Transmission of Information

The work

AuthorsR. V. L. Hartley
Typearticle
Year1928
Citekeyhartley1928transmission

Where it appeared

Published inBell System Technical Journal
PublisherIEEE
Volume7
Issue3
Pages535--563

Identifiers

DOI10.1002/j.1538-7305.1928.tb01236.x
OpenAlexW1545744341

Access

Landing pagehttps://doi.org/10.1002/j.1538-7305.1928.tb01236.x

Abstract

A quantitative measure of "information" is developed which is based on physical as contrasted with psychological considerations. How the rate of transmission of this information over a system is limited by the distortion resulting from storage of energy is discussed from the transient viewpoint. The relation between the transient and steady state viewpoints is reviewed. It is shown that when the storage of energy is used to restrict the steady state transmission to a limited range of frequencies the amount of information that can be transmitted is proportional to the product of the width of the frequency-range by the time it is available. Several illustrations of the application of this principle to practical systems are included. In the case of picture transmission and television the spacial variation of intensity is analyzed by a steady state method analogous to that commonly used for variations with time.

A copy is held

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Added2026-08-25 00:00 UTC
Approved bya person 2026-08-25 14:02 UTC

Filed under

the-copy-is-not-the-work what-a-channel-can-carry

Cite it as

@article{hartley1928transmission,
  title        = {Transmission of Information},
  author       = {R. V. L. Hartley},
  year         = {1928},
  journal      = {Bell System Technical Journal},
  volume       = {7},
  number       = {3},
  pages        = {535--563},
  publisher    = {IEEE},
  doi          = {10.1002/j.1538-7305.1928.tb01236.x},
}

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