A new method of optimal coding

Abstract

A new technique for optimally encoding a given source, statistical properties of which are described by the first-order model is introduced. The calculation of a minimum length of codewords is based on the consecutive redistribution of the self- information of symbols in accordance with their probabilities at each stage of the encoding. The proposed method performs equally well for an arbitrary order of symbol probabilities. While codewords are generated by a separate combinatorial procedure, the overall computational cost of the proposed method is lower than that for the Huffman code.