Information theory and reliable communication [by] Robert G. Gallager.

Bibliography: p. 569-577.

Communication Systems and Information Theory -- A Measure of Information -- Coding for Discrete Sources -- Discrete Memoryless Channels and Capacity -- The Noisy-Channel Coding Theorem -- Techniques for Coding and Decoding -- Memoryless Channels with Discrete Time -- Waveform Channels -- Source Coding with a Fidelity Criterion.

This is a definitive text written by quite possibly the greatest information theorist this country has produced, next to Claude Shannon. The author is personally responsible for some of the most central results in the field for the last forty years. Gallager's book was the standard text in the field for much of the time it has been in print. In recent years, other textbooks, most notably the one by Cover and Thomas, have become more widely used in introductory classes in information theory. There may be several reasons for this. One may be the relative lack of motivating material in Gallager's text. The author assumes the reader is already convinced of the importance of the problems to be treated in the book. Cover's book, on the other hand,

has greater appeal to the general scientist/engineer interested in the fascinating connections between information theory and various other areas of human inquiry. A second reason may be the relatively high level of intellectual rigor required of the reader. Gallager is a brilliant theorist, and his precision and meticulousness are apparent in the pages. The casual undergraduate or general reader may find some of the analysis intimidating and abstruse (although if he reads carefully, the reader always finds plenty of physical intuition to support theoretical arguments). A final reason is that some of the material (although certainly not the most important ones) in the book has become dated, and many exciting new developments in information theory, such as multi-user channels, simply never had a chance to make it in.

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