Digital data is heavily used when generating, storing, and transmitting information, and special codes are used to represent the data and to control its size, reliability, and security. Data coding is therefore a highly important, and indeed increasingly critical, discipline for data and computer communications.
In a unique, single volume, this highly versatile text/reference introduces readers to the importance of channel coding (error-correcting codes), secure coding (cryptography), and source coding (data compression). It is organized in three main parts and uses clear, nonmathematical explanations to develop the concepts, principles, and techniques in each area of coding. Requiring only a general familiarity with computer methods, the book deals with all aspects of coding and its relevance to fast, secure, and reliable data transmission and storage.