ABSTRACT
The purpose of a communication system is to transmit message intelligence of a source to a sink (user). The exact waveform present at the sink is unknown until after it is received; otherwise, no intelligence would be transmitted and there would be no need for the communication system. More intelligence is communicated to the sink when the user at the sink is “surprised” by the message that was transmitted, that is, the transmission of intelligence implies the communication of messages that are not known ahead of time (a priori). On the other hand, in energy or power systems it is known a priori what the received waveform will be, and it is the energy imparted by the received waveform that is the desired quantity.
