A Non-Uniform Quantization Framework for Time-Encoding Machines

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Yashaswini, Kaluguri, Arora, Anshu, Mulleti, Satish
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Yashaswini, Kaluguri
Arora, Anshu
Mulleti, Satish
author_facet Yashaswini, Kaluguri
Arora, Anshu
Mulleti, Satish
contents Time encoding machines (TEMs) provide an event-driven alternative to classical uniform sampling, enabling power-efficient representations without a global clock. While prior work analyzed uniform quantization (UQ) of firing intervals, we show that these intervals are inherently non-uniformly distributed, motivating the use of non-uniform quantization (NUQ). We derive the probability distribution of firing intervals for a class of bandlimited signals and design a power-law-based NUQ scheme tailored to this distribution. Simulations demonstrate that NUQ significantly outperforms UQ under the same bit budget. We also compare TEMs with non-uniform sampling (NUS), where both amplitudes and timings require quantization, and show that TEM--NUQ achieves lower error at half the transmission cost. These results highlight the advantages of distribution-aware quantization and establish TEM--NUQ as an efficient alternative to conventional UQ and NUS schemes.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_02728
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Non-Uniform Quantization Framework for Time-Encoding Machines
Yashaswini, Kaluguri
Arora, Anshu
Mulleti, Satish
Signal Processing
Time encoding machines (TEMs) provide an event-driven alternative to classical uniform sampling, enabling power-efficient representations without a global clock. While prior work analyzed uniform quantization (UQ) of firing intervals, we show that these intervals are inherently non-uniformly distributed, motivating the use of non-uniform quantization (NUQ). We derive the probability distribution of firing intervals for a class of bandlimited signals and design a power-law-based NUQ scheme tailored to this distribution. Simulations demonstrate that NUQ significantly outperforms UQ under the same bit budget. We also compare TEMs with non-uniform sampling (NUS), where both amplitudes and timings require quantization, and show that TEM--NUQ achieves lower error at half the transmission cost. These results highlight the advantages of distribution-aware quantization and establish TEM--NUQ as an efficient alternative to conventional UQ and NUS schemes.
title A Non-Uniform Quantization Framework for Time-Encoding Machines
topic Signal Processing
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.02728