Fixed Delay Optimal Joint Source-Channel Coding for Finite-Memory Systems

Abstract — We consider zero-delay or fixed finite-delay joint source channel coding of Markov sources using finite memory encoder and decoder. The objective is to choose designs that minimize expected total distortion over a finite horizon, expected discounted distortion over an infinite horizon and average distortion per unit time over an infinite horizon. The above problem is a dynamic team with non-classical information structure. We develop a sequential decomposition for this problem. The main contribution of this paper is to provide a systematic methodology for determination of optimal joint source-channel encoding-decoding strategies for zero-delay or fixed finite-delay point-to-point communication with limited memory. I