Embedding channel coding in arithmetic coding

An arithmetic coding algorithm that incorporates channel coding is presented. For a source alphabet with m symbols, the selected m code points over the [0-1) interval have a desired minimum Hamming distance d _min between them. The decoder utilises this d_min in conjunction with the self-synchronisation property of arithmetic coding and knowledge of the source statistics to recover the original sequence of symbols, in the presence of channel errors, without the use of known channel coding techniques. The selected d_min provides a desired error protection level. The introduced scheme is suitable for bandwidth-limited binary symmetric channels (BSCs) with moderate to high error rates