This book was written as a first treatment of statistical com munication theory and communication systems at a senior graduate level. The only formal prerequisite is a knowledge of ele mentary calculus; however, some familiarity with linear systems and transform theory will be helpful. Chapter 1 is introductory and contains no substantial techni cal material. Chapter 2 is an elementary introduction to probability theory at a nonrigorous and non abstract level. It is essential to the remainder of the book but may be skipped (or reviewed has tily) by any student who has taken a one-semester undergraduate course in probability. Chapter 3 is a brief treatment of random processes and spec tral analysis. It includes an introduction to shot noise (Sections 3.14-3.17) which is not subsequently used explicitly. Chapter 4 considers linear systems with random inputs. It includes a considerable amount of material on narrow-band sys tems and on the representation of random processes. Chapter5 treats the matched filter and the linear least mean-squared-error filter at an elementary level but in some detail. Numerous examples are provided throughout the book. Many of these are of an elementary nature and are intended merely to illustrate textual material. A reasonable number of problems of varying difficulty are provided. Instructors who adopt the text for classroom use may obtain a Solutions Manual for most of the problems by writing to the author.
