The Infinite-Message Limit of Two-Terminal Interactive Source Coding

A two-terminal interactive function computation problem with alternating messages is studied within the framework of distributed block source coding theory. For any finite number of messages, a single-letter characterization of the sum-rate-distortion function was established in previous works using standard information-theoretic techniques. This, however, does not provide a satisfactory characterization of the infinite-message limit, which is a new, unexplored dimension for asymptotic analysis in distributed block source coding involving potentially an infinite number of infinitesimal-rate messages. In this paper, the infinite-message sum-rate-distortion function, viewed as a functional of the joint source distribution and the distortion levels, is characterized as the least element of a partially ordered family of functionals having certain convex-geometric properties. The new characterization does not involve evaluating the infinite-message limit of a finite-message sum-rate-distortion expression. This characterization leads to a family of lower bounds for the infinite-message sum-rate-distortion expression and a simple criterion to test the optimality of any achievable infinite-message sum-rate-distortion expression. The new convex-geometric characterization is used to develop an iterative algorithm for evaluating any finite-message sum-rate-distortion function. It is also used to construct the first examples which demonstrate that for lossy source reproduction, two messages can strictly improve the one-message Wyner-Ziv rate-distortion function settling an unresolved question from a 1985 paper. It is shown that a single backward message of arbitrarily small rate can lead to an arbitrarily large gain in the sum-rate.