Fixed-slope universal algorithms for lossy source coding via lossless codeword length functions

The main advantage of the fixed slope universal lossy data compression scheme over the fixed rate (fixed distortion) universal lossy data compression scheme lies in the fact that it converts the encoding problem to a search problem through a trellis and then permits one to use some sequential search algorithms to implement it. Simulation results with the kth order arithmetic codeword length function as a lossless codeword length function and the M-algorithm as a sequential search algorithm show that this fixed slope universal algorithm, combined with suitable search algorithms, might be implementable in practice.