Tandem transcoding without distortion accumulation for vector quantization

Transcoding algorithms that eliminate distortion accumulation due to tandem transcodings between memoryless, finite-state, and predictive vector quantization and pulse code modulation (PCM) are presented. The algorithms can be implemented using table lookups for memoryless and finite-state vector quantization, whereas predictive vector quantization requires online calculations. Computer simulations indicate a 6 dB improvement in the case of 16 kb/s predictive vector quantizers, 48 kb/s PCM, and four tandems for speech.