Nonblock Source Coding with a Fidelity Criterion

Abstract

A new nonblock source coding (data compression) technique is introduced and a source coding theorem is proved using recently developed techniques from ergodic theory. The existence theorem is valid for all stationary aperiodic sources (e.g., ergodic sources) with finite alphabets and all ergodic sources with separable alphabets and is proved without Shannon-style random coding arguments. The coding technique and the optimal performance bounds are compared and contrasted with Shannon block coding techniques.