Binary erasure channel erasure channel which shares many similar theoretical results with the binary erasure channel. The BEC is a "binary channel"; that is, it can transmit only one of two symbols (usually called 0 and 1). (A non-binary channel would be capable of transmitting more than two symbols, possibly even an infinite number of choices.) The channel is not perfect and sometimes the bit gets "erased"; that is, the bit gets scrambled so the receiver has no idea what the bit was. The BEC is, in a sense, error-free. Unlike the binary symmetric channel, when the receiver gets a bit, it is
Binary number British mathematician George Boole published a landmark paper detailing an algebraic system of logic that would become known as Boolean algebra. His logical calculus was to become instrumental in the design of digital electronic circuitry. In 1937, Claude Shannon produced his master's thesis at MIT that implemented Boolean algebra and binary arithmetic using electronic relays and switches for the first time in history. Entitled "A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits", Shannon's thesis essentially founded practical digital circuit design. In November 1937, George Stibitz, then working at Bell Labs, completed a relay-based computer he dubbed the "Model K" (for