Applications of Information Theory to Data Communication Networks

摘要

The use of information theory in the study of Data Communication Networks can be roughly divided into two parts. The first deals with usual information theoretic problem of reliable and efficient transmission of information, generalized to treat multiple sources and destination. The second deals with the special problems caused by the bursty sources typical of data networks. These sources typically produce short messages interspersed with long and unpredictable intervals of silence. This makes the sources highly non-stationary over time intervals comparable to tolerable communication delays. This lecture will deal primarily with this second class of issues.