EE 5375/7375 Random Processes

Homework #1

The problem numbers are from the second edition.

Problem 1. textbook problem 2.37
In how many ways can 10 students occupy 10 desks? 12 desks?

Problem 2. textbook problem 2.43

You win a lottery if you correctly predict the numbers of 6 balls drawn from an urn containing
balls numbered 1, 2,..., 49, without replacement and without regard to ordering. What is
the probability of winning if you buy one ticket?

Problem 3. textbook problem 2.53

In each lot of 100 items, 2 items are tested, and the lot is rejected if either of the tested items
is found defective. (a) Find the probability of accepting a lot with 5 defective items. Repeat
for 10 defective items. (b) Recompute the probabilities in part (a) if 3 items are tested, and
a lot is accepted when at most 1 of the 3 tested items is found defective.

Problem 4. textbook problem 2.57

A nonsymmetric binary communications channel is shown in Fig. P2.2. Assume the inputs
are equiprobable. (a) Find the probability that the output is 0. (b) Find the probability
that the input was 0 given that the output is 1. Find the probability that the input is 1
given that the output is a 1. Which input is more probable?

Input Output
1-ε1
0 0

ε1
ε2
1-ε2
1 1

Fig. P2.2

Problem 5. textbook problem 2.70

In the binary communication system in Example 2.26, find the value of  for which the input
of the channel is independent of the output of the channel. Can such a channel be used to

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transmit information? (note a typo in the book says “Example 2.23” but Example 2.26 is
the correct one.)
Example 2.26 describes a binary communications system represented below. The input
is equally likely to be 0 or 1. The receiver makes random decision errors (about the input)
with probability . Let Ai be the event “input was i”, while Bi is the event “receiver decision
was i.” In example 2.26, the a posteriori probabilities were found to be

P (A0 |B1 ) = 
P (A1 |B1 ) = 1 − 

Input Output
1-!
P(0) = 0.5 0

!
!
1-!
P(1) = 0.5 1

Problem 6. textbook problem 2.71

A block of 100 bits is transmitted over a binary communciation channel with probability of
bit error p = 10−3 . Find the probability that the block contains 3 or more errors.

Problem 7. textbook problem 2.73

A student needs 10 chips of a certain type to build a circuit. It is known that 5% of these
chips are defective. How many chips should he buy for there to be a greater than 90%
probability of having enough chips for the circuit?

Problem 8. textbook problem 2.78

A runlength coder segments a binary information sequence into strings that consist of either
a “run” of k “zeros” punctuated by a “one”, for k = 0, . . . , m − 1, or a string of m “zeros.”
The m = 3 case is

string runlength k
1 0
01 1
001 2
000 3

Suppose that the information sequence is produced by a sequence of independent Bernoulli

trials with P (one) = P (success) = p. (a) Find the probability of runlength k in the m = 3
case. (b) Find the probability of runlength k for general m.

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Problem 9. textbook problem 2.92
Suppose that in Example 2.40, computer A sends each message to computer B simultaneously
over two unreliable telephone lines. Computer B can detect when errors have occured in
either line. Let the probability of message transmission error in line 1 and line 2 be q1 and q2
respectively. Computer B requests retransmissions until it receives an error-free message on
either line. (a) Find the probability that more than k transmissions are required. (b) Find
the probability that in the last transmission, the message on line 2 is received free of errors.

Problem 10. textbook problem 3.2

An information source produces symbols at random from a 5-letter alphabet: S = {a, b, c, d, e}.
The probabilities of the symbols are
1 1 1 1
p(a) = , p(b) = , p(c) = , p(d) = p(e) =
2 4 8 16
A data compression system encodes the letters into binary strings as follows:

a→1
b → 01
c → 001
d → 0001
e → 0000

Let the random variable Y be equal to the length of the binary string output by the system.
Specify the sample space of Y , SY , and the probabilities of its values.

Problem 11. textbook problem 3.32

Let X be a binomial random variable that results from the performance of n Bernoulli trials
with probability of success p. (a) Suppose that X = 1. Find the probability that the single
event occurred in the kth Bernoulli trial. (b) Suppose that X = 2. Find the probability
that the two events occurred in the jth and kth Bernouli trials, where j < k. (c) In light
of your answers to parts (a) and (b), in what sense are successes distributed “completely at
random” over the n Bernoulli trials?

Problem 12. textbook problem 3.33

Let X be a binomial random variable. (a) Show that

pk (n − k + 1)p (n + 1)p − k
= =1+
pk−1 kq kq

(b) Show that part (a) implies that (1) P (X = k) is maximum at kmax = [(n + 1)p], where
[x] denotes the largest integer that is smaller than or equal to x; and (2) when (n + 1)p is
an integer, then the maximum is achieved at kmax and kmax − 1.

Problem 13. combinations

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In a packet-switched network, large data messages are divided into packets that can travel
different routes to the same destination. If the packets arrive at the destination in a different
order, they are resequenced in the correct order to reassemble the original data message.
Suppose that a data message is divided into N packets, which can arrive in any random
order with equal likelihood. What is the probability that they will arrive in the correct
order?

Problem 14. binomial (Optional for 5375 students)

In a hypothetical military scenario, suppose there are 6 incoming ballistic missiles (BMs)
and 12 antimissile missiles (AMMs) are fired against them. 2 AMMs are targeted at each
BM. Assume there is no interference between AMMs and an AMM can only destroy the
BM that it is fired at. The probability that an AMM destroys a BM is 0.8. (a) Find the
probability that all BMs are destroyed. (b) Find the probability that at least one BM gets
through. (c) Find the probability that exactly one BM gets through.
Problem 15. use MATLAB for this problem
Generate 1000 pairs of random numbers (x, y) where each 0 < x < 1 and 0 < y < 1 and
they are uniformly distributed in the area of interest. Plot these to see if they are uniform.
Now generate random pairs (x, y) that are uniformly distributed in 0 < x < y < 1 region.
Again, plot these to see if they are uniformly distributed.
Submit your matlab codes and the 2 plots.