finite-common-message-broadcast-channel

Finite broadcast channel with a common message

One encoder sends the same message to every receiver in a fixed finite family.

Broadcast Finite alphabet Discrete memoryless Capacity Exact Single-letter characterization

Channel and question

Input
One deterministic encoder maps a uniform common message to a word over a finite nonempty alphabet \(\mathcal X\).
Output
Each receiver \(j\) in a fixed finite nonempty set \(\mathcal J\) observes a word over its own finite nonempty alphabet \(\mathcal Y_j\).
Law
A memoryless joint law \(W((y_j)_{j\in\mathcal J}\mid x)\) governs each use. Receiver \(j\)'s marginal channel is \(W_j(y_j\mid x)\).
Quantity
Common-message broadcast capacity \(C_{\mathrm{common}}\), measured in bits per channel use.

Criterion. The supremum of rates supported at every sufficiently large blocklength with vanishing average decoding error at every receiver.

  • Every receiver decodes the same message using only its own output word and its own deterministic decoder.
  • Receiver outputs may be correlated within a use; the joint channel is memoryless across uses.
  • The receiver set is fixed and does not grow with blocklength.
  • There is no feedback, receiver cooperation, or input-cost constraint.

Current status

\[C_{\mathrm{common}}=\max_{P_X}\min_{j\in\mathcal J}I(X;Y_j)\]

One input distribution serves every receiver; the finite minimum is attained, and compactness gives a maximizing input. Cover's Section III (pages 4–5) specifies the common-message model and finite-receiver extension; Section IX, equation (49), discusses the max–min formula through compound-channel results. The formal proof uses an exact reduction to the finite compound channel.

Known results and bounds for Finite broadcast channel with a common message
ResultRelationMethodYear
Lower\(C_{\mathrm{common}}\ge\max_{P_X}\min_j I(X;Y_j)\)A common code reliable over every receiver marginal, via the compound-channel coding theorem; Cover's Section IX, equation (49).1972
Upper\(C_{\mathrm{common}}\le\max_{P_X}\min_j I(X;Y_j)\)The compound-channel converse uses one common input distribution to bound every receiver; the max–min characterization is discussed in Cover's Section IX, equation (49).1972

Formal verification

Lean coverageFormally stated

The canonical proposition exposes the joint physical channel and receiver marginals. The formal proof tags receiver outputs and extends the decoder family to one compound decoder, preserving rates and receiver errors exactly. This is the formal proof route, not an attributed historical construction.

Claims

  • The operational common-message capacity of any finite joint broadcast channel equals the max–min of its receiver mutual informations over one shared input distribution.
    exact-capacity · exact capacity · solved · Formally proved · v1
Lean declarations (6)
Linked proofs (1)
  • exact-capacity · complete · claim v1
    TomasOrtega/CapacityAtlasCommonMessage@83923a9a · CapacityAtlasCommonMessage.capacityCertificate
    Pins Atlas 1f4b83da5f2bc05efba649054be18b1f6fd8da31 and compound proof 1d5cbdc0a8cfb5d034facdb8d1e2473bb3c40ebe. The imported proof is rebuilt against the resolved Atlas prerequisite. The audit checks transitive axioms and full canonical-proposition correspondence with rigid universes; negative controls reject a different proposition and a universe-restricted certificate.

References

  1. Thomas M. Cover (1972). Broadcast Channels. IEEE Transactions on Information Theory 18(1), 2–14. DOI 10.1109/TIT.1972.1054727.
  2. David Blackwell, Leo Breiman, and A. J. Thomasian (1959). The Capacity of a Class of Channels. Annals of Mathematical Statistics. DOI 10.1214/aoms/1177706106.
  3. Amos Lapidoth and İ. Emre Telatar (1998). The Compound Channel Capacity of a Class of Finite-State Channels. IEEE Transactions on Information Theory.

Discussion

Related problems

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