Stephen D. Voran

Abstract: Multiple–description coding is one way to gain robustness against lossy channels. We extend the multiple–description scalar quantizer (MDSQ) to a channel–optimized MDSQ (COMDSQ) that minimizes mean–squared error for a given channel environment. We discuss necessary and sufficient conditions for the optimality of M–channel COMDSQ's and provide procedures for the design of 2–channel COMDSQ's. We provide example results including audio files from waveform and transform coders that employ COMDSQs.

Keywords: fading; quantization; decoding; error correction codes; Robustness; audio coding; propagation loss; Costs; Probability density function; Sufficient conditions

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