Binary erasure channel

The term binary erasure channel ( BEC short of Engl. Binary erasure channel) was in information theory first used by Peter Elias. It refers to a memoryless information theoretic channel receiving one bit (0 or 1) at the input and output outputs a bit (0 or 1) or a transmission error e. In the three possible output values, it differs from the binary symmetric channel, which can take only two output states.

Describes the probability of the occurrence of a transmission error E, then the probability of error-free receipt of transmitted bits over the BEC. This probability is independent of the value of the transmitted bit and its position.

Is the channel capacity of the BEC.