A Mathematical Theory of Communication

E1169

A Mathematical Theory of Communication is Claude Shannon’s landmark 1948 paper that founded information theory by rigorously defining concepts like information, entropy, and channel capacity.

Aliases (3)
  • The Mathematical Theory of Communication ×3
  • Shannon capacity of a channel ×1
  • Shannon’s theory of communication ×1

Statements (49)
Predicate Object
instanceOf landmark paper
scientific paper
associatedWithConcept Shannon entropy
Shannon limit
author Claude Shannon
coreIdea communication as selection of a message from a set of possible messages
distinction between semantic content and technical information
logarithmic measure of information content
separation of source coding and channel coding (conceptual)
use of probability distributions to model message sources
countryOfOrigin United States
defined channel capacity as the maximum reliable communication rate
entropy as a measure of information, choice, and uncertainty
equivocation in communication systems
rate of information transmission
field information theory
focusesOn limits of reliable communication over noisy channels
mathematical modeling of communication systems
probabilistic treatment of messages and signals
hasPart analysis of noisy channels
discussion of coding and efficiency
treatment of continuous sources
treatment of discrete sources
influencedField coding theory
computer science
cryptography
data compression
digital communications
linguistics
neuroscience
statistical mechanics
telecommunications engineering
introducedConcept bit as a unit of information
channel capacity
continuous channel model
discrete memoryless channel model
information entropy
mutual information
noisy channel coding theorem (in preliminary form)
redundancy in communication
language English
laterRepublishedAs The Mathematical Theory of Communication
laterRepublishedWith an introductory essay by Warren Weaver
originalPublicationMedium journal article
publicationYear 1948
publisher Bell System Technical Journal
recognizedAs foundational work of information theory
one of the most influential scientific papers of the 20th century
title A Mathematical Theory of Communication


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