Capacity of a Class of Deterministic Relay Channels

The capacity of a class of deterministic relay channels with the transmitter input X, the receiver output Y, the relay output Y_1 = f(X, Y), and a separate communication link from the relay to the receiver with capacity R_0, is shown to be C(R_0) = \max_{p(x)} \min \{I(X;Y)+R_0, I(X;Y, Y_1) \}. Thus every bit from the relay is worth exactly one bit to the receiver. Two alternative coding schemes are presented that achieve this capacity. The first scheme, ``hash-and-forward'', is based on a simple yet novel use of random binning on the space of relay outputs, while the second scheme uses the usual ``compress-and-forward''. In fact, these two schemes can be combined together to give a class of optimal coding schemes. As a corollary, this relay capacity result confirms a conjecture by Ahlswede and Han on the capacity of a channel with rate-limited state information at the decoder in the special case when the channel state is recoverable from the channel input and the output.Comment: 17 pages, submitted to IEEE Transactions on Information Theor

State Amplification

We consider the problem of transmitting data at rate R over a state dependent channel p(y|x,s) with the state information available at the sender and at the same time conveying the information about the channel state itself to the receiver. The amount of state information that can be learned at the receiver is captured by the mutual information I(S^n; Y^n) between the state sequence S^n and the channel output Y^n. The optimal tradeoff is characterized between the information transmission rate R and the state uncertainty reduction rate \Delta, when the state information is either causally or noncausally available at the sender. This result is closely related and in a sense dual to a recent study by Merhav and Shamai, which solves the problem of masking the state information from the receiver rather than conveying it.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, submitted to IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, revise

Asynchronous multiple-access channel capacity

The capacity region for the discrete memoryless multiple-access channel without time synchronization at the transmitters and receivers is shown to be the same as the known capacity region for the ordinary multiple-access channel. The proof utilizes time sharing of two optimal codes for the ordinary multiple-access channel and uses maximum likelihood decoding over shifts of the hypothesized transmitter words

Modeling Pilot Behavior for Assessing Integrated Alert and Notification Systems on Flight Decks

Numerous new flight deck configurations for caution, warning, and alerts can be conceived; yet testing them with human-in-the-Ioop experiments to evaluate each one would not be practical. New sensors, instruments, and displays are being put into cockpits every day and this is particularly true as we enter the dawn of the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen). By modeling pilot behavior in a computer simulation, an unlimited number of unique caution, warning, and alert configurations can be evaluated 24/7 by a computer. These computer simulations can then identify the most promising candidate formats to further evaluate in higher fidelity, but more costly, Human-in-the-Ioop (HITL) simulations. Evaluations using batch simulations with human performance models saves time, money, and enables a broader consideration of possible caution, warning, and alerting configurations for future flight decks

Satellite remote sensing for ice sheet research

Potential research applications of satellite data over the terrestrial ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica are assessed and actions required to ensure acquisition of relevant data and appropriate processing to a form suitable for research purposes are recommended. Relevant data include high-resolution visible and SAR imagery, infrared, passive-microwave and scatterometer measurements, and surface topography information from laser and radar altimeters

Information Entropy in Cosmology

The effective evolution of an inhomogeneous cosmological model may be described in terms of spatially averaged variables. We point out that in this context, quite naturally, a measure arises which is identical to a fluid model of the `Kullback-Leibler Relative Information Entropy', expressing the distinguishability of the local inhomogeneous mass density field from its spatial average on arbitrary compact domains. We discuss the time-evolution of `effective information' and explore some implications. We conjecture that the information content of the Universe -- measured by Relative Information Entropy of a cosmological model containing dust matter -- is increasing.Comment: LateX, PRLstyle, 4 pages; to appear in PR