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Open AccessArticle
A Thermodynamic Study on Information Power in Communication Systems
by
Litao Yan
Litao Yan † and
Xiaohu Ge
Xiaohu Ge *,†
School of Electronic Information and Communications, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, International Joint Research Center of Green Communications and Networking, Wuhan 430074, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
These authors contributed equally to this work.
Entropy 2024, 26(8), 650; https://doi.org/10.3390/e26080650 (registering DOI)
Submission received: 20 June 2024
/
Revised: 29 July 2024
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Accepted: 29 July 2024
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Published: 30 July 2024
Abstract
Modern information theory pioneered by Shannon provides the mathematical foundation of information transmission and compression. However, the physical (and especially the energetic) nature of the information has been elusive. While the processing of information incurs inevitable energy dissipation, it is possible for communication systems to harness information to perform useful work. In this article, we prove that the thermodynamic cost (that is, the entropy production of the communication system) is at least equal to the information transmitted. Based on this result, a model of a communication heat engine is proposed, which can extract work from the heat bath by utilizing the transmission of information. The communication heat engine integrates the manipulation of both energy and information so that both information and power may be transmitted in parallel. The information transmission rate and the information power of the communication heat engine are derived from a pure thermodynamics argument. We find that the information power of the communication heat engine can be increased by increasing the number of communication channels, but the absolute energy efficiency of the heat engine first increases and then decreases after the number of channels of the system exceeds a threshold. The proposed model and definitions provide a new way to think of a classical communication system from a thermodynamic perspective.
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MDPI and ACS Style
Yan, L.; Ge, X.
A Thermodynamic Study on Information Power in Communication Systems. Entropy 2024, 26, 650.
https://doi.org/10.3390/e26080650
AMA Style
Yan L, Ge X.
A Thermodynamic Study on Information Power in Communication Systems. Entropy. 2024; 26(8):650.
https://doi.org/10.3390/e26080650
Chicago/Turabian Style
Yan, Litao, and Xiaohu Ge.
2024. "A Thermodynamic Study on Information Power in Communication Systems" Entropy 26, no. 8: 650.
https://doi.org/10.3390/e26080650
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