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Science 28 June 1996:
Vol. 272. no. 5270, pp. 1914 - 1918
DOI: 10.1126/science.272.5270.1914
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Research Articles

Minimal Energy Requirements in Communication

Rolf Landauer

The literature describing the energy needs for a communications channel has been dominated by analyses of linear electromagnetic transmission, often without awareness that this is a special case. This case leads to the conclusion that an amount of energy equal to kTln 2, where kT is the thermal noise per unit bandwidth, is needed to transmit a bit, and more if quantized channels are used with photon energies hnu  > kT. Alternative communication methods are proposed to show that there is no unavoidable minimal energy requirement per transmitted bit. These methods are invoked as part of an analysis of ultimate limits and not as practical procedures.

The author is with the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY 10598, USA.


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