A Universal Finite Memory Source

In this paper an irreducible parameterization for a finite memory source is constructed in the form of a tree machine. A universal information source for the set of finite memory sources is constructed by a predictive modification of an earlier studied algorithm—Context. It is shown that this universal source incorporates any minimal data-generating tree machine in an asymptotically optimal manner in the following sense: the negative logarithm of the probability it assigns to any long typical sequence, generated by any tree machine, approaches that assigned by the tree machine at the best possible rate. © 1995 IEEE