Methods and apparatuses for encoding and decoding a bytestream

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions that are executable by one or more processors of a decoder to cause the decoder to:

• obtain a set of encoded data comprising information that, when decoded, would enable reconstruction of a set of sparse data;
• decode a first portion of said set of encoded data to obtain a first set of decoded data;
• and
• based on the first set of decoded data, determine how to reconstruct a first portion of the set of sparse data,
• wherein the first set of decoded data corresponds to one or more metadata symbols indicating whether to reconstruct the first portion of the set of sparse data based on (i) a second set of decoded data or (ii) a simulation of the first portion of the set of sparse data, and
• wherein, if the one or more metadata symbols indicates that reconstruction of the first portion of the set of sparse data should be based on the simulation of the first portion of the set of sparse data, the computer executable instructions further cause the decoder to:
• simulate the first portion of the set of sparse data by generating a type of data symbols.

A decoder comprising:

• a processor;
• a computer readable storage medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions that are executable by the processor to cause the decoder to:
• obtain a set of encoded data comprising information that, when decoded, would enable reconstruction of a set of sparse data;
• decode a first portion of said set of encoded data to obtain a first set of decoded data;
• and
• based on the first set of decoded data, determine how to reconstruct a first portion of the set of sparse data,
• wherein the first set of decoded data corresponds to one or more metadata symbols indicating whether to reconstruct the first portion of the set of sparse data based on (i) a second set of decoded data or (ii) a simulation of the first portion of the set of sparse data, and
• wherein, if the one or more metadata symbols indicates that reconstruction of the first portion of the set of sparse data should be based on the second set of decoded data, the computer executable instruction further cause the decoder to:
• decode a second portion of said set of encoded data to obtain the second set of decoded data;
• and
• reconstruct the first portion of the set of sparse data by extracting, from the second set of decoded data, a first type of data symbols.