Feedback does not increase the capacity of compound channels with additive noise

Abstract

A discrete compound channel with memory is considered, where no stationarity, ergodicity or information stability is required, and where the uncertainty set can be arbitrary. When the discrete noise is additive but otherwise arbitrary and there is no cost constraint on the input, it is shown that the causal feedback does not increase the capacity. This extends the earlier result obtained for general channels with full transmitter (Tx) channel state information (CSI). It is further shown that, for this compound setting and under a mild technical condition on the additive noise, the addition of the full Tx CSI does not increase the capacity either, so that the worst-case and compound channel capacities are the same, thus revealing a saddle-point property. © 2016 IEEE.