Perceptual distortion-rate optimization of long term prediction in MPEG AAC

Long Term Prediction (LTP) in MPEG Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) exploits inter-frame redundancies via predictive coding of the current frame, given previously reconstructed data. Particularly, AAC Low Delay mandates LTP, to exploit correlations that would otherwise be ignored due to the shorter frame size. The LTP parameters are typically selected by time-domain techniques aimed at minimizing the mean squared prediction error, which is mismatched with the ultimate perceptual criteria of audio coding. We thus propose a novel trellis-based approach that optimizes the LTP parameters, in conjunction with the quantization and coding parameters of the frame, explicitly in terms of the perceptual distortion and rate tradeoffs. A low complexity "two-loop" search alternative to the trellis is also proposed. Objective and subjective results provide evidence for substantial gains.