Inner and Outer Bounds for the Gaussian Cognitive Interference Channel and New Capacity Results

The capacity of the Gaussian cognitive interference channel, a variation of the classical two-user interference channel where one of the transmitters (referred to as cognitive) has knowledge of both messages, is known in several parameter regimes but remains unknown in general. In this paper we provide a comparative overview of this channel model as we proceed through our contributions: we present a new outer bound based on the idea of a broadcast channel with degraded message sets, and another series of outer bounds obtained by transforming the cognitive channel into channels with known capacity. We specialize the largest known inner bound derived for the discrete memoryless channel to the Gaussian noise channel and present several simplified schemes evaluated for Gaussian inputs in closed form which we use to prove a number of results. These include a new set of capacity results for the a) "primary decodes cognitive" regime, a subset of the "strong interference" regime that is not included in the "very strong interference" regime for which capacity was known, and for the b) "S-channel" in which the primary transmitter does not interfere with the cognitive receiver. Next, for a general Gaussian cognitive interference channel, we determine the capacity to within one bit/s/Hz and to within a factor two regardless of channel parameters, thus establishing rate performance guarantees at high and low SNR, respectively. We also show how different simplified transmission schemes achieve a constant gap between inner and outer bound for specific channels. Finally, we numerically evaluate and compare the various simplified achievable rate regions and outer bounds in parameter regimes where capacity is unknown, leading to further insight on the capacity region of the Gaussian cognitive interference channel.Comment: submitted to IEEE transaction of Information Theor

Cognitive Orthogonal Precoder for Two-tiered Networks Deployment

In this work, the problem of cross-tier interference in a two-tiered (macro-cell and cognitive small-cells) network, under the complete spectrum sharing paradigm, is studied. A new orthogonal precoder transmit scheme for the small base stations, called multi-user Vandermonde-subspace frequency division multiplexing (MU-VFDM), is proposed. MU-VFDM allows several cognitive small base stations to coexist with legacy macro-cell receivers, by nulling the small- to macro-cell cross-tier interference, without any cooperation between the two tiers. This cleverly designed cascaded precoder structure, not only cancels the cross-tier interference, but avoids the co-tier interference for the small-cell network. The achievable sum-rate of the small-cell network, satisfying the interference cancelation requirements, is evaluated for perfect and imperfect channel state information at the transmitter. Simulation results for the cascaded MU-VFDM precoder show a comparable performance to that of state-of-the-art dirty paper coding technique, for the case of a dense cellular layout. Finally, a comparison between MU-VFDM and a standard complete spectrum separation strategy is proposed. Promising gains in terms of achievable sum-rate are shown for the two-tiered network w.r.t. the traditional bandwidth management approach.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, accepted and to appear in IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications: Cognitive Radio Series, 2013. Copyright transferred to IEE

Cooperative Relaying with State Available Non-Causally at the Relay

We consider a three-terminal state-dependent relay channel with the channel state noncausally available at only the relay. Such a model may be useful for designing cooperative wireless networks with some terminals equipped with cognition capabilities, i.e., the relay in our setup. In the discrete memoryless (DM) case, we establish lower and upper bounds on channel capacity. The lower bound is obtained by a coding scheme at the relay that uses a combination of codeword splitting, Gel'fand-Pinsker binning, and decode-and-forward relaying. The upper bound improves upon that obtained by assuming that the channel state is available at the source, the relay, and the destination. For the Gaussian case, we also derive lower and upper bounds on the capacity. The lower bound is obtained by a coding scheme at the relay that uses a combination of codeword splitting, generalized dirty paper coding, and decode-and-forward relaying; the upper bound is also better than that obtained by assuming that the channel state is available at the source, the relay, and the destination. In the case of degraded Gaussian channels, the lower bound meets with the upper bound for some special cases, and, so, the capacity is obtained for these cases. Furthermore, in the Gaussian case, we also extend the results to the case in which the relay operates in a half-duplex mode.Comment: 62 pages. To appear in IEEE Transactions on Information Theor

On the Capacity of the Two-user Gaussian Causal Cognitive Interference Channel

This paper considers the two-user Gaussian Causal Cognitive Interference Channel (GCCIC), which consists of two source-destination pairs that share the same channel and where one full-duplex cognitive source can causally learn the message of the primary source through a noisy link. The GCCIC is an interference channel with unilateral source cooperation that better models practical cognitive radio networks than the commonly used model which assumes that one source has perfect non-causal knowledge of the other source's message. First the sum-capacity of the symmetric GCCIC is determined to within a constant gap. Then, the insights gained from the derivation of the symmetric sum-capacity are extended to characterize the whole capacity region to within a constant gap for more general cases. In particular, the capacity is determined (a) to within 2 bits for the fully connected GCCIC when, roughly speaking, the interference is not weak at both receivers, (b) to within 2 bits for the Z-channel, i.e., when there is no interference from the primary user, and (c) to within 2 bits for the S-channel, i.e., when there is no interference from the secondary user. The parameter regimes where the GCCIC is equivalent, in terms of generalized degrees-of-freedom, to the noncooperative interference channel (i.e., unilateral causal cooperation is not useful), to the non-causal cognitive interference channel (i.e., causal cooperation attains the ultimate limit of cognitive radio technology), and to bilateral source cooperation are identified. These comparisons shed lights into the parameter regimes and network topologies that in practice might provide an unbounded throughput gain compared to currently available (non cognitive) technologies.Comment: Under second round review in IEEE Transactions in Information Theory - Submitted September 201