Patent ID: 7684498

Claim:
A method for processing a signal, the method comprising: obtaining, by a data coding apparatus, frequency grouping information specifying a quantity of parameter bands within a current frame and identifying a group of low frequency parameter bands and a group of high frequency parameter bands included in the current frame; obtaining, for the group of low frequency parameter bands and the group of high frequency parameter bands, a pilot reference value and one or more pilot difference values associated with the respective identified group of parameter bands; and obtaining, for the identified group of low frequency parameter bands and the identified group of high frequency parameter bands, data elements using the respective pilot reference value and the one or more pilot difference values, wherein: the respective pilot reference value is dependent on the data elements of the respective identified group of parameter bands, and is not dependent on data elements of an other frame, a quantity of the pilot difference values is equal to a quantity of the data elements of the respective identified group of parameter bands, the pilot reference value is a single value which applies to all of the data elements of the respective identified group of parameter bands, and each pilot difference value corresponds to each data element of the respective identified group of parameter bands.