Optimization of Joint Progressive Source and Channel Coding for MIMO Systems

The optimization of joint source and channel coding for a sequence of numerous progressive packets is a challenging problem. Further, the problem becomes more complicated if the space-time coding is also involved with the optimization in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system. This is because the number of ways of jointly assigning channel codes and space-time codes to progressive packets is much larger than that of solely assigning channel codes to the packets. This paper applies a parametric approach to address that complex joint optimization problem in a MIMO system. Employing the parametric distortion-rate function, the joint assignment of channel codes and space-time codes to the packets can be optimized in a packet-by-packet manner. As a result, the computational complexity of the optimization is exponentially reduced, compared to the exhaustive search. The numerical results show that the proposed method significantly improves the peak-signal-to-noise ratio performance of the rate-based optimal solution in a MIMO system.