January 1972

vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 133-141

A critical statistic for channels with memory

We present a new descriptive statistic for channels with memory and show its utility a) in evaluating and comparing existing models for such channels and b) as a theoretical tool in defining the error-gap distribution characteristics of real channels. We demonstrate that certain kinds of real channel behavior cannot be adequately described by previously proposed models and offer an example of a better model that includes many of the earlier models as special cases.