Prefix Codes for Power Laws with Countable Support
<|reference_start|>Prefix Codes for Power Laws with Countable Support: In prefix coding over an infinite alphabet, methods that consider specific distributions generally consider those that decline more quickly than a power law (e.g., Golomb coding). Particular power-law distributions, however, model many random variables encountered in practice. For such random variables, compression performance is judged via estimates of expected bits per input symbol. This correspondence introduces a family of prefix codes with an eye towards near-optimal coding of known distributions. Compression performance is precisely estimated for well-known probability distributions using these codes and using previously known prefix codes. One application of these near-optimal codes is an improved representation of rational numbers.<|reference_end|>
@article{baer2006prefix,
    title={Prefix Codes for Power Laws with Countable Support},
    author={Michael B. Baer},
    journal={Information Theory, 2008. ISIT 2008. IEEE International Symposium
  on},
    year={2006},
    doi={10.1109/ISIT.2008.4595434},
    archivePrefix={arXiv},
    eprint={cs/0611073},
    primaryClass={cs.IT math.IT}
}