Joint source channel coding using arithmetic codes and trellis coded modulation

Previous work has indicated that using an arithmetic encoder with reserved probability space can provide powerful error detection and error correction when used with a sequential decoding algorithm. However, performance improvements were limited at high error rates, principally because of the lack of an explicit decoding tree. In this work a trellis coded modulation scheme is used to provide a convenient tree for a list decoding algorithm. Results are obtained for both a small alphabet application (SPIHT encoded image) and a large alphabet application (predictive lossless image compression). Simulations on AWGN channels with bit error rates in the range of 10/sup -3/ to 10/sup -1.5/ show significant packet recovery rates even for the poorest channels.