q-ary-symmetric-channel

q-ary symmetric channel

A q-ary symbol is correct with probability 1-p and otherwise changes uniformly to another symbol.

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

Channel and question

Input
\(X\in\{1,\ldots,q\}\)
Output
\(Y\in\{1,\ldots,q\}\)
Law
\(P(Y=X)=1-p\); conditioned on an error, the \(q-1\) other symbols are equiprobable.
Quantity
Shannon capacity \(C_q(p)\), measured in bits per channel use.

Criterion. Average-error capacity.

  • Channel uses are independent.
  • The parameter range uses the usual monotone-noise convention.

Parameters

\(q\)
Alphabet size. Range: \(q\ge2\).
\(p\)
Total crossover probability. Range: \(0\le p\le(q-1)/q\).

Current status

\[C_q(p)=\log_2 q-h_2(p)-p\log_2(q-1)\]

The uniform input achieves capacity.

Known results and bounds for q-ary symmetric channel
ResultRelationMethodYear
Lower\(C_q(p)\ge\log_2 q-h_2(p)-p\log_2(q-1)\)Uniform input and the DMC coding theorem.1948
Upper\(C_q(p)\le\log_2 q-h_2(p)-p\log_2(q-1)\)The converse for weakly symmetric channels.1948

Formal verification

Lean coverageFormally stated

The channel is constructed as additive noise on ZMod q. Its noise entropy is proved to be binary entropy plus p times log(q-1), and the operational formula follows from the finite-group result and coding theorem.

Claims

  • For q ≥ 2 and 0 ≤ p ≤ (q-1)/q, information capacity is log₂q-h₂(p)-p log₂(q-1).
    information-capacity · exact capacity · solved · Formally proved · v1
  • For q ≥ 2 and 0 ≤ p ≤ (q-1)/q, operational capacity is log₂q-h₂(p)-p log₂(q-1).
    operational-capacity · exact capacity · solved · Formally proved · v1
Lean declarations (6)

References

  1. Claude E. Shannon (1948). A Mathematical Theory of Communication. Bell System Technical Journal. DOI 10.1002/j.1538-7305.1948.tb01338.x.
  2. Thomas M. Cover and Joy A. Thomas (2006). Elements of Information Theory. Wiley, second edition. DOI 10.1002/047174882X.

Discussion

Related problems

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