Method and apparatus for image transmission using
arithmetic coding, based on continuous error detection uses a controlled amount of added redundancy. A continuous error detection scheme is provided, wherein there is a trade-off between the amount of added redundancy and the time needed to detect an error once it occurs. Herein, there is no need for the
cyclic redundancy check (CRC) to wait until an entire block of data has been received and processed before an error can be detected. The invention can be used to great
advantage both in the
automatic repeat request (ARQ) and other concatenated coding schemes. Errors in the received bit
stream are detected by introducing added redundancy, e.g., a forbidden symbol, in the
arithmetic coding operation. The forbidden symbol is never intended to be encoded. The redundancy error causes loss of synchronization, which is used to detect errors. If a forbidden symbol gets decoded, it means that an error has occurred. In this invention, there is
direct control over the amount of redundancy added vs. the amount of time it takes to detect an error. For
image compression systems, by using the invention and ARQ, only one device would suffice both for source compression and channel coding.