On finite-state vector quantization for noisy channels

Finite-state vector quantization (FSVQ) over a noisy channel is studied. A major drawback of a finite-state decoder is its inability to track the encoder in the presence of channel noise. In order to overcome this problem, we propose a nontracking decoder which directly estimates the code vectors used by a finite-state encoder. The design of channel-matched finite-state vector quantizers for noisy channels, using an iterative scheme resembling the generalized Lloyd algorithm, is also investigated. Simulation results based on encoding a Gauss-Markov source over a memoryless Gaussian channel show that the proposed decoder exhibits graceful degradation of performance with increasing channel noise, as compared with a finite-state decoder. Also, the channel-matched finite-state vector quantizers are shown to outperform channel-optimized vector quantizers having the same vector dimension and rate. However, the nontracking decoder used in the channel-matched finite-state quantizer has a higher computational complexity, compared with a channel-optimized vector-quantizer decoder. Thus, if they are allowed to have the same overall complexity (encoding and decoding), the channel-optimized vector quantizer can use a longer encoding delay and achieve similar or better performance. Finally, an example of using the channel-matched finite-state quantizer as a backward-adaptive quantizer for nonstationary signals is also presented.