Bitfordeling

Bitfordeling is a term used in Norwegian-language discussions of digital encoding and communications to describe the process of distributing a limited bit budget across the components of a signal representation. It is a fundamental consideration in any system where the bitrate per unit time is constrained and must be shared among multiple elements of the signal.

Under a fixed bitrate, the encoder must decide how many bits to assign to each component—such as frequency bands in a transform domain, channels in a multi-channel stream, or individual coefficients in a quantization process. The goal is to minimize distortion while staying within the available bitrate.

In audio coding, bitfordeling is tightly linked to psychoacoustic models. The encoder assesses the perceptual importance of spectral bands and allocates more bits to those with higher masking or clearer audio content, while reducing precision in less audible parts. Techniques include rate-distortion optimization and dynamic allocation across bands; in some codecs, the bit pool or reservoir concept governs how many bits remain for later frames.

In communications, bit-loading distributes bits across parallel transmission paths, such as OFDM subcarriers. The allocation may follow the water-filling principle, allocating more bits to stronger channels to maximize overall data rate for a given noise level.

Related terms include quantization, rate control, and perceptual coding. Bitfordeling is implemented in the encoder side and requires models of signal quality, channel conditions, and target bitrate.