Sequencing multiple descriptions

Summary from only given as follows. In its original formulation, multiple description (MD) coding is a multiuser lossy source coding problem, in which three decoders get to observe encodings of a single source generated by two senders. In general, the rate delivered to each of the decoders is not the same and, based on this, it has been argued that MD codes would be suitable for use as joint source/channel codes in a standard point-to-point problem: low-rate decoders would be used when there is loss of data, and high-rate decoders would be used when more data is available at the receiver. We present an alternative view on the use of MD codes as joint source/channel codes. We show how a channel naturally associated with the standard joint source/channel coding problem based on MDs is a non-ergodic channel that bears little resemblance to packet channels (i.e., those for which MD codes have been proposed in practice) and we propose a simple modification to the MD setup that deals with this. We also consider the problem of designing suitable codes and we show how the associated decoding problem is essentially equivalent to the problem of sequencing DNA strands. The full paper is available from http://www.lnt.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de/mitarbeiter/barros/, http://www.ace.cornell.edu/-servetto/publications/.