Suppose I have a file with random binary strings of the same length in each line. If I m computing the conditional entropy H(Y|X) where Y is the variable string of fixed length l which is after X and X is the variable string of length m and i find say lets say l=5 and m=10 that the value of conditional entropy is 3. Does that means given 10 bits it is enough to predict 3 of the next to fully recover the next 5 bits? So does that means my strings are not really randomly generated?
Tell me more
×
Cryptography Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for
software developers, mathematicians and others interested in cryptography. It's 100% free, no registration required.
|
It means that, given the 10 bits of $X$, then on average $Y$ has 3 bits of entropy (the average taken over the possible values of $X$). Thus, for your parameters, it does mean your strings are not really randomly generated (they weren't drawn uniformly at random from all possible strings of that length). It doesn't mean that given $X$, $Y$ will always have exactly 3 bits of entropy, regardless of $X$. The amount of entropy in $Y$ might depend upon the specific value of $X$ you are given. Example: it might be that if you're given $X=0000000000$, $Y$ has 2 bits of entropy, but if you're given $X=1111111111$, $Y$ has 4 bits of entropy. |
|||
|
|
