Separation of Source-Network Coding and Channel Coding in Wireline Networks

In this paper, we prove the separation of source-network coding and channel coding in wireline networks. For the purposes of this paper, a wireline network is any network of independent, memoryless, point-to-point, and finite-alphabet channels used to transmit dependent sources either losslessly or subject to a distortion constraint. In deriving this result, we also prove that in a general memoryless network with dependent sources, lossless, and zero-distortion reconstruction are equivalent provided that the conditional entropy of each source given the other sources is nonzero. Furthermore, we extend the separation result to the case of continuous-alphabet and point-to-point channels, such as additive white Gaussian noise channels

On the Separation of Lossy Source-Network Coding and Channel Coding in Wireline Networks

This paper proves the separation between source-network coding and channel coding in networks of noisy, discrete, memoryless channels. We show that the set of achievable distortion matrices in delivering a family of dependent sources across such a network equals the set of achievable distortion matrices for delivering the same sources across a distinct network which is built by replacing each channel by a noiseless, point-to-point bit-pipe of the corresponding capacity. Thus a code that applies source-network coding across links that are made almost lossless through the application of independent channel coding across each link asymptotically achieves the optimal performance across the network as a whole.Comment: 5 pages, to appear in the proceedings of 2010 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT

A Practical Scheme for Wireless Network Operation

In many problems in wireline networks, it is known that achieving capacity on each link or subnetwork is optimal for the entire network operation. In this paper, we present examples of wireless networks in which decoding and achieving capacity on certain links or subnetworks gives us lower rates than other simple schemes, like forwarding. This implies that the separation of channel and network coding that holds for many classes of wireline networks does not, in general, hold for wireless networks. Next, we consider Gaussian and erasure wireless networks where nodes are permitted only two possible operations: nodes can either decode what they receive (and then re-encode and transmit the message) or simply forward it. We present a simple greedy algorithm that returns the optimal scheme from the exponential-sized set of possible schemes. This algorithm will go over each node at most once to determine its operation, and hence, is very efficient. We also present a decentralized algorithm whose performance can approach the optimum arbitrarily closely in an iterative fashion

Is broadcast plus multiaccess optimal for Gaussian wireless networks?

In this paper we show that "separation"-based approaches in wireless networks do not necessarily give good performance in terms of the capacity of the network. Therefore in optimal design of a wireless network, its total structure should be considered. In other words, achieving capacity on the subnetworks of a wireless network does not guarantee globally achieving capacity. We will illustrate this fact by considering some examples of multistage Gaussian wireless relay networks. We will consider a wireless Gaussian relay network with one stage in both fading and nonfading environment. We show that as the number of relay nodes, n, grows large, the capacity of this network scales like log n. We then show that with the "separation"-based scheme, in which the network is viewed as the concatenation of a broadcast and a multiaccess network, the achievable rate scales as log log n and as a constant for fading and nonfading environment, respectively, which is clearly suboptimal

Achievable Rate and Optimal Physical Layer Rate Allocation in Interference-Free Wireless Networks

We analyze the achievable rate in interference-free wireless networks with physical layer fading channels and orthogonal multiple access. As a starting point, the point-to-point channel is considered. We find the optimal physical and network layer rate trade-off which maximizes the achievable overall rate for both a fixed rate transmission scheme and an improved scheme based on multiple virtual users and superposition coding. These initial results are extended to the network setting, where, based on a cut-set formulation, the achievable rate at each node and its upper bound are derived. We propose a distributed optimization algorithm which allows to jointly determine the maximum achievable rate, the optimal physical layer rates on each network link, and an opportunistic back-pressure-type routing strategy on the network layer. This inherently justifies the layered architecture in existing wireless networks. Finally, we show that the proposed layered optimization approach can achieve almost all of the ergodic network capacity in high SNR.Comment: 5 pages, to appear in Proc. IEEE ISIT, July 200

A Resilient 2-D Waveguide Communication Fabric for Hybrid Wired-Wireless NoC Design

Hybrid wired-wireless Network-on-Chip (WiNoC) has emerged as an alternative solution to the poor scalability and performance issues of conventional wireline NoC design for future System-on-Chip (SoC). Existing feasible wireless solution for WiNoCs in the form of millimeter wave (mm-Wave) relies on free space signal radiation which has high power dissipation with high degradation rate in the signal strength per transmission distance. Moreover, over the lossy wireless medium, combining wireless and wireline channels drastically reduces the total reliability of the communication fabric. Surface wave has been proposed as an alternative wireless technology for low power on-chip communication. With the right design considerations, the reliability and performance benefits of the surface wave channel could be extended. In this paper, we propose a surface wave communication fabric for emerging WiNoCs that is able to match the reliability of traditional wireline NoCs. First, we propose a realistic channel model which demonstrates that existing mm-Wave WiNoCs suffers from not only free-space spreading loss (FSSL) but also molecular absorption attenuation (MAA), especially at high frequency band, which reduces the reliability of the system. Consequently, we employ a carefully designed transducer and commercially available thin metal conductor coated with a low cost dielectric material to generate surface wave signals with improved transmission gain. Our experimental results demonstrate that the proposed communication fabric can achieve a 5dB operational bandwidth of about 60GHz around the center frequency (60GHz). By improving the transmission reliability of wireless layer, the proposed communication fabric can improve maximum sustainable load of NoCs by an average of 20:9% and 133:3% compared to existing WiNoCs and wireline NoCs, respectively

On the Interaction between TCP and the Wireless Channel in CDMA2000 Networks

In this work, we conducted extensive active measurements on a large nationwide CDMA2000 1xRTT network in order to characterize the impact of both the Radio Link Protocol and more importantly, the wireless scheduler, on TCP. Our measurements include standard TCP/UDP logs, as well as detailed RF layer statistics that allow observability into RF dynamics. With the help of a robust correlation measure, normalized mutual information, we were able to quantify the impact of these two RF factors on TCP performance metrics such as the round trip time, packet loss rate, instantaneous throughput etc. We show that the variable channel rate has the larger impact on TCP behavior when compared to the Radio Link Protocol. Furthermore, we expose and rank the factors that influence the assigned channel rate itself and in particular, demonstrate the sensitivity of the wireless scheduler to the data sending rate. Thus, TCP is adapting its rate to match the available network capacity, while the rate allocated by the wireless scheduler is influenced by the sender's behavior. Such a system is best described as a closed loop system with two feedback controllers, the TCP controller and the wireless scheduler, each one affecting the other's decisions. In this work, we take the first steps in characterizing such a system in a realistic environment