Channels with block interference

A new class of channel models with memory is presented in order to study various kinds of interference phenomena. It is shown, among other things, that when all other parameters are held fixed, channel capacity
C
is an {\em increasing} function of the memory length, while the cutoff rate
R_{0}
generally is a {\em decreasing} function. Calculations with various explicit coding schemes indicate that
C
is better than
R_{0}
as a performance measure for these channel models. As a partial resolution of this
C
versus
R_{0}
paradox, the conjecture is offered that
R_{0}
is more properly a measure of coding delay rather than of coding complexity.