Introduction to Arithmetic Coding -- Theory and Practice

TL;DR

This paper provides a comprehensive introduction to arithmetic coding, covering both its theoretical foundations and practical implementation techniques, including low-precision arithmetic and adaptive encoding methods.

Contribution

It offers a clear explanation of arithmetic coding principles and introduces practical methods for efficient implementation and complexity reduction.

Findings

Arithmetic coding's basic properties are essential for practical encoding.

Techniques for low-precision arithmetic improve computational efficiency.

Adaptive encoding methods enhance coding performance.

Abstract

This introduction to arithmetic coding is divided in two parts. The first explains how and why arithmetic coding works. We start presenting it in very general terms, so that its simplicity is not lost under layers of implementation details. Next, we show some of its basic properties, which are later used in the computational techniques required for a practical implementation. In the second part, we cover the practical implementation aspects, including arithmetic operations with low precision, the subdivision of coding and modeling, and the realization of adaptive encoders. We also analyze the arithmetic coding computational complexity, and techniques to reduce it.