ECE302 Spring 2006

Exam 1

February 27, 2006

Name: Solution

Score:

1
/100

You must show ALL of your work for full credit.

This exam is closed-book. One 8.5 by 11 page of notes is permitted. It should be turned in
with the exam.
Calculators may be used.
1. The CDF of random variable R is

FR (r) =

(a) What is the PMF of R?

r < 5
0.3 5 r < 0
0.7 0 r < 5
1
r5

0.3
0.4
PR (r) =
0.3

r = 5
r=0
r=5
otherwise

(1)

(2)

(b) What is the probability that 2.5 R < 2.1?

5 < 2.5 and 2.1 < 5 so P [2.5 R < 2.1] = 0.4

(c) What is the expected value of R?

E[R] =

rPR (r) = 0.3(5) + 0.4(0) + 0.3(5) = 0

(3)

rSr

(d) What is the PMF of S = R2 ?

Note that although you may work this out in several steps, the final
answer must combine the probabilities that s = 25 corresponding to
r = 5 and r = +5. They are simply added together because the events
r = 5 and r = +5 are mutually exclusive.
PS (s) =

0.6 s = 25
0.4 s = 0

0
otherwise

(4)

(e) What is the expected value of S?

E[S] = 0.6(25) + 0.4(0) = 15

(5)

ECE302 Spring 2006

Exam 1

February 27, 2006

2. Let the random variable C represent the amount the telephone company charges for calls
to directory assistance. C is a function of the number R of phone numbers requested.
Given that

$0.50 R {1, 2}
C=
$0.75 R = 3
(6)

$1.00 R = 4
and

0.5

0.3

R=1
R=2
PR (r) =
0.1 R = 3

0.1 R = 4

0
otherwise

(7)

answer the following questions:

(a) What is the expected number of requests E[R]?

E[R] = 0.5(1) + 0.3(2) + 0.1(3) + 0.1(4) = 1.8

(8)

(b) What is the variance Var[R] of the number of requests?

Var [R] = E[R2 ] (E[R])2

= 0.5(1)2 + 0.3(2)2 + 0.1(3)2 + 0.1(4)2 (1.8)2
= 4.20 3.24 = 0.96

(9)
(10)
(11)

(c) For calls that request more than one number, what is the conditional PMF PR|R>1
of the number of numbers requested?

3/5
1/5
P [R|R > 1](r) =
1/5

r=2
r=3
r=4
otherwise

(12)

(d) Given that a call requests more than one number, what is the expected number of
requests E[R|R > 1]?

1
1
3
E[R|R > 1] = (2) + (3) + (4) = 2.6
5
5
5

(13)

ECE302 Spring 2006

Exam 1

February 27, 2006

(e) What is the expected cost of a call to directory assistace?

E[C] = 0.5(0.50) + 0.3(0.50) + 0.1(0.75) + 0.1(1) = 0.575

(14)

so the expected cost of a call to directory assistance is 57.5 cents.

(f) What is the standard deviation of a call to directory assistace?

C =

Var [C] =

E[C 2 ] (E[C])2

(15)

E[C 2 ] = 0.5(0.50)2 + 0.3(0.50)2 + 0.1(0.75)2 + 0.1(1)2

= 1/8 + 3/40 + 9/160 + 1/10 = 57/160
(E[C])2 = (1/4 + 3/20 + 3/40 + 1/10)2 = (23/40)2 = 529/1600
so
C =

570/1600 529/1600 =

41/1600 =

41/40

(16)
(17)
(18)
(19)

ECE302 Spring 2006

Exam 1

February 27, 2006

3. The random variable N has PMF

PN (n) =

c (|n| + 1) n {2, 1, 0, 1, 2}
0
otherwise

(20)

(a) What is the value of the constant c?

Over the range SN = {2, 1, 0, 1, 2} of the random variable N, the

probabilities PN (n) must sum to 1, so
c[3 + 2 + 1 + 2 + 3] = 1

c=

1
11

(21)

(b) What is the probability that N = 0?

P [N = 0] =

1
1
(|0| + 1) =
11
11

(22)

(c) What is the probability that |N | is less than 2?

P [|N| < 2] = P [1 N 1] =

5
1
[2 + 1 + 2] =
11
11

(23)

ECE302 Spring 2006

Exam 1

February 27, 2006

4. You and a friend find a penny and a nickel. To decide who gets to keep them you flip the
coins. If a coin comes up heads you win it; tails your friend wins it.
(a) What is the sample space of the experiment?

Where H represents the nickel coming up heads, h represents

the penny coming up heads, T represents the nickel coming up
tails, and t represents the nickel coming up tails, the sample
space is
{Hh, Ht, T h, T t} .
(24)

(b) Let S be the amount of money you win. What is the PMF of S?

Under the default assumption that the coins are fair, the PMF is

1/4
1/4
PS (s) =
1/4

1/4

s=0
s = 0.01
s = 0.05
s = 0.06

(25)

(c) What is the expected value of S?

1
1
1
1
1
E[S] = (0) + (0.01) + (0.05) + (0.06) = (0.12) = 0.03
4
4
4
4
4

(26)

ECE302 Spring 2006

Exam 1

February 27, 2006

5. Short Questions
(a) Suppose we are given that the PDF of the random variable X is fX (x) = ebx + c for
x [0, 1] and zero elsewhere. What two properties of PDFs would you use in order
to determine the acceptable values for the parameters b and c. (DONT DO THE
MATH. Just tell me the two facts.)
Z

fX (x) = 1

and

fX (x) 0 x

(27)

(b) A source wishes to transmit data packets to a receiver over a radio link. The receiver
uses error detection to identify packets that have been corrupted by radio noise. When
a packet is received error-free, the receiver sends an acknowledgment (ACK) back to
the source. When the receiver gets a packet with errors, a negative acknowledgment
(NAK) message is sent back to the source. Each time the source receives a NAK, the
packet is retransmitted. We assume that each packet transmission is independently
corrupted by errors with probability q. Would you model the distribution of the
number of times the packet is transmitted by the source as Poisson (PX (x) below),
Exponential (fX (x) below), or (c) Neither? (Circle the correct answer below and
indicate the values of x for which the first option holds if you choose Poisson or
Exponential. If you choose neither, suggest an alternative.)
PX (x) =

fX (x) =

x e
x!

x
otherwise

ex x
0
otherwise

Neither

The point here was to realize that a random variable representing

the number of times something happens must be a discrete random
variable. I accepted either the Poisson or any other discrete
probability mass distribution that made sense. The ranges of the
values of x are x {0, 1, 2, . . .} for the Poisson distribution and x
[0, ) for the Exponential.

(c) What are the mean and the variance of a standard Gaussian (Normal) random variable?

A standard normal random variable has mean 0 and variance 1.

(d) How do you obtain a standard Gaussian (Normal) random variable from a nonstandard one?

Let X be the nonstandard Gaussian random variable, X be its mean,

2
and X
its variance. Then the random variable Z = (X X )/X is
a standard normal random variable.
(e) The graph of the PDF of a Gaussian random variable X is symmetric about what
value?

the mean X

ECE302 Spring 2006

Exam 1

February 27, 2006

6. A cellular phone call may be placed by a pedestrian or a driver. As the phone changes
location along with its owner, a call may requires no handoffs (event H0 ), one handoff
(H1 ) or more than one handoff (H2 ) from base station to base station. We are given that
the probability that a call comes from someone in a vehicle is 0.8. The probability that a
call from a vehicle will not require a handoff is 0.5; the probability that it will require one
handoff is 0.2. The probability that a call from a pedestrian will not require a handoff is
0.4; the probability that it will require one handoff is 0.1. (Note that this is not a very
realistic model.)
(a) What are the probabilities that calls from pedestrians, respectively drivers, will require two handoffs?

I will use P to designate the pedestrian and V to denote the driver

of the vehicle.
PP [H2 ] = 1 PP [H0 ] PP [H1 ] = 1 0.4 0.1 = 0.5
PV [H2 ] = 1 PV [H0 ] PV [H1 ] = 1 0.5 0.2 = 0.3

(28)
(29)

(b) What is the probability that a call (of unknown origin) will not require a handoff?

P [H0 ] = PP [H0 |P ]P [P ] + PV [H0 |V ]P [V ] = 0.5(0.8) + 0.4(0.2) = 0.48

(30)

(c) When there is no handoff, what is the probability that the caller is in a vehicle?

P [V |H0 ] =

0.5(0.8)
5
P [H0 |V ]P [V ]
=
=
P [H0 ]
0.48
6

(31)

ECE302 Spring 2006

Exam 1

February 27, 2006

7. Suppose that a digit is selected at random from the set S = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7} where the
probability of selecting n is
(

0.2 n {1, 2, 3}
0.1 n {4, 5, 6, 7}

(32)

A1 = {odd numbers in S}

(33)

A3 = {n > 2}

(35)

P [n] =
Consider the following events

A2 = {even numbers in S}

A4 = {2, 3, 5}

A5 = {n < 4}

(34)
(36)
(37)

(a) Find two independent events Ai and Aj or show that none exist.

We start by finding the

  probabilities of the five events, then the
probabilities of the 52 = 10 possible pairs of events, stopping when
we find an independent pair.
P [A1 ] = 6/10
P [A2 ] = 4/10
P [A3 ] = 6/10
P [A4 ] = 5/10
P [A5 ] = 6/10

P [A1 A2 ] = 0 6= 6/25 = P [A1 ]P [A2 ]

P [A1 A3 ] = 4/10 6= 9/25 = P [A1 ]P [A3 ]
P [A1 A4 ] = 2/10 6= 3/10 = P [A1 ]P [A4 ]
P [A1 A5 ] = 4/10 6= 9/25 = P [A1 ]P [A5 ]
P [A2 A3 ] = 2/10 6= 6/25 = P [A2 ]P [A3 ]
P [A2 A4 ] = 2/10 = 2/10 = P [A2 ]P [A4 ]

(38)

so A2 and A4 are independent. In determining the probabilities of

the event pairs I have used the facts that
A1 A2 =
A1 A3 = {3, 5, 7} A1 A4 = {3, 5}
A1 A5 = {1, 3} A2 A3 = {4, 6}
A2 A4 = {2}

(39)

(b) For the events Ai and Aj you have chosen (or in general if none exist), what is the
probability of {Ai Aj }?

By definition, if Ai and Aj are independent, P [Ai Aj ] = P [Ai ]P [Aj ].

In particular, P [A2 A4 ] = 2/10.
(c) For the events Ai and Aj you have chosen (or in general if none exist), what is the
probability of {Ai Aj }?

In general, P [Ai Aj ] = P [Ai ] + P [Aj ] P [Ai Aj ].

In particular, P [A2 A4 ] = 4/10 + 5/10 2/10.