Transmitting multiple correlated gaussian sources over a Gaussian MAC using delay-free mappings

In this paper, we study the problem of communicating multiple correlated Gaussian memoryless sources over a Gaussian Multiple Access Channel (GMAC). We focus on distributed delay-free, low complexity, joint source-channel coding (JSCC) solutions to the problem. Theoretical performance bounds are derived and linear and nonlinear JSCC schemes are evaluated. The main contribution is a nonlinear hybrid discrete-analog mapping based on distributed quantization and a linear continuous mapping named Distributed Quantizer Linear Coder (DQLC). The proposed scheme shows promising performance which improve with increasing correlation and is robust against variations in noise level.