A Near Lossless Learned Image Coding Network Quantization Approach for Cross-Platform Inference

This paper presents an innovative pipeline design for the quantization of neural image codecs, ensuring robust and consistent deployment across various platform inferences. Our approach addresses a significant challenge prevalent in neural image compression networks: the lack of quantization methods for entropy probability hyper-priors, such as Gaussian mixture models (GMMs), in the existing literature. Our method serves as a solution to prevent decoding errors stemming from float-point discrepancies between the encoder and decoder, especially when executed on different platforms. By implementing a quantization scheme based on look-up tables (LUTs), we achieve precise quantization of GMM probability models with minimal performance degradation, approaching near losslessness. Moreover, our contribution offers a comprehensive quantization pipeline that facilitates dependable data transmission and harmonious synchronization of arithmetic coding algorithms between the encoder and decoder components. Empirical evidence highlights the effectiveness of our method, demonstrating seamless codec matching on diverse platforms and substantiating its capacity to enhance the integrity and security of compressed data. This work enhances the practical applicability of neural compression techniques across real-world scenarios.