Description

Book Synopsis
The latest edition of this classic is updated with new problem sets and material


The Second Edition of this fundamental textbook maintains the book''s tradition of clear, thought-provoking instruction. Readers are provided once again with an instructive mix of mathematics, physics, statistics, and information theory.

All the essential topics in information theory are covered in detail, including entropy, data compression, channel capacity, rate distortion, network information theory, and hypothesis testing. The authors provide readers with a solid understanding of the underlying theory and applications. Problem sets and a telegraphic summary at the end of each chapter further assist readers. The historical notes that follow each chapter recap the main points.

The Second Edition features:
* Chapters reorganized to improve teaching
* 200 new problems
* New material on source coding, portfolio theory, and feedback capacity
* Updated referenc

Trade Review
"As expected, the quality of exposition continues to be a high point of the book. Clear explanations, nice graphical illustrations, and illuminating mathematical derivations make the book particularly useful as a textbook on information theory." (Journal of the American Statistical Association, March 2008)

"This book is recommended reading, both as a textbook and as a reference." (Computing Reviews.com, December 28, 2006)

Table of Contents

Contents v

Preface to the Second Edition xv

Preface to the First Edition xvii

Acknowledgments for the Second Edition xxi

Acknowledgments for the First Edition xxiii

1 Introduction and Preview 1

1.1 Preview of the Book 5

2 Entropy, Relative Entropy, and Mutual Information 13

2.1 Entropy 13

2.2 Joint Entropy and Conditional Entropy 16

2.3 Relative Entropy and Mutual Information 19

2.4 Relationship Between Entropy and Mutual Information 20

2.5 Chain Rules for Entropy, Relative Entropy, and Mutual Information 22

2.6 Jensen’s Inequality and Its Consequences 25

2.7 Log Sum Inequality and Its Applications 30

2.8 Data-Processing Inequality 34

2.9 Sufficient Statistics 35

2.10 Fano’s Inequality 37

Summary 41

Problems 43

Historical Notes 54

3 Asymptotic Equipartition Property 57

3.1 Asymptotic Equipartition Property Theorem 58

3.2 Consequences of the AEP: Data Compression 60

3.3 High-Probability Sets and the Typical Set 62

Summary 64

Problems 64

Historical Notes 69

4 Entropy Rates of a Stochastic Process 71

4.1 Markov Chains 71

4.2 Entropy Rate 74

4.3 Example: Entropy Rate of a Random Walk on a Weighted Graph 78

4.4 Second Law of Thermodynamics 81

4.5 Functions of Markov Chains 84

Summary 87

Problems 88

Historical Notes 100

5 Data Compression 103

5.1 Examples of Codes 103

5.2 Kraft Inequality 107

5.3 Optimal Codes 110

5.4 Bounds on the Optimal Code Length 112

5.5 Kraft Inequality for Uniquely Decodable Codes 115

5.6 Huffman Codes 118

5.7 Some Comments on Huffman Codes 120

5.8 Optimality of Huffman Codes 123

5.9 Shannon–Fano–Elias Coding 127

5.10 Competitive Optimality of the Shannon Code 130

5.11 Generation of Discrete Distributions from Fair Coins 134

Summary 141

Problems 142

Historical Notes 157

6 Gambling and Data Compression 159

6.1 The Horse Race 159

6.2 Gambling and Side Information 164

6.3 Dependent Horse Races and Entropy Rate 166

6.4 The Entropy of English 168

6.5 Data Compression and Gambling 171

6.6 Gambling Estimate of the Entropy of English 173

Summary 175

Problems 176

Historical Notes 182

7 Channel Capacity 183

7.1 Examples of Channel Capacity 184

7.1.1 Noiseless Binary Channel 184

7.1.2 Noisy Channel with Nonoverlapping Outputs 185

7.1.3 Noisy Typewriter 186

7.1.4 Binary Symmetric Channel 187

7.1.5 Binary Erasure Channel 188

7.2 Symmetric Channels 189

7.3 Properties of Channel Capacity 191

7.4 Preview of the Channel Coding Theorem 191

7.5 Definitions 192

7.6 Jointly Typical Sequences 195

7.7 Channel Coding Theorem 199

7.8 Zero-Error Codes 205

7.9 Fano’s Inequality and the Converse to the Coding Theorem 206

7.10 Equality in the Converse to the Channel Coding Theorem 208

7.11 Hamming Codes 210

7.12 Feedback Capacity 216

7.13 Source–Channel Separation Theorem 218

Summary 222

Problems 223

Historical Notes 240

8 Differential Entropy 243

8.1 Definitions 243

8.2 AEP for Continuous Random Variables 245

8.3 Relation of Differential Entropy to Discrete Entropy 247

8.4 Joint and Conditional Differential Entropy 249

8.5 Relative Entropy and Mutual Information 250

8.6 Properties of Differential Entropy, Relative Entropy, and Mutual Information 252

Summary 256

Problems 256

Historical Notes 259

9 Gaussian Channel 261

9.1 Gaussian Channel: Definitions 263

9.2 Converse to the Coding Theorem for Gaussian Channels 268

9.3 Bandlimited Channels 270

9.4 Parallel Gaussian Channels 274

9.5 Channels with Colored Gaussian Noise 277

9.6 Gaussian Channels with Feedback 280

Summary 289

Problems 290

Historical Notes 299

10 Rate Distortion Theory 301

10.1 Quantization 301

10.2 Definitions 303

10.3 Calculation of the Rate Distortion Function 307

10.3.1 Binary Source 307

10.3.2 Gaussian Source 310

10.3.3 Simultaneous Description of Independent Gaussian Random Variables 312

10.4 Converse to the Rate Distortion Theorem 315

10.5 Achievability of the Rate Distortion Function 318

10.6 Strongly Typical Sequences and Rate Distortion 325

10.7 Characterization of the Rate Distortion Function 329

10.8 Computation of Channel Capacity and the Rate Distortion Function 332

Summary 335

Problems 336

Historical Notes 345

11 Information Theory and Statistics 347

11.1 Method of Types 347

11.2 Law of Large Numbers 355

11.3 Universal Source Coding 357

11.4 Large Deviation Theory 360

11.5 Examples of Sanov’s Theorem 364

11.6 Conditional Limit Theorem 366

11.7 Hypothesis Testing 375

11.8 Chernoff–Stein Lemma 380

11.9 Chernoff Information 384

11.10 Fisher Information and the Cramér–Rao Inequality 392

Summary 397

Problems 399

Historical Notes 408

12 Maximum Entropy 409

12.1 Maximum Entropy Distributions 409

12.2 Examples 411

12.3 Anomalous Maximum Entropy Problem 413

12.4 Spectrum Estimation 415

12.5 Entropy Rates of a Gaussian Process 416

12.6 Burg’s Maximum Entropy Theorem 417

Summary 420

Problems 421

Historical Notes 425

13 Universal Source Coding 427

13.1 Universal Codes and Channel Capacity 428

13.2 Universal Coding for Binary Sequences 433

13.3 Arithmetic Coding 436

13.4 Lempel–Ziv Coding 440

13.4.1 Sliding Window Lempel–Ziv Algorithm 441

13.4.2 Tree-Structured Lempel–Ziv Algorithms 442

13.5 Optimality of Lempel–Ziv Algorithms 443

13.5.1 Sliding Window Lempel–Ziv Algorithms 443

13.5.2 Optimality of Tree-Structured Lempel–Ziv Compression 448

Summary 456

Problems 457

Historical Notes 461

14 Kolmogorov Complexity 463

14.1 Models of Computation 464

14.2 Kolmogorov Complexity: Definitions and Examples 466

14.3 Kolmogorov Complexity and Entropy 473

14.4 Kolmogorov Complexity of Integers 475

14.5 Algorithmically Random and Incompressible Sequences 476

14.6 Universal Probability 480

14.7 Kolmogorov complexity 482

14.8 Ω 484

14.9 Universal Gambling 487

14.10 Occam’s Razor 488

14.11 Kolmogorov Complexity and Universal Probability 490

14.12 Kolmogorov Sufficient Statistic 496

14.13 Minimum Description Length Principle 500

Summary 501

Problems 503

Historical Notes 507

15 Network Information Theory 509

15.1 Gaussian Multiple-User Channels 513

15.1.1 Single-User Gaussian Channel 513

15.1.2 Gaussian Multiple-Access Channel with m Users 514

15.1.3 Gaussian Broadcast Channel 515

15.1.4 Gaussian Relay Channel 516

15.1.5 Gaussian Interference Channel 518

15.1.6 Gaussian Two-Way Channel 519

15.2 Jointly Typical Sequences 520

15.3 Multiple-Access Channel 524

15.3.1 Achievability of the Capacity Region for the Multiple-Access Channel 530

15.3.2 Comments on the Capacity Region for the Multiple-Access Channel 532

15.3.3 Convexity of the Capacity Region of the Multiple-Access Channel 534

15.3.4 Converse for the Multiple-Access Channel 538

15.3.5 m-User Multiple-Access Channels 543

15.3.6 Gaussian Multiple-Access Channels 544

15.4 Encoding of Correlated Sources 549

15.4.1 Achievability of the Slepian–Wolf Theorem 551

15.4.2 Converse for the Slepian–Wolf Theorem 555

15.4.3 Slepian–Wolf Theorem for Many Sources 556

15.4.4 Interpretation of Slepian–Wolf Coding 557

15.5 Duality Between Slepian–Wolf Encoding and Multiple-Access Channels 558

15.6 Broadcast Channel 560

15.6.1 Definitions for a Broadcast Channel 563

15.6.2 Degraded Broadcast Channels 564

15.6.3 Capacity Region for the Degraded Broadcast Channel 565

15.7 Relay Channel 571

15.8 Source Coding with Side Information 575

15.9 Rate Distortion with Side Information 580

15.10 General Multiterminal Networks 587

Summary 594

Problems 596

Historical Notes 609

16 Information Theory and Portfolio Theory 613

16.1 The Stock Market: Some Definitions 613

16.2 Kuhn–Tucker Characterization of the Log-Optimal Portfolio 617

16.3 Asymptotic Optimality of the Log-Optimal Portfolio 619

16.4 Side Information and the Growth Rate 621

16.5 Investment in Stationary Markets 623

16.6 Competitive Optimality of the Log-Optimal Portfolio 627

16.7 Universal Portfolios 629

16.7.1 Finite-Horizon Universal Portfolios 631

16.7.2 Horizon-Free Universal Portfolios 638

16.8 Shannon–McMillan–Breiman Theorem (General AEP) 644

Summary 650

Problems 652

Historical Notes 655

17 Inequalities in Information Theory 657

17.1 Basic Inequalities of Information Theory 657

17.2 Differential Entropy 660

17.3 Bounds on Entropy and Relative Entropy 663

17.4 Inequalities for Types 665

17.5 Combinatorial Bounds on Entropy 666

17.6 Entropy Rates of Subsets 667

17.7 Entropy and Fisher Information 671

17.8 Entropy Power Inequality and Brunn–Minkowski Inequality 674

17.9 Inequalities for Determinants 679

17.10 Inequalities for Ratios of Determinants 683

Summary 686

Problems 686

Historical Notes 687

Bibliography 689

List of Symbols 723

Index 727

Elements of Information Theory Wiley Series in

    Product form

    £92.66

    Includes FREE delivery

    RRP £102.95 – you save £10.29 (9%)

    Order before 4pm today for delivery by Tue 7 Jul 2026.

    A Hardback by Thomas M. Cover, Joy A. Thomas

    1 in stock

      Trusted by thousands of customers. See 2,385+ Customer Reviews

      View other formats and editions of Elements of Information Theory Wiley Series in by Thomas M. Cover

      Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc
      Publication Date: 08/09/2006
      ISBN13: 9780471241959, 978-0471241959
      ISBN10: 0471241954

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      The latest edition of this classic is updated with new problem sets and material


      The Second Edition of this fundamental textbook maintains the book''s tradition of clear, thought-provoking instruction. Readers are provided once again with an instructive mix of mathematics, physics, statistics, and information theory.

      All the essential topics in information theory are covered in detail, including entropy, data compression, channel capacity, rate distortion, network information theory, and hypothesis testing. The authors provide readers with a solid understanding of the underlying theory and applications. Problem sets and a telegraphic summary at the end of each chapter further assist readers. The historical notes that follow each chapter recap the main points.

      The Second Edition features:
      * Chapters reorganized to improve teaching
      * 200 new problems
      * New material on source coding, portfolio theory, and feedback capacity
      * Updated referenc

      Trade Review
      "As expected, the quality of exposition continues to be a high point of the book. Clear explanations, nice graphical illustrations, and illuminating mathematical derivations make the book particularly useful as a textbook on information theory." (Journal of the American Statistical Association, March 2008)

      "This book is recommended reading, both as a textbook and as a reference." (Computing Reviews.com, December 28, 2006)

      Table of Contents

      Contents v

      Preface to the Second Edition xv

      Preface to the First Edition xvii

      Acknowledgments for the Second Edition xxi

      Acknowledgments for the First Edition xxiii

      1 Introduction and Preview 1

      1.1 Preview of the Book 5

      2 Entropy, Relative Entropy, and Mutual Information 13

      2.1 Entropy 13

      2.2 Joint Entropy and Conditional Entropy 16

      2.3 Relative Entropy and Mutual Information 19

      2.4 Relationship Between Entropy and Mutual Information 20

      2.5 Chain Rules for Entropy, Relative Entropy, and Mutual Information 22

      2.6 Jensen’s Inequality and Its Consequences 25

      2.7 Log Sum Inequality and Its Applications 30

      2.8 Data-Processing Inequality 34

      2.9 Sufficient Statistics 35

      2.10 Fano’s Inequality 37

      Summary 41

      Problems 43

      Historical Notes 54

      3 Asymptotic Equipartition Property 57

      3.1 Asymptotic Equipartition Property Theorem 58

      3.2 Consequences of the AEP: Data Compression 60

      3.3 High-Probability Sets and the Typical Set 62

      Summary 64

      Problems 64

      Historical Notes 69

      4 Entropy Rates of a Stochastic Process 71

      4.1 Markov Chains 71

      4.2 Entropy Rate 74

      4.3 Example: Entropy Rate of a Random Walk on a Weighted Graph 78

      4.4 Second Law of Thermodynamics 81

      4.5 Functions of Markov Chains 84

      Summary 87

      Problems 88

      Historical Notes 100

      5 Data Compression 103

      5.1 Examples of Codes 103

      5.2 Kraft Inequality 107

      5.3 Optimal Codes 110

      5.4 Bounds on the Optimal Code Length 112

      5.5 Kraft Inequality for Uniquely Decodable Codes 115

      5.6 Huffman Codes 118

      5.7 Some Comments on Huffman Codes 120

      5.8 Optimality of Huffman Codes 123

      5.9 Shannon–Fano–Elias Coding 127

      5.10 Competitive Optimality of the Shannon Code 130

      5.11 Generation of Discrete Distributions from Fair Coins 134

      Summary 141

      Problems 142

      Historical Notes 157

      6 Gambling and Data Compression 159

      6.1 The Horse Race 159

      6.2 Gambling and Side Information 164

      6.3 Dependent Horse Races and Entropy Rate 166

      6.4 The Entropy of English 168

      6.5 Data Compression and Gambling 171

      6.6 Gambling Estimate of the Entropy of English 173

      Summary 175

      Problems 176

      Historical Notes 182

      7 Channel Capacity 183

      7.1 Examples of Channel Capacity 184

      7.1.1 Noiseless Binary Channel 184

      7.1.2 Noisy Channel with Nonoverlapping Outputs 185

      7.1.3 Noisy Typewriter 186

      7.1.4 Binary Symmetric Channel 187

      7.1.5 Binary Erasure Channel 188

      7.2 Symmetric Channels 189

      7.3 Properties of Channel Capacity 191

      7.4 Preview of the Channel Coding Theorem 191

      7.5 Definitions 192

      7.6 Jointly Typical Sequences 195

      7.7 Channel Coding Theorem 199

      7.8 Zero-Error Codes 205

      7.9 Fano’s Inequality and the Converse to the Coding Theorem 206

      7.10 Equality in the Converse to the Channel Coding Theorem 208

      7.11 Hamming Codes 210

      7.12 Feedback Capacity 216

      7.13 Source–Channel Separation Theorem 218

      Summary 222

      Problems 223

      Historical Notes 240

      8 Differential Entropy 243

      8.1 Definitions 243

      8.2 AEP for Continuous Random Variables 245

      8.3 Relation of Differential Entropy to Discrete Entropy 247

      8.4 Joint and Conditional Differential Entropy 249

      8.5 Relative Entropy and Mutual Information 250

      8.6 Properties of Differential Entropy, Relative Entropy, and Mutual Information 252

      Summary 256

      Problems 256

      Historical Notes 259

      9 Gaussian Channel 261

      9.1 Gaussian Channel: Definitions 263

      9.2 Converse to the Coding Theorem for Gaussian Channels 268

      9.3 Bandlimited Channels 270

      9.4 Parallel Gaussian Channels 274

      9.5 Channels with Colored Gaussian Noise 277

      9.6 Gaussian Channels with Feedback 280

      Summary 289

      Problems 290

      Historical Notes 299

      10 Rate Distortion Theory 301

      10.1 Quantization 301

      10.2 Definitions 303

      10.3 Calculation of the Rate Distortion Function 307

      10.3.1 Binary Source 307

      10.3.2 Gaussian Source 310

      10.3.3 Simultaneous Description of Independent Gaussian Random Variables 312

      10.4 Converse to the Rate Distortion Theorem 315

      10.5 Achievability of the Rate Distortion Function 318

      10.6 Strongly Typical Sequences and Rate Distortion 325

      10.7 Characterization of the Rate Distortion Function 329

      10.8 Computation of Channel Capacity and the Rate Distortion Function 332

      Summary 335

      Problems 336

      Historical Notes 345

      11 Information Theory and Statistics 347

      11.1 Method of Types 347

      11.2 Law of Large Numbers 355

      11.3 Universal Source Coding 357

      11.4 Large Deviation Theory 360

      11.5 Examples of Sanov’s Theorem 364

      11.6 Conditional Limit Theorem 366

      11.7 Hypothesis Testing 375

      11.8 Chernoff–Stein Lemma 380

      11.9 Chernoff Information 384

      11.10 Fisher Information and the Cramér–Rao Inequality 392

      Summary 397

      Problems 399

      Historical Notes 408

      12 Maximum Entropy 409

      12.1 Maximum Entropy Distributions 409

      12.2 Examples 411

      12.3 Anomalous Maximum Entropy Problem 413

      12.4 Spectrum Estimation 415

      12.5 Entropy Rates of a Gaussian Process 416

      12.6 Burg’s Maximum Entropy Theorem 417

      Summary 420

      Problems 421

      Historical Notes 425

      13 Universal Source Coding 427

      13.1 Universal Codes and Channel Capacity 428

      13.2 Universal Coding for Binary Sequences 433

      13.3 Arithmetic Coding 436

      13.4 Lempel–Ziv Coding 440

      13.4.1 Sliding Window Lempel–Ziv Algorithm 441

      13.4.2 Tree-Structured Lempel–Ziv Algorithms 442

      13.5 Optimality of Lempel–Ziv Algorithms 443

      13.5.1 Sliding Window Lempel–Ziv Algorithms 443

      13.5.2 Optimality of Tree-Structured Lempel–Ziv Compression 448

      Summary 456

      Problems 457

      Historical Notes 461

      14 Kolmogorov Complexity 463

      14.1 Models of Computation 464

      14.2 Kolmogorov Complexity: Definitions and Examples 466

      14.3 Kolmogorov Complexity and Entropy 473

      14.4 Kolmogorov Complexity of Integers 475

      14.5 Algorithmically Random and Incompressible Sequences 476

      14.6 Universal Probability 480

      14.7 Kolmogorov complexity 482

      14.8 Ω 484

      14.9 Universal Gambling 487

      14.10 Occam’s Razor 488

      14.11 Kolmogorov Complexity and Universal Probability 490

      14.12 Kolmogorov Sufficient Statistic 496

      14.13 Minimum Description Length Principle 500

      Summary 501

      Problems 503

      Historical Notes 507

      15 Network Information Theory 509

      15.1 Gaussian Multiple-User Channels 513

      15.1.1 Single-User Gaussian Channel 513

      15.1.2 Gaussian Multiple-Access Channel with m Users 514

      15.1.3 Gaussian Broadcast Channel 515

      15.1.4 Gaussian Relay Channel 516

      15.1.5 Gaussian Interference Channel 518

      15.1.6 Gaussian Two-Way Channel 519

      15.2 Jointly Typical Sequences 520

      15.3 Multiple-Access Channel 524

      15.3.1 Achievability of the Capacity Region for the Multiple-Access Channel 530

      15.3.2 Comments on the Capacity Region for the Multiple-Access Channel 532

      15.3.3 Convexity of the Capacity Region of the Multiple-Access Channel 534

      15.3.4 Converse for the Multiple-Access Channel 538

      15.3.5 m-User Multiple-Access Channels 543

      15.3.6 Gaussian Multiple-Access Channels 544

      15.4 Encoding of Correlated Sources 549

      15.4.1 Achievability of the Slepian–Wolf Theorem 551

      15.4.2 Converse for the Slepian–Wolf Theorem 555

      15.4.3 Slepian–Wolf Theorem for Many Sources 556

      15.4.4 Interpretation of Slepian–Wolf Coding 557

      15.5 Duality Between Slepian–Wolf Encoding and Multiple-Access Channels 558

      15.6 Broadcast Channel 560

      15.6.1 Definitions for a Broadcast Channel 563

      15.6.2 Degraded Broadcast Channels 564

      15.6.3 Capacity Region for the Degraded Broadcast Channel 565

      15.7 Relay Channel 571

      15.8 Source Coding with Side Information 575

      15.9 Rate Distortion with Side Information 580

      15.10 General Multiterminal Networks 587

      Summary 594

      Problems 596

      Historical Notes 609

      16 Information Theory and Portfolio Theory 613

      16.1 The Stock Market: Some Definitions 613

      16.2 Kuhn–Tucker Characterization of the Log-Optimal Portfolio 617

      16.3 Asymptotic Optimality of the Log-Optimal Portfolio 619

      16.4 Side Information and the Growth Rate 621

      16.5 Investment in Stationary Markets 623

      16.6 Competitive Optimality of the Log-Optimal Portfolio 627

      16.7 Universal Portfolios 629

      16.7.1 Finite-Horizon Universal Portfolios 631

      16.7.2 Horizon-Free Universal Portfolios 638

      16.8 Shannon–McMillan–Breiman Theorem (General AEP) 644

      Summary 650

      Problems 652

      Historical Notes 655

      17 Inequalities in Information Theory 657

      17.1 Basic Inequalities of Information Theory 657

      17.2 Differential Entropy 660

      17.3 Bounds on Entropy and Relative Entropy 663

      17.4 Inequalities for Types 665

      17.5 Combinatorial Bounds on Entropy 666

      17.6 Entropy Rates of Subsets 667

      17.7 Entropy and Fisher Information 671

      17.8 Entropy Power Inequality and Brunn–Minkowski Inequality 674

      17.9 Inequalities for Determinants 679

      17.10 Inequalities for Ratios of Determinants 683

      Summary 686

      Problems 686

      Historical Notes 687

      Bibliography 689

      List of Symbols 723

      Index 727

      Recently viewed products

      © 2026 Book Curl

        • American Express
        • Apple Pay
        • Diners Club
        • Discover
        • Google Pay
        • Maestro
        • Mastercard
        • PayPal
        • Shop Pay
        • Union Pay
        • Visa

        Login

        Forgot your password?

        Don't have an account yet?
        Create account