Partial-Order Bit-Allocation Schemes for Lowrate Quantization

We consider quantizers that are structured using permuted patterns of bit-allocations. The designs assign bits to subvectors x_k within a target vector x through a partial ordering of one or more "base" bit-allocations. The approach allows for a tradeoff in the bits spent explicitly on order information (position of each quantized subvector x circ_k in a vector) and bits spent on traditional quantization within each subvector (which represents a mix of order and value information). Prior work looked at designs for i.i.d. random variables and quantizers for speech/audio coders considering a limited range of ordering/permutation strategies. This paper investigates in more detail the balance of order and value information and looks at ways to improve performance by considering a wider range of strategies and design methods.