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Codes: An introduction to information communication and cryptography. (English) Zbl 1148.94001

Springer Undergraduate Mathematics Series. London: Springer (ISBN 978-1-84800-272-2/pbk). x, 273 p. (2008).
This is a clearly and carefully written introduction into information theory, coding theory and cryptography. Nearly half of the book is devoted to source and general channel coding and information theory (including data compression, entropy, noisy channels), ca.40 pages deal with error-correcting codes (linear and binary only, including BCH-codes) and ca.90 pages are on cryptography (from historic crypto systems to one time pad, Feistel iteration, DES, RSA, (general) ElGamal and elliptic curve cryptography, hashing and signature schemes).
Due to the many motivating explanations, the numerous number of examples (for nearly every definition, concept and result), the over 500 exercises with solutions or hints to all odd-numbered exercises, and the many suggestions for further reading this book is, in my opinion, very suitable as well for beginners in the field with a moderate mathematical background. The specific mathematics needed is introduced at the point where it is needed and explained at a reasonable level which enables stating the problems, results and proofs carefully.
For lecturers a complete set of solutions of the exercises is available online password secured.
I can very much recommend this book to interested bachelor students as well as to lecturers on this subject.

MSC:

94-01 Introductory exposition (textbooks, tutorial papers, etc.) pertaining to information and communication theory
94Axx Communication, information
94B15 Cyclic codes
94B05 Linear codes (general theory)
68P25 Data encryption (aspects in computer science)
68P30 Coding and information theory (compaction, compression, models of communication, encoding schemes, etc.) (aspects in computer science)
11T71 Algebraic coding theory; cryptography (number-theoretic aspects)
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