Generalized Gaussian Multiterminal Source Coding: The Symmetric Case

Consider a generalized multiterminal source coding system, where $\ell\choose m$ encoders, each observing a distinct size-$m$ subset of $\ell$ ($\ell\geq 2$) zero-mean unit-variance symmetrically correlated Gaussian sources with correlation coefficient $\rho$, compress their observations in such a way that a joint decoder can reconstruct the sources within a prescribed mean squared error distortion based on the compressed data. The optimal rate-distortion performance of this system was previously known only for the two extreme cases $m=\ell$ (the centralized case) and $m=1$ (the distributed case), and except when $\rho=0$, the centralized system can achieve strictly lower compression rates than the distributed system under all non-trivial distortion constraints. Somewhat surprisingly, it is established in the present paper that the optimal rate-distortion performance of the afore-described generalized multiterminal source coding system with $m\geq 2$ coincides with that of the centralized system for all distortions when $\rho\leq 0$ and for distortions below an explicit positive threshold (depending on $m$) when $\rho>0$. Moreover, when $\rho>0$, the minimum achievable rate of generalized multiterminal source coding subject to an arbitrary positive distortion constraint $d$ is shown to be within a finite gap (depending on $m$ and $d$) from its centralized counterpart in the large $\ell$ limit except for possibly the critical distortion $d=1-\rho$.