From Old Ciphers to Modern Communications

Abstract

The security of the information transmitted, irrespective of the era and the channel selected, has always been one of the main concerns of those using various communication systems. This is particularly the case nowadays, when the Internet has made the mass distribution of any kind of information possible. Codes can be used to transmit data through various noisy channels and any errors that might occur can be corrected; it is therefore very important to design gappropriate codes with adequate parameters. This survey briefly outlines the evolution of the ways in which information has been collected, transmitted and used from the past to the present.