A source encoder is stable if a small change in the source sequence (e.g., changing a few symbols) results in a small (or bounded) change in the output codeword. By this definition, the common technique of random binning is unstable; because the mapping is random, two nearly identical source sequences can be assigned to completely unrelated bin indices. We study compression rates of stable lossless source codes. Using combinatorial arguments, we derive information-theoretic limits on the achievable rate as a function of the stability parameters.

翻译：若信源序列的微小变化（例如改变少数符号）仅导致输出码字产生微小（或有界）变化，则该信源编码器是稳定的。根据此定义，常用的随机分箱技术是不稳定的；由于映射具有随机性，两个几乎相同的信源序列可能被分配至完全不相关的箱索引。我们研究稳定无损信源编码的压缩率。通过组合论证，我们推导出在给定稳定性参数条件下可达到码率的信息论极限。