Shannon_Communication in the presence of noise.pdfVIP

Communication in the Presence of Noise CLAUDE E. SHANNON, MEMBER, IRE Classic Paper A method is developed for representing any communication system geometrically. Messages and the corresponding signals are points in two “function spaces,” and the modulation process is a mapping of one space into the other. Using this representation, a number of results in communication theory are deduced concern- ing expansion and compression of bandwidth and the threshold effect. Formulas are found for the maximum rate of transmission of binary digits over a system when the signal is perturbed by various types of noise. Some of the properties of “ideal” systems which transmit at this maximum rate are discussed. The equivalent Fig. 1. General communications system. number of binary digits per second for certain information sources is calculated. perturbations. Distortion can, in principle, be corrected by applying the inverse operation, while a perturbation due to I. INTRODUCTION noise cannot always be removed, since the signal does not A general communications system is shown schemati- always undergo the same change during transmission. cally in Fig. 1. It consists essentially of five elements. 4) The Receiver: This operates on the received signal 1) An Information Source: The source selects one mes- and attempts to reproduce, from it, the original message. sage from a set of possible messages to be transmitted to Ordinarily it will perform approximately the mathematical the receiving terminal. The message may