3.1.4.1.1.2.1 LZ77 Compression Algorithm

The LZ77 compression algorithm is used to analyze input data and determine how to reduce the size of that input data by replacing redundant information with metadata. Sections of the data that are identical to sections of the data that have been encoded are replaced by small metadata that indicates how to expand those sections again. The encoding algorithm is used to take that combination of data and metadata and serialize it into a stream of bytes that can later be decoded and decompressed.