Variable-rate universal block source coding subject to a fidelity constraint
Kenneth M. Mackenthun, M.B. Pursley · IEEE Transactions on Information Theory · 1978
Variable-rate universal source codes are data compression schemes that are optimum for the coding of a collection of sources (e.g., a source with unknown parameters) subject to a fixed average distortion constraint. Existence of variable-rate universal source codes is demonstrated for very general classes of sources and distortion measures.