Capacity of a certain asymmetrical binary channel with finite memory

Abstract

The capacity of a certain asymmetrical binary channel is studied under the following conditions. 1) Blocks of equal numbers of binary digits are used as the transmitting symbols. 2) The channel resumes its quiescent state at the beginning of each block. 3) The memory of the channel is characterized by the dependence of the noise probabilities for each digit upon the preceding digit or digits in the same block. It is shown that, by means of simple rules and with the aid of a single set of curves or a table, the calculation of the capacity can be reduced to a routine process.