A Physical Theory of the Transmission of Information

This paper shows that the concept of the information content in communication signals has a real sense only when approached via the observation procedure of the receiver of the message and not via an a priori description of the signal as in traditional communication theories.

The mathematical description of the receiver's observation procedure invokes the universal law of uncertainty of observation and leads to a physical formula for the rate of information transmission [eq. (10)]. This formula shows that the observable information rate depends not only on the characteristics of the channel but also on the value of the encoding (ν) whose concept is denned in this paper.

Consequently, it was found that the known Shannon's formula for the transmission capacity of channels corresponds to a particular value of the encoding (Fig. 5, ν = 1).

Further, this paper introduces the concept of the discretizer (actually existing in receiving devices) which imposes the useful time of observation and prevents the excessive loss of the information rate resulting from eq. (10).

The action of the discretizer explains the mechanism of time resolution in receiving devices and introduces the concept of time redundancy in communication signals.