General form of almost instantaneous fixed-to-variable-length codes

TL;DR

This paper introduces a generalized class of almost instantaneous fixed-to-variable-length codes with adjustable decoding delay, providing a flexible framework that can represent all uniquely decodable variable-to-variable length codes.

Contribution

It proposes N-bit-delay AIFV codes with multiple code trees, proves their universality for all uniquely decodable codes, and formalizes decodability constraints via real number intervals.

Findings

Codes can represent any uniquely-encodable variable-to-variable length code.

Multiple code trees enable flexible and minimal decoding delay.

Theoretical framework for decodability constraints enhances code design.

Abstract

A general class of the almost instantaneous fixed-to-variable-length (AIFV) codes is proposed, which contains every possible binary code we can make when allowing finite bits of decoding delay. The contribution of the paper lies in the following. (i) Introducing $N$-bit-delay AIFV codes, constructed by multiple code trees with higher flexibility than the conventional AIFV codes. (ii) Proving that the proposed codes can represent any uniquely-encodable and uniquely-decodable variable-to-variable length codes. (iii) Showing how to express codes as multiple code trees with minimum decoding delay. (iv) Formulating the constraints of decodability as the comparison of intervals in the real number line. The theoretical results in this paper are expected to be useful for further study on AIFV codes.