Quantization
Quantization, in mathematics and digital signal processing, is the process of mapping a large set of input values to a (countable) smaller set – such as rounding values to some unit of precision. A device oralgorithmic function that performs quantization is called a quantizer. The round-off error introduced by quantization is referred to asquantization error.
In analog-to-digital conversion, the difference between the actual analog value and quantized digital value is called quantization error or quantization distortion. This error is either due to rounding or truncation. The error signal is sometimes modeled as an additional random signal calledquantization noise because of its stochastic behaviour. Quantization is involved to some degree in nearly all digital signal processing, as the process of representing a signal in digital form ordinarily involves rounding. Quantization also forms the core of essentially all lossy compression algorithms.
