Rate-Distortion Bounds for Heterogeneous Random Fields on Finite Lattices

TL;DR

This paper develops a finite-blocklength rate-distortion theory for heterogeneous random fields on finite lattices, accounting for practical tiling constraints and spatial heterogeneity in scientific data compression.

Contribution

It introduces a novel framework that models piecewise homogeneous fields with tiling constraints, extending finite-blocklength analysis to realistic high-dimensional, spatially correlated data.

Findings

Establishes non-asymptotic achievability and converse bounds for heterogeneous fields.

Derives a second-order expansion quantifying effects of heterogeneity and tiling.

Highlights the impact of spatial correlation and region geometry on compression rates.

Abstract

Since Shannon's foundational work, rate-distortion theory has defined the fundamental limits of lossy compression. Classical results, derived for memoryless and stationary ergodic sources in the asymptotic regime, have shaped both transform and predictive coding architectures, as well as practical standards such as JPEG. Finite-blocklength refinements, initiated by the non-asymptotic achievability and converse bounds of Kostina and Verdu, provide precise characterizations under excess-distortion probability constraints, but primarily for memoryless or statistically homogeneous models. In contrast, error-bounded practical lossy compressors for scientific computing, such as SZ, ZFP, MGARD, and SPERR, are designed for finite, high-dimensional, spatially correlated, and statistically heterogeneous random fields. These compressors partition data into fixed-size tiles that are processed independently, making tile size a central architectural constraint. Structural heterogeneity, finite lattice effects, and tiling constraints are not addressed by existing finite-blocklength analyses. This paper introduces a finite-blocklength rate-distortion framework for heterogeneous random fields on finite lattices, explicitly accounting for the tile-based architectures used in high-performance scientific compressors. The field is modeled as piecewise homogeneous with regionwise stationary second-order statistics, and tiling constraints are incorporated directly into the source model. Under an excess-distortion probability criterion, we establish non-asymptotic achievability, converse bounds and derive a second-order expansion that quantifies the impact of spatial correlation, region geometry, heterogeneity, and tile size on the rate and dispersion.