Patent ID: 8547255

Claim:
A method for encoding an original symbol comprising a plurality of values, the method comprising: (a) determining whether the symbol can be encoded by a codeword of a first codebook; (b) in case the symbol can be encoded by a codeword of the first codebook, selecting the codeword associated with the symbol from the first codebook; and (c) in case the symbol cannot be encoded by a codeword of the first codebook: (c.1) selecting a codeword from the first codebook indicating that the symbol cannot be encoded by a codeword of the first codebook, (c.2) splitting the symbol into a plurality of first sub-symbols, each of the first sub-symbols comprising a predefined number of values of the original symbol, and selecting a codeword for each of the first sub-symbols from a second codebook, wherein the encoded symbol is represented only by the codeword selected in step (b) from the first codebook, or by the codeword selected in step (c.1) from the first codebook and the plurality of codewords selected in step (c.2) from the second codebook.