Recent developments such as the invention of powerfulturbo-decoding and irregular designs, together with the increase inthe number of potential applications to multimedia signalcompression, have increased the importance of variable lengthcoding (VLC). Providing insights into the very latest research, theauthors examine the design of diverse near-capacity VLC codes inthe context of wireless telecommunications.The book commences with an introduction to Information Theory,followed by a discussion of Regular as well as Irregular VariableLength Coding and their applications in joint source and channelcoding. Near-capacity designs are created using ExtrinsicInformation Transfer (EXIT) chart analysis. The latest techniquesare discussed, outlining radical concepts such as Genetic Algorithm(GA) aided construction of diverse VLC codes. The book concludeswith two chapters on VLC-based space-time transceivers as well ason frequency-hopping assisted schemes, followed by suggestions forfuture work on the topic.* Surveys the historic evolution and development of VLCs* Discusses the very latest research into VLC codes* Introduces the novel concept of Irregular VLCs and theirapplication in joint-source and channel coding