Sequential transmission using noiseless feedback

The presence of a feedback channel makes possible a variety of sequential transmission procedures, each of which can be classified as either a block-transmission or a continuous-transmission scheme according to the way in which information is encoded for transmission over a noisy forward channel. A sequential continuous-transmission system employing a binary symmetric forward channel (but which is suitable for use with any discrete memoryless forward channel) and a noiseless feedback channel is described. Its error exponent is shown to be substantially greater than the optimum block-code error exponent at all transmission rates less than channel capacity. The average value and the first-order probability distribution of the effective constraint length, found by simulating the system on an IBM 709 computer, are also given.