On design of error-correcting reversible variable length codes

We propose an algorithm for construction of reversible variable length codes (RVLCs) with good error-correcting properties. The error-correcting properties are evaluated by a metric called the free distance, which is always greater than one in the case of the proposed RVLCs. Since variable length codes (VLCs) typically have free distance equal to one, the proposed RVLCs exhibit significant improvement in symbol error rate relative to VLCs constructed using standard methods.