequent compression
 UHDTV extraction in a control station from UHDTV video stream
 HDTV extraction in a notebook from UHDTV video stream
 SDTV extraction in a palm top from UHDTV video stream
 CIF extraction in a PDA from UHDTV video stream
 Switching between one higher resolution video and several lower resolution videos on frame-by-frame basis
CIFF AND OTHER IMAGE CODECS
NUMBER OF INSTRUCTIONS PER COLOR PIXEL
NUMBER OF INSTRUCTIONS PER GRAYSCALE PIXEL
INSTRUCTIONS PER PIXEL
ENCODING COLOR DECODING
INSTRUCTIONS PER PIXEL
ENCODING GRAYSCALE DECODING
6522
4109
2195
2173
636
142 298
CIFF- CIFF JPEG JPEG2000
166 327 195
CIFF- CIFF JPEG JPEG2000
73
170
498
CIFF- CIFF JPEG JPEG2000
89
175
89
CIFF- CIFF JPEG JPEG2000
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