We develop and analyze low-complexity cooperative diversity protocols that combat fading induced by multipath propagation in wireless networks. The underlying techniques exploit space diversity available through cooperating terminals' relaying signals for one another. We outline several strategies employed by the cooperating radios, including fixed relaying schemes such as amplify-and-forward and decode-and-forward, selection relaying schemes that adapt based upon channel measurements between the cooperating terminals, and incremental relaying schemes that adapt based upon limited feedback from the destination terminal. We develop performance characterizations in terms of outage events and associated outage probabilities, which measure robustness of the transmissions to fading, focusing on the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regime. Except for fixed decode-and-forward, all of our cooperative diversity protocols are efficient in the sense that they achieve full diversity (i.e., second-order diversity in the case of two terminals), and, moreover, are close to optimum (within 1.5 dB) in certain regimes. Thus, using distributed antennas, we can provide the powerful benefits of space diversity without need for physical arrays, though at a loss of spectral efficiency due to half-duplex operation and possibly at the cost of additional receive hardware. Applicable to any wireless setting, including cellular or ad hoc networks-wherever space constraints preclude the use of physical arrays-the performance characterizations reveal that large power or energy savings result from the use of these protocols.

Cooperative diversity in wireless networks: Efficient protocols and outage behavior

We introduce a new class of problems called network information flow which is inspired by computer network applications. Consider a point-to-point communication network on which a number of information sources are to be multicast to certain sets of destinations. We assume that the information sources are mutually independent. The problem is to characterize the admissible coding rate region. This model subsumes all previously studied models along the same line. We study the problem with one information source, and we have obtained a simple characterization of the admissible coding rate region. Our result can be regarded as the max-flow min-cut theorem for network information flow. Contrary to one's intuition, our work reveals that it is in general not optimal to regard the information to be multicast as a "fluid" which can simply be routed or replicated. Rather, by employing coding at the nodes, which we refer to as network coding, bandwidth can in general be saved. This finding may have significant impact on future design of switching systems.

http://www.inf.fu-berlin.de/lehre/WS11/Wireless/papers/CodAhlswede00.pdf

Network information flow

A relay channel consists of an input x_{l} , a relay output y_{1} , a channel output y , and a relay sender x_{2} (whose transmission is allowed to depend on the past symbols y_{1} . The dependence of the received symbols upon the inputs is given by p(y,y_{1}|x_{1},x_{2}) . The channel is assumed to be memoryless. In this paper the following capacity theorems are proved. 1)If y is a degraded form of y_{1} , then C \: = \: \max \!_{p(x_{1},x_{2})} \min \,{I(X_{1},X_{2};Y), I(X_{1}; Y_{1}|X_{2})} . 2)If y_{1} is a degraded form of y , then C \: = \: \max \!_{p(x_{1})} \max_{x_{2}} I(X_{1};Y|x_{2}) . 3)If p(y,y_{1}|x_{1},x_{2}) is an arbitrary relay channel with feedback from (y,y_{1}) to both x_{1} \and x_{2} , then C\: = \: \max_{p(x_{1},x_{2})} \min \,{I(X_{1},X_{2};Y),I \,(X_{1};Y,Y_{1}|X_{2})} . 4)For a general relay channel, C \: \leq \: \max_{p(x_{1},x_{2})} \min \,{I \,(X_{1}, X_{2};Y),I(X_{1};Y,Y_{1}|X_{2}) . Superposition block Markov encoding is used to show achievability of C , and converses are established. The capacities of the Gaussian relay channel and certain discrete relay channels are evaluated. Finally, an achievable lower bound to the capacity of the general relay channel is established.

/pdf/capacity-theorems-for-the-relay-channel-5432o2a5q4.pdf

Capacity theorems for the relay channel

Let \{(X_{k}, Y_{k}) \}^{ \infty}_{k=1} be a sequence of independent drawings of a pair of dependent random variables X, Y . Let us say that X takes values in the finite set \cal X . It is desired to encode the sequence \{X_{k}\} in blocks of length n into a binary stream of rate R , which can in turn be decoded as a sequence \{ \hat{X}_{k} \} , where \hat{X}_{k} \in \hat{ \cal X} , the reproduction alphabet. The average distortion level is (1/n) \sum^{n}_{k=1} E[D(X_{k},\hat{X}_{k})] , where D(x,\hat{x}) \geq 0, x \in {\cal X}, \hat{x} \in \hat{ \cal X} , is a preassigned distortion measure. The special assumption made here is that the decoder has access to the side information \{Y_{k}\} . In this paper we determine the quantity R \ast (d) , defined as the infimum ofrates R such that (with \varepsilon > 0 arbitrarily small and with suitably large n )communication is possible in the above setting at an average distortion level (as defined above) not exceeding d + \varepsilon . The main result is that R \ast (d) = \inf [I(X;Z) - I(Y;Z)] , where the infimum is with respect to all auxiliary random variables Z (which take values in a finite set \cal Z ) that satisfy: i) Y,Z conditionally independent given X ; ii) there exists a function f: {\cal Y} \times {\cal Z} \rightarrow \hat{ \cal X} , such that E[D(X,f(Y,Z))] \leq d . Let R_{X | Y}(d) be the rate-distortion function which results when the encoder as well as the decoder has access to the side information \{ Y_{k} \} . In nearly all cases it is shown that when d > 0 then R \ast(d) > R_{X|Y} (d) , so that knowledge of the side information at the encoder permits transmission of the \{X_{k}\} at a given distortion level using a smaller transmission rate. This is in contrast to the situation treated by Slepian and Wolf [5] where, for arbitrarily accurate reproduction of \{X_{k}\} , i.e., d = \varepsilon for any \varepsilon >0 , knowledge of the side information at the encoder does not allow a reduction of the transmission rate.

/pdf/the-rate-distortion-function-for-source-coding-with-side-15w82p0ta1.pdf

The rate-distortion function for source coding with side information at the decoder

We compare several different detection and equalization methods for bit patterned media recording channels. We consider a scheme that utilizes a joint-track equalization technique followed by a Viterbi detector. For certain recording densities, simulation results show that it has essentially the same performance as an optimal detector but with reduced detection complexity. Furthermore, it outperforms another scheme of the same complexity previously described in the literature.

Joint-Track Equalization and Detection for Bit Patterned Media Recording

This paper is a compendium of results based on a simple observation: two information symbols can be appended to certain nonbinary BCH codes without affecting the guaranteed minimum distance of these codes. We give two formulations which achieve this result; the second yields information regarding the weights of coset leaders for the original BCH codes. Single-error-correcting Reed-Solomon codes with the added information symbols yield perfect codes for the Hamming metric. We use these lengthened Reed-Solomon codes as building blocks for perfect single-error-correcting codes in another metric.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel7/6731005/6769756/06769771.pdf

Adding two information symbols to certain nonbinary BCH codes and some applications

This paper treats the problem of queueing packets which have an assigned expiration date. If a packet does not begin processing within the specified time limit, it is discarded as useless. The primary example is transmission of voice or video frames over a packet-switched network, where the illusion of realtime transmission is to be maintained. The occasional loss of a packet will reduce transmission quality, but the voice or video reception should remain intelligible.

Optimal scheduling policies for a class of Queues with customer deadlines to the beginning of service

The performance of iterative detection methods is evaluated for the binary-input two-dimensional (2D), linear inter-symbol interference (ISI) channel with additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). All of the proposed detection schemes involve message passing between detectors operating iteratively on the rows and columns of the 2D channel observations. Simulation results indicate that both the constituent detector performance and the loopiness of the underlying graphical model affect the iterative detector performance. Results are presented for a class of 3-tap, 2D channels defined by a single parameter. These indicate that straightforward application of turbo equalization to the 2D ISI problem performs poorly, but with ad-hoc enhancements, maximum likelihood (ML) detection is approached, to within 0.5 dB.

Iterative detection of 2-dimensional ISI channels

Three dependent users are physically separated but communicate with each other via a satellite. Each user generates data which it stores locally. In addition, each user sends a message to the satellite. The satellite processes the messages received from the users and broadcasts one common message to all three users. Each user must be capable of reconstructing the data of the other two users based upon the broadcast message and its own stored data. Our problem is to determine the minimum amount of information which must be transmitted to and from the satellite. The solution to this problem is obtained for the case where subsequent data triples that are produced by the users are independent and identically distributed. The three symbols within each triple are assumed to be dependent. Crucial for the solution is an achievability proof that involves cascaded Slepian-Wolf (1973) source coding.

Jack K. Wolf

Papers

Joint-Track Equalization and Detection for Bit Patterned Media Recording

Adding two information symbols to certain nonbinary BCH codes and some applications

Optimal scheduling policies for a class of Queues with customer deadlines to the beginning of service

Iterative detection of 2-dimensional ISI channels

Communicating via a processing broadcast satellite