17 research outputs found
Distributed Structure: Joint Expurgation for the Multiple-Access Channel
In this work we show how an improved lower bound to the error exponent of the
memoryless multiple-access (MAC) channel is attained via the use of linear
codes, thus demonstrating that structure can be beneficial even in cases where
there is no capacity gain. We show that if the MAC channel is modulo-additive,
then any error probability, and hence any error exponent, achievable by a
linear code for the corresponding single-user channel, is also achievable for
the MAC channel. Specifically, for an alphabet of prime cardinality, where
linear codes achieve the best known exponents in the single-user setting and
the optimal exponent above the critical rate, this performance carries over to
the MAC setting. At least at low rates, where expurgation is needed, our
approach strictly improves performance over previous results, where expurgation
was used at most for one of the users. Even when the MAC channel is not
additive, it may be transformed into such a channel. While the transformation
is lossy, we show that the distributed structure gain in some "nearly additive"
cases outweighs the loss, and thus the error exponent can improve upon the best
known error exponent for these cases as well. Finally we apply a similar
approach to the Gaussian MAC channel. We obtain an improvement over the best
known achievable exponent, given by Gallager, for certain rate pairs, using
lattice codes which satisfy a nesting condition.Comment: Submitted to the IEEE Trans. Info. Theor
A General Formula for the Mismatch Capacity
The fundamental limits of channels with mismatched decoding are addressed. A
general formula is established for the mismatch capacity of a general channel,
defined as a sequence of conditional distributions with a general decoding
metrics sequence. We deduce an identity between the Verd\'{u}-Han general
channel capacity formula, and the mismatch capacity formula applied to Maximum
Likelihood decoding metric. Further, several upper bounds on the capacity are
provided, and a simpler expression for a lower bound is derived for the case of
a non-negative decoding metric. The general formula is specialized to the case
of finite input and output alphabet channels with a type-dependent metric. The
closely related problem of threshold mismatched decoding is also studied, and a
general expression for the threshold mismatch capacity is obtained. As an
example of threshold mismatch capacity, we state a general expression for the
erasures-only capacity of the finite input and output alphabet channel. We
observe that for every channel there exists a (matched) threshold decoder which
is capacity achieving. Additionally, necessary and sufficient conditions are
stated for a channel to have a strong converse. Csisz\'{a}r and Narayan's
conjecture is proved for bounded metrics, providing a positive answer to the
open problem introduced in [1], i.e., that the "product-space" improvement of
the lower random coding bound, , is indeed the mismatch
capacity of the discrete memoryless channel . We conclude by presenting an
identity between the threshold capacity and in the DMC
case