In variable-length coding, the probability of codeword length per source letter being above (resp. below) a prescribed threshold is called the overflow (resp. the underflow) probability. In this paper, we show that the infimum achievable threshold given the overflow probability exponent r always coincides with the infimum achievable fixed-length coding rate given the error exponent r, without any assumptions on the source. In the case of underflow probability, we also show the similar results. From these results, we can utilize various theorems and results on the fixed-length coding established by Han for the analysis of overflow and underflow probabilities. Moreover, we generalize the above results to the case with overflow and underflow probabilities of codeword cost.

The wiretap channel is now a fundamental model for information-theoretic security. After introduced by Wyner, Csiszár and Körner have generalized this model by adding an auxiliary random variable. Recently, Han, Endo and Sasaki have derived the exponents to evaluate the performance of wiretap channels with cost constraints on input variable plus such an auxiliary random variable. Although the constraints on two variables were expected to provide larger-valued (or tighter) exponents, some non-trivial theoretical problems had been left open. In this paper, we investigate these open problems, especially concerning the concavity property of the exponents. Furthermore, we compare the exponents derived by Han et al. with the counterparts derived by Gallager to reveal that the former approach has a significantly wider applicability in contrast with the latter one.

The optimal coding strategy for signal detection in the correlated gaussian noise is established for the distributed sensors system with essentially zero transmission rate constraint. Specifically, we are able to obtain the same performance as in the situation of no restriction on rate from each sensor terminal to the fusion center. This simple result contrasts with the previous ad hoc studies containing many unnatural assumptions such as the independence of noises contaminating received signal at each sensor. For the design of optimal coder, we can use the classical Levinson-Wiggins-Robinson fast algorithm for block Toeplitz matrix to evaluate the necessary weight vector for the maximum-likelihood detection.

One of the basic problems in Information Theory, that is, the determination of the reliability function of binary symmetric channel, is studied by establishing the exponent of cardinality of intersection of two Hamming spheres.