Postprocessing of late cells for packet video

A method for preventing accumulation of image artifacts due to cell loss in packet video is presented. At each ATM switching node an auxiliary buffer is used to store the overflow traffic of the main switching buffer, The main buffer is served with an absolute priority over the auxiliary buffer, Decoded pictures are normally reconstructed from the cells of the main buffer, The late cells received from the auxiliary buffer are processed and properly added to the current decoded picture, Postprocessing of these cells for the standard video codecs such as H.261 and MPEG is presented, It is shown that although the picture quality due to cell loss is temporarily degraded, it is immediately brought back to its original quality upon the reception of the late cells, as if no loss has occurred.