密码学与网络安全 教学课件 作者 978 7 302 19727 0 附录F.pdfVIP

for70220_appF.fm Page 615 Saturday, January 27, 2007 1:09 PM APPENDIX F Information Theory In this appendix, we discuss several concepts from information theory that are related to topics discussed in this book. F.1 MEASURING INFORMATION How can we measure the information in an event? How much information does an event carry? Let us answer these questions through examples. Example F.1 Imagine a person sitting in a room. Looking out the window, she can clearly see that the sun is shin- ing. If at this moment she receives a call (an event) from a neighbor saying, “It is now daytime,” does this message contain any information? It does not. She is already certain that it is daytime. The message does not remove any uncertainty in her mind. Example F.2 Imagine a person has bought a lottery ticket. If a friend calls to tell her that she has won first prize, does this message (event) contain any information? It does. The message contains a lot of information, because the probability of winning first prize is very small. The receiver of the mes- sage is totally surprised. The above two examples show that there is a relationship between the usefulness of an event and the expectation of the receiver. If the receiver is surprised when the event happens, the message contains a lot of information; otherwise, it does not. In other