Unequally protected multistage vector quantization for time-varying CDMA channels

We present a source-channel coding system for operation over code-division multiple-access channels with time-varying conditions. The proposed system consists of a multistage vector quantizer (MSVQ) in conjunction with unequal protection against channel errors. The receiver estimates the channel conditions and decodes as many stages of the quantizer as can be reliably decoded. The approach to system design and optimization is first derived and evaluated for a system that employs hard decoding of stage indices. The approach is then extended to the more general case of weighted decoding. Simulation results are given for transmission of Gauss-Markov sources over broadcast and slow fading channels. Consistent and substantial improvement is achieved over the standard MSVQ with equal error protection, and the gains, in terms of source signal-to-noise ratio, are in the range of 3-5 dB.