Multiterminal source encoding with encoder breakdown

When separate encoders are assigned to each of two correlated sources, it is in general true that the rate sum required is less when decoding is done by a single decoder than when separate decoders are used. However, if either encoder breaks down, system performance ordinarily degrades severely in the single-decoder case when one tries to recover the sources based solely on the output of the remaining encoder. The authors determine the admissible rate region for this situation, which is related to the multiple description problem. Some of the implications of the general result are unintuitive