147,481 research outputs found
Network Coding for Computing: Cut-Set Bounds
The following \textit{network computing} problem is considered. Source nodes
in a directed acyclic network generate independent messages and a single
receiver node computes a target function of the messages. The objective is
to maximize the average number of times can be computed per network usage,
i.e., the ``computing capacity''. The \textit{network coding} problem for a
single-receiver network is a special case of the network computing problem in
which all of the source messages must be reproduced at the receiver. For
network coding with a single receiver, routing is known to achieve the capacity
by achieving the network \textit{min-cut} upper bound. We extend the definition
of min-cut to the network computing problem and show that the min-cut is still
an upper bound on the maximum achievable rate and is tight for computing (using
coding) any target function in multi-edge tree networks and for computing
linear target functions in any network. We also study the bound's tightness for
different classes of target functions. In particular, we give a lower bound on
the computing capacity in terms of the Steiner tree packing number and a
different bound for symmetric functions. We also show that for certain networks
and target functions, the computing capacity can be less than an arbitrarily
small fraction of the min-cut bound.Comment: Submitted to the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory (Special
Issue on Facets of Coding Theory: from Algorithms to Networks); Revised on
Aug 9, 201
Computation in Multicast Networks: Function Alignment and Converse Theorems
The classical problem in network coding theory considers communication over
multicast networks. Multiple transmitters send independent messages to multiple
receivers which decode the same set of messages. In this work, computation over
multicast networks is considered: each receiver decodes an identical function
of the original messages. For a countably infinite class of two-transmitter
two-receiver single-hop linear deterministic networks, the computing capacity
is characterized for a linear function (modulo-2 sum) of Bernoulli sources.
Inspired by the geometric concept of interference alignment in networks, a new
achievable coding scheme called function alignment is introduced. A new
converse theorem is established that is tighter than cut-set based and
genie-aided bounds. Computation (vs. communication) over multicast networks
requires additional analysis to account for multiple receivers sharing a
network's computational resources. We also develop a network decomposition
theorem which identifies elementary parallel subnetworks that can constitute an
original network without loss of optimality. The decomposition theorem provides
a conceptually-simpler algebraic proof of achievability that generalizes to
-transmitter -receiver networks.Comment: to appear in the IEEE Transactions on Information Theor
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