经典文献阅读：A Mathematical Theory of Communication(Ⅰ)

经典文献阅读

A Mathematical Theory of Communication
Author: C. E. SHANNON
楼主看到知乎上刘大的回答中的推荐，决定还是花一点时间看一下香农先生所写的几篇文章，说起来通信人没有读过香农的经典文章有点说不过去，但是现在开始也不晚~。这篇经典文献是香农在1948年所写的，现在看起来有点晦涩难懂，因此楼主尽可能把自己所认为比较重要的语句记录下来，并且尝试在每篇博客的最后最后加一点自己的理解。文中的公式用Latex来写，也方便楼主熟悉Latex的操作。

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Ⅰ、Introduction

这篇文章主要研究信道中噪声的影响，和由于原始讯息的统计结构，信息最终目的地的特征这两个原因导致的可能的节省(savings possible)。
原文：In the present paper we will extend the theory to include a number of new factors, in particular the effect of noise in the channel, and the savings possible due to the sta tistiral structure of the original message and due to the nature of the final destination of the information.

通信的基本问题就是在一点处精确或近似地复制另一点所选择的讯息(message)，而这些讯息通常和特定的物理或者概念实体相关。
原文：The fundamental problem of communication is that of reproducing at one point either exactly or approximately a message selected at another point. Frequently the messages have meaning; that is they refer to or are correlated according to some system with certain physical or conceptual entities.

实际的讯息就是一组可能的讯息中的一个，通信系统必须为所有可能的讯息所设计，而不是仅仅为实际选择的那个。
原文：The significant aspect is that the actual message is one selected from a set of possible messages. The system must be designed to operate for each possible selection, not just the one which will actually be chosen since this is unknown at the time of design.

如果一组讯息的数量是有限的，如果该数量或者该数量的单调函数可以视为选择讯息时所产生的信息的度量。
原文：If the number of messages in the set is finite then this number or any monotonic function of this number can be regarded as a measure of the information produced when one message is chosen from the set, all choices being equally likely.

对数的基的选择和信息度量的单元的选择类似。一个设备有两种稳定状态，N个这样的设备可以存储N个bit的信息，总共的可能状态为2^N个，而一个十进制数字近似为3.33bits，
原文：The choice of a logarithmic base corresponds to the choice of a unit for measuring information. N such devices can store N bits, since the total number of possible states is 2^N. A decimal digit is about 3.33 bits.

一个通信系统主要包括5个部分：
1.信息源：产生发送给接收终端的讯息或者讯息序列，可能是时间的单一函数f(t)，时间和空间位置的单一函数f(x,y,t)，多个时间函数f(t).g(t)等等
原文：An information source which produces a message or sequence of messages to be communicated to the receiving terminal.

2.发射机：操作讯息来产生适合信道传输的合适的信号
原文：A transmitter which operates on the message in some way to produce a signal suitable for transmission over the channel.

3.信道：用于从发射机到接收机传输信号的介质。
原文：The channel is merely the medium used to transmit the signal from transmitter to receiver.

4.接收机：和发射机做正好相反的工作，从信号中重建讯息。
原文：The receiver ordinarily performs the inverse operation of that done by the transmitter, reconstructing the message from the signal.

5.目的地 (destination)

我们希望考虑涉及通信系统的普遍问题，首先需要将涉及到的不同部分，合适地从他们的物理对应中理想化出来，再表示为数学实体。
原文：We wish to consider certain general problems involving communication systems. To do this it is first necessary to represent the various elements involved as mathematical entities, suitably idealized from their physical counterparts.

我们粗略地将通信系统分为三大类：离散，连续和混合。离散系统中讯息和信号都是离散符号的序列；连续系统中的讯息和信号都可以视为连续的函数；混合系统中就是既存在离散变量也存在连续变量。
原文：We may roughly classify communication systems into three main categories: discrete, continuous and mixed. By a discrete system we will mean one in which both the message and the signal are a sequence of discrete symbols. A continuous system is one in which the message and signal are both treated as continuous functions, e.g. radio or television. A mixed system is one in which both discrete and continuous variables appear.

总结

以上就是Introduction部分的内容，仅仅三页的内容却看得很慢，感觉这样的效率还是有一点低，这部分给我印象最深的部分就是通信的基本问题，在一点处复制出另外一点的讯息。还有就是将实际的物理对应理想化出来，表示为数学问题。这两点是我上了这么多课程才领悟到的。这篇文章言简意赅，有许多生词和难以理解的词汇，希望后面可以加快进度，用较短时间把这篇文章读完。