Rate-distortion function via minimum mean square error estimation

Abstract: We derive a simple general parametric representation of the rate-distortion function of a memoryless source, where both the rate and the distortion are given by integrals whose integrands include the minimum mean square error (MMSE) of the distortion $\Delta=d(X,Y)$ based on the source symbol $X$, with respect to a certain joint distribution of these two random variables. At first glance, these relations may seem somewhat similar to the I-MMSE relations due to Guo, Shamai and Verd\'u, but they are, in fact, quite different. The new relations among rate, distortion, and MMSE are discussed from several aspects, and more importantly, it is demonstrated that they can sometimes be rather useful for obtaining non-trivial upper and lower bounds on the rate-distortion function, as well as for determining the exact asymptotic behavior for very low and for very large distortion. Analogous MMSE relations hold for channel capacity as well.