A new construction algorithm for symmetrical reversible variable-length codes from the Huffman code

Abstract

Variable-length codes (VLCs) improve coding performance using statistical characteristics of source symbols, however, VLCs have disastrous effects from bit errors in noisy transmission environments. In order to overcome problems with VLCs, reversible variable-length codes (RVLCs) have been introduced as one of the error resilience tools due to their error recovering capability for corrupted video streams. Still, existing RVLCs are complicated in the design and have some rooms for improvement in coding efficiency. In this paper, we propose a new design method for a symmetrical RVLC from the optimal Huffman code table. The proposed algorithm has a simpler construction process and also demonstrates an improved performance in terms of the average codeword length than other symmetrical RVLC algorithms.