This paper is concerned with the problem of obtaining the optimal linear vector coding (transformation) method that matches an

-dimensional vector signal and a

-dimensional channel under a given channel power constraint and mean-squared-error criterion. The encoder converts the

correlated random variables into

independent random variables and selects at most

independent random variables which correspond to the

largest eigenvaiues of the signal covariance matrix

. The encoder reinserts cross correlation into the

random variables in such a way that the largest eigenvalue of

is assigned to the smallest eigenvalue of the channel noise covariance matrix

and the second largest eigenvalue of

to the second smallest eigenvalue of

, etc. When only the total power for all

channels is prescribed, the optimal individual channel power assignments are obtained in terms of the total power, the eigenvalues of

, and the eigenvalues of

. When the individual channel power limits are constrained by

and

is a diagonal matrix, the necessary conditions of an inverse eigenvalue problem must be satisfied to optimize the vector signal transmission system. An iterative numerical method has been developed for the case of correlated channel noise.