1,314 research outputs found
Reliable Physical Layer Network Coding
When two or more users in a wireless network transmit simultaneously, their
electromagnetic signals are linearly superimposed on the channel. As a result,
a receiver that is interested in one of these signals sees the others as
unwanted interference. This property of the wireless medium is typically viewed
as a hindrance to reliable communication over a network. However, using a
recently developed coding strategy, interference can in fact be harnessed for
network coding. In a wired network, (linear) network coding refers to each
intermediate node taking its received packets, computing a linear combination
over a finite field, and forwarding the outcome towards the destinations. Then,
given an appropriate set of linear combinations, a destination can solve for
its desired packets. For certain topologies, this strategy can attain
significantly higher throughputs over routing-based strategies. Reliable
physical layer network coding takes this idea one step further: using
judiciously chosen linear error-correcting codes, intermediate nodes in a
wireless network can directly recover linear combinations of the packets from
the observed noisy superpositions of transmitted signals. Starting with some
simple examples, this survey explores the core ideas behind this new technique
and the possibilities it offers for communication over interference-limited
wireless networks.Comment: 19 pages, 14 figures, survey paper to appear in Proceedings of the
IEE
Fundamentals of Large Sensor Networks: Connectivity, Capacity, Clocks and Computation
Sensor networks potentially feature large numbers of nodes that can sense
their environment over time, communicate with each other over a wireless
network, and process information. They differ from data networks in that the
network as a whole may be designed for a specific application. We study the
theoretical foundations of such large scale sensor networks, addressing four
fundamental issues- connectivity, capacity, clocks and function computation.
To begin with, a sensor network must be connected so that information can
indeed be exchanged between nodes. The connectivity graph of an ad-hoc network
is modeled as a random graph and the critical range for asymptotic connectivity
is determined, as well as the critical number of neighbors that a node needs to
connect to. Next, given connectivity, we address the issue of how much data can
be transported over the sensor network. We present fundamental bounds on
capacity under several models, as well as architectural implications for how
wireless communication should be organized.
Temporal information is important both for the applications of sensor
networks as well as their operation.We present fundamental bounds on the
synchronizability of clocks in networks, and also present and analyze
algorithms for clock synchronization. Finally we turn to the issue of gathering
relevant information, that sensor networks are designed to do. One needs to
study optimal strategies for in-network aggregation of data, in order to
reliably compute a composite function of sensor measurements, as well as the
complexity of doing so. We address the issue of how such computation can be
performed efficiently in a sensor network and the algorithms for doing so, for
some classes of functions.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, Submitted to the Proceedings of the IEE
MIMO Interference Alignment Over Correlated Channels with Imperfect CSI
Interference alignment (IA), given uncorrelated channel components and
perfect channel state information, obtains the maximum degrees of freedom in an
interference channel. Little is known, however, about how the sum rate of IA
behaves at finite transmit power, with imperfect channel state information, or
antenna correlation. This paper provides an approximate closed-form
signal-to-interference-plus-noise-ratio (SINR) expression for IA over
multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) channels with imperfect channel state
information and transmit antenna correlation. Assuming linear processing at the
transmitters and zero-forcing receivers, random matrix theory tools are
utilized to derive an approximation for the post-processing SINR distribution
of each stream for each user. Perfect channel knowledge and i.i.d. channel
coefficients constitute special cases. This SINR distribution not only allows
easy calculation of useful performance metrics like sum rate and symbol error
rate, but also permits a realistic comparison of IA with other transmission
techniques. More specifically, IA is compared with spatial multiplexing and
beamforming and it is shown that IA may not be optimal for some performance
criteria.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures, submitted to IEEE Transactions on Signal
Processin
Downlink Noncoherent Cooperation without Transmitter Phase Alignment
Multicell joint processing can mitigate inter-cell interference and thereby
increase the spectral efficiency of cellular systems. Most previous work has
assumed phase-aligned (coherent) transmissions from different base transceiver
stations (BTSs), which is difficult to achieve in practice. In this work, a
noncoherent cooperative transmission scheme for the downlink is studied, which
does not require phase alignment. The focus is on jointly serving two users in
adjacent cells sharing the same resource block. The two BTSs partially share
their messages through a backhaul link, and each BTS transmits a superposition
of two codewords, one for each receiver. Each receiver decodes its own message,
and treats the signals for the other receiver as background noise. With
narrowband transmissions the achievable rate region and maximum achievable
weighted sum rate are characterized by optimizing the power allocation (and the
beamforming vectors in the case of multiple transmit antennas) at each BTS
between its two codewords. For a wideband (multicarrier) system, a dual
formulation of the optimal power allocation problem across sub-carriers is
presented, which can be efficiently solved by numerical methods. Results show
that the proposed cooperation scheme can improve the sum rate substantially in
the low to moderate signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) range.Comment: 30 pages, 6 figures, submitted to IEEE Transactions on Wireless
Communication
Energy Harvesting Wireless Communications: A Review of Recent Advances
This article summarizes recent contributions in the broad area of energy
harvesting wireless communications. In particular, we provide the current state
of the art for wireless networks composed of energy harvesting nodes, starting
from the information-theoretic performance limits to transmission scheduling
policies and resource allocation, medium access and networking issues. The
emerging related area of energy transfer for self-sustaining energy harvesting
wireless networks is considered in detail covering both energy cooperation
aspects and simultaneous energy and information transfer. Various potential
models with energy harvesting nodes at different network scales are reviewed as
well as models for energy consumption at the nodes.Comment: To appear in the IEEE Journal of Selected Areas in Communications
(Special Issue: Wireless Communications Powered by Energy Harvesting and
Wireless Energy Transfer
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