Multi-Terminal Source Coding With Action Dependent Side Information

Abstract

We consider multi-terminal source coding with a single encoder and multiple decoders where either the encoder or the decoders can take cost constrained actions which affect the quality of the side information present at the decoders. For the scenario where decoders take actions, we characterize the rate-cost trade-off region for lossless source coding, and give an achievability scheme for lossy source coding for two decoders which is optimum for a variety of special cases of interest. For the case where the encoder takes actions, we characterize the rate-cost trade-off for a class of lossless source coding scenarios with multiple decoders. Finally, we also consider extensions to other multi-terminal source coding settings with actions, and characterize the rate -distortion-cost tradeoff for a case of successive refinement with actions.