Codes and Cryptography [Hardcover]

Dominic Welsh (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 7, 1988

This text unifies the concepts of information, codes and cryptography as first studied by Shannon in his seminal papers on communication and secrecy systems. The first five chapters cover the fundamental ideas of information theory, compact encoding of messages and the theory of error-correcting codes. After a discussion of mathematical models of English, there is an introduction to the classical Shannon model of cryptography. This is followed by a brief survey of those aspects of computational complexity needed for an understanding of modern cryptographic methods and the recent advances in public key cryptography, password systems and authentication techniques. Because the aim of the text is to make this exciting branch of modern applied mathematics available to readers with a variety of interests and backgrounds, the mathematical prerequisites have been kept to an absolute minimum. Problems and solutions are included.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Dominic Welsh's Codes and Cryptography takes a wide approach and explores the mathematical foundations of this field, considering information theory, entropy, and the encoding of messages. From these roots in information and communication theory, Welsh then moves on to topics in cryptography, including public key cryptography and digital signatures. The text also offers practice exercises along with their solutions.

There is plenty of mathematics here, making this a book for specialists (a result of the author's experience teaching undergraduates at Oxford). Between the formulas, though, the author conveys a genuine enthusiasm for his subject and for the history of cryptography. The text includes an extensive bibliography of sources in the field. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

' This excellent book can be strongly recommended... it is so well written that it could be read solely for interest and enjoyment.' Times Higher Educ. Supplement

'This authoritative book has a well structured approach. ...essential reading for the engineer concerned with safe-guarding as well as communicating information.' IEE Review

' an exciting introduction to codes and cryptography,but also manages to provide clear introductory accounts to a number of vitally important and closely related mathematical topics the most significant of which is computational complexity...It is surprising that a book can contain such a high rate of information per page and still be readable...This excellent book can be strongly recommended to anyone with the appropriate mathematical background.'Times Higher Education Supplement --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (July 7, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0198532881
• ISBN-13: 978-0198532880
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,581,085 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great textbook on information theory and cryptography, May 9, 2001

By 

jose_monkey_org "jose_monkey_org" (ann arbor, mi, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Codes and Cryptography (Paperback)

This small gem caught my eye because of its publisher (Oxford, well known for publishing excellent textbooks on scientific subjects), and its simple title. 'Code and cryptography'. Nothing fancy or flashy. Having picked it up, I was pleased to see it's in the style of Shannon's 1948 paper which introduced the science of information theory. I'm especially grateful to the author for his judicious use of simple examples to illustrate complex topics, and when coupled to the clear mathematical language, this book is extremely effective at conveying the material.

Be forewarned, it is dense and heavy, and requires you to really get actively engaged in the material. The presentation of theorems is very textbook, which is useful, but nothing is handed to you so easily. Definitely go into it with a ready mindset, and a good grasp of basic mathematics. However, if you step up to it, it can be a very worthwhile exercise. The book's small size hides its power.

Highly reccomended.

5.0 out of 5 stars It codes well, June 14, 2009

By 

J. MOLDOVAN - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Codes and Cryptography (Paperback)

I like this book very much. It is a no-nonsense, robust work which would be very suitable as a text for a formal course in information theory. The mathematics is well presented and is at just the right level to enable the reader to understand the subject without doing intellectual hand-stands. And as a bonus there are solutions to the exercises!

The bottom line is this. A person who knows nothing about coding and cryptography but has a decent grasp of undergraduate maths will have a broad and practical understanding of most of the main concepts in these fields after reading this book. Well worth the money.