Information
Information is amount of unexpected (uncertain) data a message contains.
General Communication System
General Communication System
A general communication system consists of information source, transmitter, noise source, receiver and destination:
Channel
A channel is some medium for transmitting messages. A noisy channel is a channel that potentially introduces errors in the sender’s message.
Comment
The fundamental problem of communication is that of reproducing at one point either exactly or approximately on a message selected at another point.
Uncertainty
Comment
We can avoid uncertainty when
- dealing with noise (imperfections) in the channel.
- compressing the messages.
Comment
Information measures how much
- unexpected data a message contains.
- the receiver’s uncertainty is reduced on seeing the message.