Lossless and near-lossless source coding for multiple access networks

A multiple access source code (MASC) is a source code designed for the following network configuration: a pair of correlated information sequences {X/sub i/}/sub i=1//sup /spl infin// and {Y/sub i/}/sub i=1//sup /spl infin// is drawn independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) according to joint probability mass function (p.m.f.) p(x,y); the encoder for each source operates without knowledge of the other source; the decoder jointly decodes the encoded bit streams from both sources. The work of Slepian and Wolf describes all rates achievable by MASCs of infinite coding dimension (n/spl rarr//spl infin/) and asymptotically negligible error probabilities (P/sub e//sup (n)//spl rarr/0). In this paper, we consider the properties of optimal instantaneous MASCs with finite coding dimension (n