Abstract

We explore two fundamental questions at the intersection of sampling theory and information theory: how is channel capacity affected by sampling below the channel’s Nyquist rate, and what sub-Nyquist sampling strategy should be employed to maximize capacity. In particular, we first derive the capacity of sampled analog channels for two prevalent sampling mechanisms: filtering followed by sampling and sampling following filter banks. Connections between sampling and MIMO Gaussian channels are illuminated based on this analysis. Optimal prefilters that maximize capacity are identified for both cases, as well as several kinds of channels for which these sampling mechanisms are optimal to maximize capacity at sub-Nyquist rates. We also highlight connections between sampled analog channel capacity and minimum mean squared error estimation from sampled data. In particular, it is shown that for both filtering and filter-bank sampling strategies, the filters maximizing capacity and minimizing mean squared error are equivalent. We also investigate a more general sampling strategy by adding modulation banks to filter-bank sampling. This general sampling method subsumes most nonuniform sampling techniques applied in both theory and practice. We also show a connection between this general sampling method and MIMO Gaussian channels. We then identify the optimal sampling strategy for piece-wise flat sampled