Multiple description coding using trellis coded quantization

Multiple description coding is posed as a source coding problem that uses diversity to overcome channel impairments. In this paper, we use trellis coded quantization (TCQ) to obtain granular gain over the multiple description scalar quantizer. Several algorithms are proposed, aiming for different level of channel reliability. By investigating the relationship of the Voronoi regions of the side and central quantizers, we are able to achieve the TCQ performance at the central receiver with little sacrifice at the side receivers. On the other hand, with the side receivers both having the TCQ performance and approaching the rate distortion bound, the performance at the central receiver can get close to the multiple description rate distortion limit.