Source Coding
in
Digital Communication System
Syeda Quratulain Ali
Digital Communication
Digital Communication is the communication that has
a digital (standard is binary) interface between source
and destination
Concept Q1: Why we need a digital interface?
Standardization
Layering
Concept Q2: How digital interface is practically
realized?
By introducing Source Encoder and corresponding decoder at the
other end of channel.
Digital Communication Model
Fig 1.1
Fig 1.2a
Shannons Views
Can we link probability with communication?
May we know ahead of time what is expected to
come next, from receivers end?
Shannon introduced the concept of entropy
Simple words: Shannon entropy is the expected
value (average) of the information contained in
each message.
The more you are certain what you are going to
receive, the less is the entropy of communication
system.
Information Theory
Source emits letters in a probabilistic fashion
s ( m) a1 , . . . . , aK A
0 Pr ak 1 , k 1 ,. . . . , K
P a 1
k 1
Alphabet A known by source and sink
Issues
How should letters be represented by bits? Any limit to compression?
Can we mitigate the errors introduced by the channel?
Fig 1.2b
Why: Source Coding
Theorem
The theory provides answers to two
fundamental questions (among others):
What is the irreducible complexity below which a signal
cannot be compressed?
What is the ultimate transmission rate for reliable
communication over a noisy channel?
Source Coding Theorem
Definitions
Define source entropy H(A)
H A Pr ak log 2 Pr ak bits
k
Entropy maximized when letters are equally likely
P a 1K
r
H A log 2 K
Entropy minimized when one letter occurs with
probability one
P a 1
r
H A 0
Entropy Calculation
Example
1
Pr a1
2
H A
1
1
1
Pr a2
Pr a3
Pr a4
4
8
8
1
1 1
1 1
1 1
1
log 2 log 2 log 2 log 2
2
2 4
4 8
8 8
8
1
1
1
1
1 2 3 3
4
8
8
2
1.75 bits
Practice Example
H A Pr ak log 2 Pr ak bits
Find Entropyk
Letter
Pr
0.4
0.2
0.15
0.15
0.1
Source Coding Theorem
B ( ak ) number of bits assigned to ak
K
B ( A) Pr ak B (ak ) average number of bits to represent A
k 1
Shannon (1948)
There exists a source coder and decoder that can
represent and retrieve the sources alphabet if
H ( A) B ( A) H ( A) 1
Lossless compression
Furthermore, no error-free source coder/decoder exists if
B ( A) H ( A)
Lossless compression
Compression Schemes
Lossless Compression:
LZW (Lempel-Ziv-Welch), zip, Huffman, simple codes
Lossy Compression:
JPEG, MPEG, MP3,
Compression Example
1
1
Pr a1
Pr a2
2
4
H ( A) 1.75 bits
Simple Binary code :
1
1
Pr a3
Pr a4
8
8
1.75 B ( A) 2.75 bits
B (ak ) log 2 K B ( A)
a1 00 a2 01 a3 10 a4 11 B ( A) 2.0 bits
Better binary code : Varible length code
a1 0 a2 10 a3 110 a4 111 B ( A) 1.75 bits
But there is anissue ...
a1a1a3 a1a2 a1a4 001100100111
Huffman Codes
Huffman Codes Example
Compress the word Zebra using Huffman Algorithm,
where the frequency of letters in word zebra are:
Letter
Probability
1/16
1/2
1/8
1/16
1/4
Reference
[1] Don H. Johnson, Fundamentals of electrical engineering 1, connexions
Rice University Press, USA.
[2] Robert G Gallager, Principal of digital communication, Cambridge
University Press
2008, UK.