Information Theory, Coding and Cryptography

Chapter 3

Source Codes

3.1  INTRODUCTION

In Chapter 2, it has been discussed that both source and channel coding are essential for error-free transmission over a communication channel (Figure 2.1). The task of the source encoder is to transform the source output into a sequence of binary digits (bits) called the information sequence. If the source is a continuous source, it involves analog-to-digital (A/D) conversion. An ideal source encoder should have the following properties:

1. The average bit rate required for representation of the source output should be minimized by reducing the redundancy of the information source.
2. The source output can be reconstructed from the information sequence without any ambiguity.

The channel encoder converts the ...