Universal lossless source coding with the Burrows Wheeler transform

The Burrows Wheeler transform (1994) is a reversible sequence transformation used in a variety of practical lossless source-coding algorithms. In each, the BWT is followed by a lossless source code that attempts to exploit the natural ordering of the BWT coefficients. BWT-based compression schemes are widely touted as low-complexity algorithms giving lossless coding rates better than those of the Ziv-Lempel codes (commonly known as LZ'77 and LZ'78) and almost as good as those achieved by prediction by partial matching (PPM) algorithms. To date, the coding performance claims have been made primarily on the basis of experimental results. This work gives a theoretical evaluation of BWT-based coding. The main results of this theoretical evaluation include: (1) statistical characterizations of the BWT output on both finite strings and sequences of length n → ∞, (2) a variety of very simple new techniques for BWT-based lossless source coding, and (3) proofs of the universality and bounds on the rates of convergence of both new and existing BWT-based codes for finite-memory and stationary ergodic sources. The end result is a theoretical justification and validation of the experimentally derived conclusions: BWT-based lossless source codes achieve universal lossless coding performance that converges to the optimal coding performance more quickly than the rate of convergence observed in Ziv-Lempel style codes and, for some BWT-based codes, within a constant factor of the optimal rate of convergence for finite-memory source

Universal lossless source coding with the Burrows Wheeler transform

We here consider a theoretical evaluation of data compression algorithms based on the Burrows Wheeler transform (BWT). The main contributions include a variety of very simple new techniques for BWT-based universal lossless source coding on finite-memory sources and a set of new rate of convergence results for BWT-based source codes. The result is a theoretical validation and quantification of the earlier experimental observation that BWT-based lossless source codes give performance better than that of Ziv-Lempel-style codes and almost as good as that of prediction by partial mapping (PPM) algorithms

Burrows–Wheeler compression: Principles and reflections

AbstractAfter a general description of the Burrows–Wheeler transform and a brief survey of recent work on processing its output, the paper examines the coding of the zero-runs from the MTF recoding stage, an aspect with little prior treatment. It is concluded that the original scheme proposed by Wheeler is extremely efficient and unlikely to be much improved.The paper then proposes some new interpretations and uses of the Burrows–Wheeler transform, with new insights and approaches to lossless compression, perhaps including techniques from error correction