Source-Channel Coding Strategies: Tandem Coding vs. Channel-Optimized Quantization

Two common source-channel coding strategies, tandem coding and channel-optimized quantization, are compared on the basis of distortion vs. complexity by analyzing specific representatives of each when transmitting analog data samples across a binary symmetric channel. Transform coding is used in each strategy, and Reed-Solomon codes are added to form the tandem code. For each strategy, formulas for the mean-squared error and complexity are found and used to optimize it so as to minimize distortion subject to a complexity constraint, for data modeled as Gauss-Markov. The results of such optimizations suggest there is a complexity threshold such that when the number of available operations per sample is above this threshold, tandem coding is better, and when below the threshold, channel-optimized transform coding is better.