sender, Alice, can start the transmission immediately after the encoding. For instance, after encoding the first $r$ signals, Alice is absolutely sure that at least the first $r l_{\rm min}$ (where $l_{\rm min}$ is the minimal length of each codeword) qubits on the tape have already been written. She is free to send those qubits to Bob immediately. There is no penalty for such a transmission because it is easy to see that the remaining encoding process requires no help from Bob at all. \[Note that in the asymptotic limit of large $r$, after encoding $r$ signals, Alice can even send $r (\bar{L} - \epsilon)$ qubits for any $\epsilon >0$ to Bob without worrying about fidelity.\]

In addition, Alice can send the first $r$ length variables $l_1$, $\ldots$, $l_r$, but she must retain the total-length variable for continued encoding. Since the total-length variable is entangled with each branch of the encoded state, decoding cannot be completed by Bob without use of this information. In other words, Alice must disentangle her system from the encoded message before decoding may be completed.

Decoding
--------

With the length information of each signal and the received qubits, Bob can [*start*]{} the decoding process before 