Zero vs. ε error in interference channels

Traditional studies of multi-source, multi-terminal interference channels typically allow a vanishing probability of error in communication. Motivated by the study of network coding, this work addresses the task of quantifying the loss in rate when insisting on zero error communication in the context of interference channels

Code designs for MIMO broadcast channels

Recent information-theoretic results show the optimality of dirty-paper coding (DPC) in achieving the full capacity region of the Gaussian multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) broadcast channel (BC). This paper presents a DPC based code design for BCs. We consider the case in which there is an individual rate/signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) constraint for each user. For a fixed transmitter power, we choose the linear transmit precoding matrix such that the SINRs at users are uniformly maximized, thus ensuring the best bit-error rate performance. We start with Cover's simplest two-user Gaussian BC and present a coding scheme that operates 1.44 dB from the boundary of the capacity region at the rate of one bit per real sample (b/s) for each user. We then extend the coding strategy to a two-user MIMO Gaussian BC with two transmit antennas at the base-station and develop the first limit-approaching code design using nested turbo codes for DPC. At the rate of 1 b/s for each user, our design operates 1.48 dB from the capacity region boundary. We also consider the performance of our scheme over a slow fading BC. For two transmit antennas, simulation results indicate a performance loss of only 1.4 dB, 1.64 dB and 1.99 dB from the theoretical limit in terms of the total transmission power for the two, three and four user case, respectively

Downlink SDMA with Limited Feedback in Interference-Limited Wireless Networks

The tremendous capacity gains promised by space division multiple access (SDMA) depend critically on the accuracy of the transmit channel state information. In the broadcast channel, even without any network interference, it is known that such gains collapse due to interstream interference if the feedback is delayed or low rate. In this paper, we investigate SDMA in the presence of interference from many other simultaneously active transmitters distributed randomly over the network. In particular we consider zero-forcing beamforming in a decentralized (ad hoc) network where each receiver provides feedback to its respective transmitter. We derive closed-form expressions for the outage probability, network throughput, transmission capacity, and average achievable rate and go on to quantify the degradation in network performance due to residual self-interference as a function of key system parameters. One particular finding is that as in the classical broadcast channel, the per-user feedback rate must increase linearly with the number of transmit antennas and SINR (in dB) for the full multiplexing gains to be preserved with limited feedback. We derive the throughput-maximizing number of streams, establishing that single-stream transmission is optimal in most practically relevant settings. In short, SDMA does not appear to be a prudent design choice for interference-limited wireless networks.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communication