Channels That Die Accessed Terms of Use Detailed Terms Channels That Die

Given the possibility of communication systems failing catastrophically, we investigate limits to communicating over channels that fail at random times. These channels are finitestate semi-Markov channels. We show that communication with arbitrarily small probability of error is not possible. Making use of results in finite blocklength channel coding, we determine sequences of blocklengths that optimize transmission volume communicated at fixed maximum message error probabilities. A dynamic programming formulation is used to show that channel state feedback does not improve performance. “a communication channel. . . might be inoperative because of an amplifier failure, a broken or cut telephone wire, . . . ” — I. M. Jacobs [1]