Design of n-channel multiple description vector quantizers

A new design approach for multiple description vector quantizers over more than two channels is presented. The design is inspired by the concept of channel optimized vector quantization. While most previous works have split the decoder into several independent entities, identifying the appropriate channel model makes it straightforward to implement the multiple description design problem using only one decoder. Our simulation results compare systems with 2, 4 and 8 channels. We demonstrate significant gains over previous designs, as well as over a benchmark scheme based on separate quantization and forward erasure-correcting error control.