ROBUST ADAPTIVE BUFFER-INSTRUMENTED ENTROPY-CODED QUANTIZATION OF STATIONARY SOURCES

Entropy-coded quantization of stationary memoryless sources is known to provide a relatively efficient source encoding technique in a rate-distortion sense. However, transmission of the resulting variable-length codes over a fixed-rate channel necessitates the use of a buffer of finite, and preferably small, size. This requirement, in turn, results in the problem of buffer management. The probability of eventual buffer underflow or overflow is unity without some form of buffer-instrumented adaptive feedback control. This paper investigates the effects of various source statistics and buffer management algorithms for a buffer of fixed size and describes an algorithm that provides particularly robust rate-distortion performance for a wide range of stationary sources. The performance of this scheme is compared to conventional adaptive pulse code modulation (APCM) operating at the same fixed channel transmission rate. © 1990 IEEE