The input-constrained erasure channel with feedback is considered, where the binary input sequence contains no consecutive ones, i.e., it satisfies the $(1,\infty)$-RLL constraint. We derive the capacity for this setting, which can be expressed as $C_{ \epsilon}=\max_{ 0 \leq p \leq \frac{ 1}{ 2}}\frac{ H_{ b}(p)}{ p+\frac{ 1}{ 1-\epsilon}}$, where $\epsilon$ is the erasure probability and $ H_{ b}(\cdot)$ is the binary entropy function. Moreover, we prove that a-priori knowledge of the erasure at the encoder does not increase the feedback capacity. The feedback capacity was calculated using an equivalent dynamic programming (DP) formulation with an optimal average-reward that is equal to the capacity. Furthermore, we obtained an optimal encoding procedure from the solution of the DP, leading to a capacity-achieving, zero-error coding scheme for our setting. DP is thus shown to be a tool not only for solving optimization problems such as capacity calculation, but also for constructing optimal coding schemes. The derived capacity expression also serves as the only non-trivial upper bound known on the capacity of the input-constrained erasure channel without feedback, a problem that is still open.
Categories: cs.IT math.IT