Rate-Distortion Optimization

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Overview

Rate-distortion optimization studies how to represent data with fewer bits while limiting reconstruction error or preserving useful information. Methods include scalar and vector quantization, entropy models, Lagrangian optimization, reverse waterfilling, and learned codecs with adaptive bit allocation. Work spans image, audio, video, and 3D compression, as well as settings such as language-model KV caches and edge communication, evaluated with measures from PSNR and perceptual quality to downstream task performance. A central challenge is choosing distortion measures and rate estimates that reflect real perceptual or task value while accounting for compute, latency, and actual coded bitrate.

Latest papers

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61 papers11 papers in the last four weeks, up 57% on the four weeks before. 0.1% of all new papers.

  1. Frame-Wise Streaming for Efficient Learned Speech Compression

    Oct 15, 2026Yuhan Liu, Jun Xu, Fengxi Zhang +2Neural Audio CodecsSpeech Processing

    School of Information Science and Electronic Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

  2. RDCompGS: Rate-Distortion Optimization for Compression of 3D Gaussian Splatting with Image Codecs

    Oct 14, 2026Huiping Ren, Shuai Wan, Luqian Bai +23DGS CompressionGaussian Splatting Compression

    School of Electronics and Information, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710129, China · Department of Computer Science, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China · School of Telecommunication Engineering, Xidian University, Xi’an 710071, China

  3. DuoRate: Two-Rate Per-Expert Precision Allocation for Mixture-of-Experts Serving

    Oct 9, 2026Mengqi Guo, Zhe Wei, Yuan Yuan +3Mixture-of-Experts QuantizationMixture-of-Experts Inference

    Huawei Technologies Ltd.

  4. Optimal random quantisers for spherically symmetric distributions

    Oct 8, 2026Luc Pronzato, Anatoly ZhigljavskyVector QuantizationRate-Distortion Optimization

    Laboratoire I3S, CNRS-Université Côte d’Azur, Sophia Antipolis, France · School of Mathematics, Cardiff University, UK

  5. Task-Sufficient Contraction: Source Selection for Machine Information Interfaces

    Oct 6, 2026Joss ArmstrongRate-Distortion Optimization

    Ericsson Ireland

  6. Transmission Factors for Lossy Compression of PDE Training Data: Measuring What Reaches a Trained Operator

    Oct 5, 2026Huy Hoang LeRate-Distortion OptimizationPDE Operator Learning

    Powermore Ltd., Da Nang, Vietnam

  7. Semantic-Aware Joint Source-Channel Optimization for Encoder-Agnostic Digital Video Communication

    Sep 30, 2026Xiangben Zhu, Caili Guo, Yang Yang +2Joint Source-Channel CodingSemantic Communication

    Beijing Key Laboratory of Network System Architecture and Convergence, School of Information and Communication Engineering, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing 100876, China · China Mobile (Suzhou) Software Technology Company Limited, Suzhou 215011, China · Department of Engineering, King’s College London, London WC2R 2LS, U.K.

  8. RAVEN: Receiver-Conditioned Action-Value Encoding for Finite-Alphabet Multi-Agent Communication

    Sep 29, 2026Shuwei Sun, Chenxi Wang, Jian Huang +2Rate-Distortion OptimizationMulti-Agent Communication

    Xi’an Jiaotong University Xi’an, China

  9. The Hidden Perception Constraint in Task-Aware Compression

    Sep 28, 2026Sahan Liyanaarachchi, Semih Akkoc, Sennur Ulukus +1Learned Image CompressionRate-Distortion Optimization

    University of Maryland College Park, MD, USA · The Ohio State University Columbus, OH, USA

  10. Rate-Distortion Adaptive Primitive Selection for Omnidirectional Gaussian Splatting

    Sep 28, 2026Yulong Cheng, Youneng Bao, Junfeng Zhou +23DGS Compression3D Gaussian Pruning

    Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, China · Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China

  11. SemRD-V2X: Closure-Guided Communication with Bounded Inference for Cooperative Perception

    Sep 28, 2026Hu Xu, Chun Li, Siyuan Qiu +2Communication-Efficient Collaborative PerceptionRate-Distortion Optimization

    Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

  12. Training-Free Bottleneck Width Planning for Convolutional Autoencoders

    Sep 25, 2026Guannan GuoConvolutional AutoencoderDimensionality Reduction

    Beihang University

  13. Information Capacity of Generative Video Compression: Quantifying the Rate-Compute Exchange at Identical Quality

    Sep 23, 2026Cheng Yuan, Jiawei Shao, Xuelong LiRate-Distortion OptimizationNeural Video Compression

    Institute of Artificial Intelligence (TeleAI), China Telecom

  14. Query Independent Variable Rate Visual Token Coding

    Sep 20, 2026Hongbo Zhang, Zihao Yang, Liuyang Song +4Visual Token CompressionToken Compression

    Peking University · Uppsala University · University of Southern California

  15. You've Seen Enough: Quality-Constrained Image Coding for Machines

    Sep 20, 2026Khoa Pham-Dinh, Sanaz Nami, Hamed Rezazadegan Tavakoli +2Learned Image CompressionRate-Distortion Optimization

    Tampere University · Nokia Technologies

  16. Compressing 3D Gaussian Splatting via Cross-Representation Priors

    Sep 19, 2026Yezheng Zhang, Huanxiong Liang, Chuqin Zhou +23DGS CompressionGaussian Splatting Compression

    Institute of Image Communication and Network Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China

  17. Perceptual Refinement of an End-to-End Video Streaming Pipeline via Generative AI Layers

    Sep 16, 2026Emanuele Artioli, Farzad Tashtarian, Christian TimmererRate-Distortion OptimizationVideo Compression

    Christian Doppler Laboratory ATHENA, Institute of Information Technology (ITEC), Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, Austria

  18. WaterKron and FlipFlop Hessian: Information-Theoretically Grounded Quantization with Kronecker-factored Hessians

    Sep 13, 2026Johann Birnick, Rayan SaabNeural Network QuantizationPost-Training Quantization

    Department of Mathematics University of California San Diego La Jolla, CA 92093, USA · Department of Mathematics and HDSI University of California San Diego La Jolla, CA 92093, USA

  19. Distributed Semantic Segmentation With Improved Rate-Distortion Trade-Off

    Aug 26, 2026Danish Nazir, Timo Bartels, Thorsten Bagdonat +1Rate-Distortion OptimizationSemantic Segmentation

    Group Innovation Volkswagen AG Wolfsburg, Germany · Institute for Communications Technology TU Braunschweig Braunschweig, Germany

  20. Squeezing the Cache, Preserving the Truth: Monotonic Equipotential Allocation with Geodesia-KV

    Aug 19, 2026Vincenzo Dentamaro, Pancrazio Auteri, Giuseppe PirloKV-Cache CompressionKV-Cache Management

    University of Bari Aldo Moro, Department of Computer Science

  21. Flow Straight to Reality: Perceptually Consistent Flow Matching for Efficient Image Restoration

    Aug 11, 2026Sangwoo Jo, Donggeun Ko, Jayeon Kang +3Flow MatchingPerceptual Loss

    Korea University, Seoul, South Korea · Aim Future, Seoul, South Korea

  22. Entropy-Constrained Adaptive Stochastic Quantization

    Aug 10, 2026Ran Ben Basat, Yaniv Ben-Itzhak, Michael Mitzenmacher +1Adaptive QuantizationNeural Network Quantization

    University College London · VMware Research by Broadcom · Harvard University

  23. GVCCTurbo: Rate-Compute Quality Scheduling for Codebook Driven Generative Compression

    Aug 4, 2026Ziyue Zeng, Dingjie Peng, Xun Su +1Learned Image CompressionRate-Distortion Optimization

    Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan

  24. Clear-Weighted Bit Allocation for Satellite Downlinks

    Aug 2, 2026Alireza Furutanpey, Qiyang Zhang, Yujie Huang +2Learned Image CompressionRemote Sensing

    Coovally, Barcelona, Spain · Technical University of Vienna, Austria · Peking University, China +2

  25. Rate-Distortion-Perception Theory: Redefining the Fundamental Limits of Information Representation

    Jul 19, 2026Photios A. Stavrou, Giuseppe Serra, Marios KountourisLearned Image CompressionRate-Distortion Theory

  26. MixCompress: Mixture of Experts for Variable Rate Learned Image Compression

    Jul 15, 2026Calvin-Khang Ta, Praneet Singh, Tong Shao +1Learned Image CompressionRate-Distortion Optimization

    Dolby Laboratories, USA

  27. Differentiable Proxy Learning for Adaptive Quantization Control in H.264 Video Coding

    Jul 11, 2026Qihan Xu, Ivan V. BajićLearned Image CompressionRate-Distortion Optimization

    School of Engineering Science, Simon Fraser University Burnaby, BC, Canada

  28. Dual-Constrained Diffusion Image Compression for Operational Rate-Distortion-Perception Optimization

    Jun 11, 2026Sanxin Jiang, Jiro Katto, Heming SunLearned Image CompressionRate-Distortion Optimization

    Department of Information Engineering Shanghai University of Electric Power Shanghai, China · Department of Computer Science and Communication Engineering Waseda University Tokyo, Japan · Faculty of Engineering Institute of Science Tokyo Tokyo, Japan

  29. Benchmarking Neural Speech Compression from a Rate-Distortion Perspective

    Jun 10, 2026Jun Xu, Zhengxue Cheng, Fengxi Zhang +3Neural Audio CodecsSpeech Processing

    School of Information Science and Electronic Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China

  30. Minimum Distortion Quantization with Specified Output Distribution

    Jun 9, 2026Aolin XuRate-Distortion TheoryRate-Distortion Optimization