Capital University of Science and Technology Islamabad

EE-2413 Probability and Random Variables

Assignment 2
Due Date: 14-04-2016
Q-1 A particular operation has six components. Each component has a failure probability of q, independent of any other
component. The operation is successful if both
i)
ii)

Components 1, 2 and 3 all work, or component 4 works.

Either component 5 or component 6 works

Sketch the block diagram for this operation and what is the probability P[W] that the operation is successful ?

Q-2 When two-way paging system transmits a message; the probability that it will be received by the pager it is sent to is p.
When the pager receives the message it transmits an acknowledgment signal (ACK) to the paging system. If the paging system
does not receive the ACK, it sends the message again
i)
ii)

What is the PMF of N, the number of times the system sends the message
The paging company wants to limit the number of times it has to send the same message. It has a goal of
P[N 3] 0.95. What is the minimum value of p necessary to achieve the goal?

Q-3 A radio station gives a pair of concert tickets to a sixth caller who knows the birthday of the performer. For each person who
calls, the probability is 0.75 of knowing the performers birthday. All calls are independent.
i)
ii)
iii)

What is the PMF of L, the number of calls necessary to find a winner?

What is the probability of finding the winner on the tenth call?
What is the probability that the station will need nine or more calls to find a winner?

Q-4 In a packet voice communication system, a source transmits packets containing digitized speech to a receiver. Because
transmission errors occurs occasionally, an acknowledgment (ACK) or a non-acknowledgment (NAK) is transmitted back to the
source to indicate the status of each received packet. When the transmitter gets a NAK, the packet is retransmitted. Voice
packets are delay sensitive and a packet can be transmitted a maximum of d times. If the packet transmission is an independent
Bernoulli trial with success probability p, what is the PMF of T, the number of times a packet is transmitted?

Q-5 Discrete random variable Y has the CDF as shown

Use the CDF to find the following probabilities

i)
ii)
iii)
iv)

P[Y<1]
P[Y>2]
P[Y1]
P[Y2]

v)
vi)
vii)

P[Y=1]
P[Y=3]
PY(y)

Q-6 The random variable X has the CDF

i)
ii)

Draw the CDF

Write PX(x) the PMF of X

Q-7 At the One Top Pizza Shop, a pizza sold has mushrooms with probability p = 2/3. One day in which 100 pizzas are sold, let
N be the number of pizzas sold before the first pizza with mushrooms is sold. What is the PMF of N? What is the CDF of N?

Q-8 The CDF of a random variable X is

Let V = g(X) = |X|

a) Find PV(v)

b) Find FV(v)

c)Find E[V]

Q-9 Suppose that a cellular phone costs 20$ per month with 30 minutes use included and that each additional minute of use costs
0.5$. If the number of minutes you use in a month is a geometric random variable M with expected value of 30 minutes, what is
the PMF of C, the cost of phone for one month?