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A standard analog signal compression algorithm, used in digital communications systems of the North American digital hierarchy, to optimize, i.e., modify, the dynamic range of an analog signal prior to digitizing. Note: The wide dynamic range of speech does not lend itself well to efficient linear digital encoding. Mu-law encoding effectively reduces the dynamic range of the signal, thereby increasing the coding efficiency and resulting in a signal-to-distortion ratio that is greater than that obtained by linear encoding for a given number of bits.
- Browse Related Terms: a-law algorithm, bit synchronization, mu-law (µ-law) algorithm, return-to-zero (RZ), signal element, SLIP, SONET, synchronization bit, synchronization code, synchronous optical network, synchronous transport signal level 1 (STS-1)