On Decoder Ties for the Binary Symmetric Channel with Arbitrarily Distributed Input

Abstract

The error probability of block codes sent under a non-uniform input distribution over the memoryless binary symmetric channel (BSC) and decoded via the maximum a posteriori (MAP) decoding rule is investigated. It is proved that the ratio of the probability of MAP decoder ties to the probability of error grows most linearly in blocklength when no MAP decoding ties occur, thus showing that decoder ties do not affect the code’s error exponent. This result generalizes a similar recent result shown for the case of block codes transmitted over the BSC under a uniform input distribution.