Abstract
Let (${cal U}, P$) be a source, where ${cal U} =
{1,2,dots,N}, P = {P_1, P_2, dots, P_N}$, and let ${cal C}
= {c_1,c_2,dots,c_N}$ be a binary prefix code (PC) for this
source with $||c_u||$ as length of $c_u$. Introduce the random
variable $U$ with Prob($U=u$) = $p_u$ for $u = 1,2,dots,N$ and
the random variable $C$ with $C = c_u =
(c_1,c_2,dots,c_{u||c_u||})$ if $U=u$. We use the PC for
noiseless identification, that is user $u$ wants to know whether
the source output equals $u$, that is, whether $C$ equals $c_u$ or
not. The user iteratively checks whether $C$ coincides with $c_u$
in the first, second, etc. letter and stops when the first
different letter occurs or when $C = c_u$. What is the expected
number $L_{cal C}(P,u)$ of checkings?
In order to calculate this quantity we introduce for the binary
tree $T_{cal C}$, whose leaves are the codewords
$c_1,c_2,dots,c_N$, the sets of leaves ${cal C}_{ik} (1 leq i
leq N; 1 leq k)$, where ${cal C}_{ik} = {c in {cal C}: c$
coincides with $c_i$ exactly until the $k$'th letter of $c_i}$.
If $C$ takes a value in ${cal C}_{uk}, 0 leq k leq ||c_u||-1$,
the answers are $k$ times "Yes" and 1 time "No". For $C = c_u$ the
$$
L_{cal C}(P,u) = sum_{k=0}^{||c_u||-1}P(C in {cal
C}_{uk})(k+1) + ||c_u||P_u.
$$
For code ${cal C}$,~ $L_{cal C}(P) = max L_{cal C}(P,u)$, $1
geq u geq N$, is the expected number of checkings in the worst
case and $L(P) = min L_{cal C}(P)$ is this number for the best
code ${cal C}$.
Let $P = P^N = {frac{1}{N}, dots, frac{1}{N}}$. We construct
a prefix code ${cal C}$ in the following way. In each node
(starting at the root) we split the number of remaining codewords
in proportion as close as possible to $(frac{1}{2},frac{1}{2})$.
It is known that
$$
lim_{N
ightarrow infty} L_{cal C}(P^N) = 2
$$
(Ahlswede, Balkenhol, Kleinewachter, 2003)
We know that $L(P) leq 3$ for all $P$ (Ahlswede, Balkenhol, Kleinewachter, 2003). Also, the problem to estimate an universal
constant $A = sup L(P)$ for general $P = (P_1,dots, P_N)$ was stated (Ahlswede, 2004). We
compute this constant for uniform distribution and this code
${cal C}$.
$$
sup_N L_{cal C}(P^N) = 2+frac{log_2(N-1)-2}{N}
$$
Also, we consider the average number of checkings, if code ${cal
C}$ is used: $ L_{cal C}(P,P) = sum P_u L_{cal C}(P,u)$, for
${u in {cal U}}$. We calculate the exact values of $L_{cal
C}(P^N)$ and $L_{cal C}(P^N,P^N)$ for some $N$.
Other problem is the extension of identification for sources to
liar models. We obtain a upper bound for the expected number of
checkings $L_{cal C}(P^N;e)$, where $e$ is the maximum number of
lies.
$$
L_{cal C}(P^N;e) leq M_{cal C}(P^N;e) = (e+1)L_{cal C}(P^N) +
e; ~~ lim_{N
ightarrow infty} M_{cal C}(P^N;e) = 3e+2
$$