Design of reversible variable-length codes using properties of the Huffman code and average length function

Variable-length codes (VLCs) are generally employed lo improve compression efficiency using data statistics. However, VLCs are very sensitive to bit errors in noisy transmission environments, such as mobile channels. Recently, several reversible variable-length codes (RVLCs) have been introduced due to recovering information from corrupted compressed bitstreams and enhancing robustness of VLCs to bit errors. However, existing RVLCs have some rooms for improvement in coding efficiency. In this paper, we propose a new design algorithm for efficient symmetrical and asymmetrical RVLCs by employing essential information from the Huffman code and the property of the average length function. The proposed algorithm has demonstrated improved coding efficiency over existing RVLC algorithms.