Product Description

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 references

Now current and enhanced, the Second Edition of Elements of Information Theory remains the ideal textbook for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in electrical engineering, statistics, and telecommunications.

An Instructor's Manual presenting detailed solutions to all the problems in the book is available from the Wiley editorial department.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #39919 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-18
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 776 pages

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

Book Info
Up-to-date introduction to the field of information theory and its applications to communication theory, statistics, computer science, probability theory and the theory of investment. DLC: 1. Information theory.

The publisher, John Wiley & Sons
Following a brief introduction and overview, early chapters cover the basic algebraic relationships of entropy, relative entropy and mutual information, AEP, entropy rates of stochastics processes and data compression, duality of data compression and the growth rate of wealth. Later chapters explore Kolmogorov complexity, channel capacity, differential entropy, the capacity of the fundamental Gaussian channel, the relationship between information theory and statistics, rate distortion and network information theories. The final two chapters examine the stock market and inequalities in information theory. In many cases the authors actually describe the properties of the solutions before the presented problems.

Customer Reviews

Very solid introductory book on information theory
I give this book five stars for its outstanding clarity, thoroughness, and choice of topics. The writing is excellent, and most topics are easy to understand, although I have a few isolated quibbles about how certain topics are presented.

I feel like the chapters on continuous channels are much tougher to understand and less intuitive than the chapters on discrete channels.

The exercises are very useful, but in my opinion, a bit too easy. There are lots of exercises at the end of each chapter, but there are very few that require deep thinking or creative insight. Most of the exercises are fairly routine. I think a few more involved ones would be welcome.

The one thing that is most lacking in this book are examples. The bulk of the text is made up in exposition of new ideas and proofs of theorems. While the exercises give lots of examples, I still feel that something is missing--especially in the chapters on continuous channels.

As a supplement, I would recommend "Information Theory, Inference, and Learning Algorithms" by MacKay. The two books are very different from each other and have less overlap than one might expect; I think everyone would do well to study both books. That book is much more suitable for self-study, has more concrete examples, and is in my opinion more fun and interesting (which says a lot, because this book is itself quite fun and interesting). It also has some more involved exercises. Also, it covers coding theory in more depth than this book (something that one might not realize from its name), and it integrates a Bayesian perspective into things more deeply.

Good for Grad Students
It's a good book were I studied more in Entropy, Channel Capacity, Parallel Gaussian Channels, Rate distortion Theory. But the drawback is more solved problems and detailed explanations for the formulas were not there which would have been of great help for the readers in understanding the concept well.

Quickly and in perfect conditions!
I am Spanish and it (Elements of Information Theory 2nd Edition (Wiley Series in Telecommunications and Signal Processing)) was my first purchased from Amazon USA. The book arrived 15 days earlier than it was expected and in perfect conditions! Wonderful!!