B1.14

Information Theory | Part II, 2001

Let p1,…,pnp_{1}, \ldots, p_{n} be a probability distribution, with p∗=max⁡i[pi]p^{*}=\max _{i}\left[p_{i}\right]. Prove that

(i)−∑ipilog⁡pi⩾−p∗log⁡p∗−(1−p∗)log⁡(1−p∗)( ii )−∑ipilog⁡pi⩾log⁡(1/p∗); and ( iii )−∑ipilog⁡pi⩾2(1−p∗)\begin{aligned} &(i)-\sum_{i} p_{i} \log p_{i} \geqslant-p^{*} \log p^{*}-\left(1-p^{*}\right) \log \left(1-p^{*}\right) \\ &(\text { ii })-\sum_{i} p_{i} \log p_{i} \geqslant \log \left(1 / p^{*}\right) ; \text { and } \\ &(\text { iii })-\sum_{i} p_{i} \log p_{i} \geqslant 2\left(1-p^{*}\right) \end{aligned}

All logarithms are to base 2 .

[Hint: To prove (iii), it is convenient to use (i) for p∗⩾12p^{*} \geqslant \frac{1}{2} and (ii) for p∗⩽12p^{*} \leqslant \frac{1}{2}.]

Random variables XX and YY with values xx and yy from finite 'alphabets' II and JJ represent the input and output of a transmission channel, with the conditional probability p(x∣y)=P(X=x∣Y=y)p(x \mid y)=\mathbb{P}(X=x \mid Y=y). Let h(p(⋅∣y))h(p(\cdot \mid y)) denote the entropy of the conditional distribution p(⋅∣y),y∈Jp(\cdot \mid y), y \in J, and h(X∣Y)h(X \mid Y) denote the conditional entropy of XX given YY. Define the ideal observer decoding rule as a map f:J→If: J \rightarrow I such that p(f(y)∣y)=max⁡x∈Ip(x∣y)p(f(y) \mid y)=\max _{x \in I} p(x \mid y) for all y∈Jy \in J. Show that under this rule the error probability

πer(y)=∑x∈Ix≠f(y)p(x∣y)\pi_{\mathrm{er}}(y)=\sum_{\substack{x \in I \\ x \neq f(y)}} p(x \mid y)

satisfies πer(y)⩽12h(p(⋅∣y))\pi_{\mathrm{er}}(y) \leqslant \frac{1}{2} h(p(\cdot \mid y)), and the expected value satisfies

Eπer(Y)⩽12h(X∣Y)\mathbb{E} \pi_{\mathrm{er}}(Y) \leqslant \frac{1}{2} h(X \mid Y)

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