Revisiting the Unicity Distance through a Channel Transmission Perspective
Fangyuan Lin
TL;DR
A simple information-theoretic proof of the same unicity distance formula as in Shannon's classical result and a channel transmission interpretation of the unicity distance are derived.
Abstract
This paper revisits the classical notion of unicity distance from an enlightening perspective grounded in information theory, specifically by framing the encryption process as a noisy transmission channel. Using results from reliable communication theory, we derive a simple information-theoretic proof of the same unicity distance formula as in Shannon's classical result and a channel transmission interpretation of the unicity distance.