Information capacity of the Poisson channel

Abstract

The information capacity of the Poisson channel with random or time-varying noise intensity is obtained for time-varying peak and average constraints on the encoder intensity. The channel model is specified, and some definitions from information theory are given. Causal feedback is shown not to increase the channel capacity for the case of nonrandom noise intensity. For random noise intensity, use of causal feedback does increase capacity; the extent of that increase is quantified. Jamming is considered, and the optimal jamming signal is given. Poisson channels with thinning are introduced.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>