TY - GEN
T1 - The second law of thermodynamics for communication channels
AU - Shental, Ori
AU - Kanter, Ido
PY - 2008
Y1 - 2008
N2 - The classical thermodynamic laws fail to capture the behavior of systems with energy Hamiltonian being an explicit function of the temperature. Such Hamiltonian arises, for example, in modeling information processing systems, like communication channels, as thermal systems. Here we generalize the second thermodynamic law to encompass systems with temperature-dependent energy levels, dQ = TdS+ < dε/dT > dT, where <.> denotes averaging over the Boltzmann distribution. It enables to quantitatively bridge between the realm of thermodynamics and information theory in the context of communication channels. In particular, this generalization enables to express information measures (e.g., mutual information) of the popular Gaussian and binary-symmetric channels as a direct consequence of the laws of nature - the laws of thermodynamics.
AB - The classical thermodynamic laws fail to capture the behavior of systems with energy Hamiltonian being an explicit function of the temperature. Such Hamiltonian arises, for example, in modeling information processing systems, like communication channels, as thermal systems. Here we generalize the second thermodynamic law to encompass systems with temperature-dependent energy levels, dQ = TdS+ < dε/dT > dT, where <.> denotes averaging over the Boltzmann distribution. It enables to quantitatively bridge between the realm of thermodynamics and information theory in the context of communication channels. In particular, this generalization enables to express information measures (e.g., mutual information) of the popular Gaussian and binary-symmetric channels as a direct consequence of the laws of nature - the laws of thermodynamics.
KW - Binary-symmetric channel
KW - Gaussian channel
KW - Mutual information
KW - Shannon entropy
KW - Thermodynamics
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=62749139667&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/eeei.2008.4736643
DO - 10.1109/eeei.2008.4736643
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AN - SCOPUS:62749139667
SN - 9781424424825
T3 - IEEE Convention of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in Israel, Proceedings
SP - 784
EP - 788
BT - 2008 IEEE 25th Convention of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in Israel, IEEEI 2008
T2 - 2008 IEEE 25th Convention of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in Israel, IEEEI 2008
Y2 - 3 December 2008 through 5 December 2008
ER -