noiseless-q-ary-channel

Noiseless finite-alphabet channel

A q-symbol input is reproduced exactly.

Point-to-point q-ary Finite alphabet Discrete memoryless Capacity Exact

Channel and question

Input
\(X\in\{1,\ldots,q\}\)
Output
\(Y=X\)
Law
\(W(y|x)=\mathbf 1\{y=x\}\).
Quantity
Shannon capacity \(C\), measured in bits per channel use.

Criterion. Zero-error and average-error capacities coincide.

  • Channel uses are independent.
  • Rates are measured in bits.

Parameters

\(q\)
Alphabet size. Range: \(q\ge2\).

Current status

\[C=\log_2 q\]
Known results and bounds for Noiseless finite-alphabet channel
ResultRelationMethodYear
Lower\(C\ge\log_2 q\)Transmit one q-ary symbol per use.1948
Upper\(C\le\log_2 q\)There are only q outputs per use.1948

Formal verification

Lean coverageFormally stated

The information-capacity formula is proved by reducing mutual information to input entropy. The operational average-error formula follows from the formal finite-channel coding theorem.

Claims

  • For q ≥ 2, the single-letter information capacity is log₂ q bits per use.
    information-capacity · exact capacity · solved · Formally proved · v1
  • For q ≥ 2, operational vanishing-average-error capacity is log₂ q bits per use.
    operational-capacity · exact capacity · solved · Formally proved · v1
Lean declarations (4)

References

  1. Claude E. Shannon (1948). A Mathematical Theory of Communication. Bell System Technical Journal. DOI 10.1002/j.1538-7305.1948.tb01338.x.

Discussion

Related problems

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One binary symbol is transmitted perfectly while the other can flip in only one direction.

Point-to-point Binary Finite alphabet Discrete memoryless Asymmetric Capacity Exact
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Point-to-point Binary Finite alphabet Discrete memoryless Symmetric Capacity Exact
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