On the competitive optimality of Huffman codes |
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Authors: | Cover T.M. |
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Affiliation: | Dept. of Electr. Eng., Stanford Univ., CA; |
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Abstract: | Let X be a discrete random variable drawn according to a probability mass function p(x), and suppose p(x), is dyadic, i.e., log(1/p(x)) is an integer for each x. It is shown that the binary code length assignment l(x)=log(1/p(x)) dominates any other uniquely decodable assignment l'(x) in expected length in the sense that El(X)<El'(X), indicating optimality in long run performance (which is well known), and competitively dominates l'(x), in the sense that Pr{ l (X)<l'(X)}>Pr{l ( X)>l'(X)}, which indicates l is also optimal in the short run. In general, if p is not dyadic then l=[log 1/p] dominates l'+1 in expected length and competitivity dominates l'+1, where l' is any other uniquely decodable code |
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