Coding and Transmission of Non Uniform Alphabets
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Date
1998-12
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
There are three reasons for encoding data that is about to be transmitted (through space, for instance) or stored (on a computer disk). One reason is for efficiency. It clearly makes sense to compress data as much as possible in order to save transmission time or storage space. In fact, data compression is very big business in the computer world. The second reason to encode data is for error detection and lor correction. The third reason is for Secrecy, that is, so that unauthorized persons cannot read the data. Encoding for efficiency, error correction, and secrecy are distinct, the first two are related. That is, if some data is to be transmitted or stored, then one would want to both compress it as much as possible and protect it from errors. Encoding for efficiency lies under the well-known information theory and encoding for error correction falls under coding theory. Encoding for secrecy is the subject of cryptology. Information theory provides a powerful tool for application of discrete probability theory to the problem of encoding for efficiency, and elementary coding theory is an application of algebra. The subject of information theory and coding theory began in 1948 with a famous paper by Claude Shannon, of Bell Labs, entitled A Mathematical Theory of Communication. In his theory Shannon stated that by proper encoding of the information, errors induced by a noisy channel or storage medium can be reduced to any desired level without sacrificing the rate of information transmission or storage.
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Coding; Transmission; Non Uniform Alphabets