Objectives
The course covers the fundaments of Information Theory introducing the concepts of Entropy, Coding, Compression, Error Correction. It is intended as a for subsequent studies dealing generation, coding and transmission of Information.
Syllabus
General concepts of Information Theory. Entropy function. Asymptotic equipartition property.
Discrete Information Sources. Noiseless Coding: instantaneous and uniquely decipherable codes, the noiseless coding theorem. Optimal code generation. Huffman codes, arithmetic coding.
The discrete memoryless channel. Channel capacity, decoding schemes and error probability. Channel coding, The fundamental Theorem.
Error correcting codes, block coding, linear codes, decoding algorithms. Cyclic codes, BCH codes, Reed Solomon Codes and their applications.
The continuous channel, introduction to the Transmission Theory.
Course structure
9 credits (6 on Information Theory, 3 on Transmission Theory). Exam consists in a written test and a colloquium.