49 research outputs found
First-Passage Time and Large-Deviation Analysis for Erasure Channels with Memory
This article considers the performance of digital communication systems
transmitting messages over finite-state erasure channels with memory.
Information bits are protected from channel erasures using error-correcting
codes; successful receptions of codewords are acknowledged at the source
through instantaneous feedback. The primary focus of this research is on
delay-sensitive applications, codes with finite block lengths and, necessarily,
non-vanishing probabilities of decoding failure. The contribution of this
article is twofold. A methodology to compute the distribution of the time
required to empty a buffer is introduced. Based on this distribution, the mean
hitting time to an empty queue and delay-violation probabilities for specific
thresholds can be computed explicitly. The proposed techniques apply to
situations where the transmit buffer contains a predetermined number of
information bits at the onset of the data transfer. Furthermore, as additional
performance criteria, large deviation principles are obtained for the empirical
mean service time and the average packet-transmission time associated with the
communication process. This rigorous framework yields a pragmatic methodology
to select code rate and block length for the communication unit as functions of
the service requirements. Examples motivated by practical systems are provided
to further illustrate the applicability of these techniques.Comment: To appear in IEEE Transactions on Information Theor
On the Performance of Short Block Codes over Finite-State Channels in the Rare-Transition Regime
As the mobile application landscape expands, wireless networks are tasked
with supporting different connection profiles, including real-time traffic and
delay-sensitive communications. Among many ensuing engineering challenges is
the need to better understand the fundamental limits of forward error
correction in non-asymptotic regimes. This article characterizes the
performance of random block codes over finite-state channels and evaluates
their queueing performance under maximum-likelihood decoding. In particular,
classical results from information theory are revisited in the context of
channels with rare transitions, and bounds on the probabilities of decoding
failure are derived for random codes. This creates an analysis framework where
channel dependencies within and across codewords are preserved. Such results
are subsequently integrated into a queueing problem formulation. For instance,
it is shown that, for random coding on the Gilbert-Elliott channel, the
performance analysis based on upper bounds on error probability provides very
good estimates of system performance and optimum code parameters. Overall, this
study offers new insights about the impact of channel correlation on the
performance of delay-aware, point-to-point communication links. It also
provides novel guidelines on how to select code rates and block lengths for
real-time traffic over wireless communication infrastructures
A Systematic Approach to Incremental Redundancy over Erasure Channels
As sensing and instrumentation play an increasingly important role in systems
controlled over wired and wireless networks, the need to better understand
delay-sensitive communication becomes a prime issue. Along these lines, this
article studies the operation of data links that employ incremental redundancy
as a practical means to protect information from the effects of unreliable
channels. Specifically, this work extends a powerful methodology termed
sequential differential optimization to choose near-optimal block sizes for
hybrid ARQ over erasure channels. In doing so, an interesting connection
between random coding and well-known constants in number theory is established.
Furthermore, results show that the impact of the coding strategy adopted and
the propensity of the channel to erase symbols naturally decouple when
analyzing throughput. Overall, block size selection is motivated by normal
approximations on the probability of decoding success at every stage of the
incremental transmission process. This novel perspective, which rigorously
bridges hybrid ARQ and coding, offers a pragmatic means to select code rates
and blocklengths for incremental redundancy.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures; A shorter version of this article will appear in
the proceedings of ISIT 201
On the Queueing Behavior of Random Codes over a Gilbert-Elliot Erasure Channel
This paper considers the queueing performance of a system that transmits
coded data over a time-varying erasure channel. In our model, the queue length
and channel state together form a Markov chain that depends on the system
parameters. This gives a framework that allows a rigorous analysis of the queue
as a function of the code rate. Most prior work in this area either ignores
block-length (e.g., fluid models) or assumes error-free communication using
finite codes. This work enables one to determine when such assumptions provide
good, or bad, approximations of true behavior. Moreover, it offers a new
approach to optimize parameters and evaluate performance. This can be valuable
for delay-sensitive systems that employ short block lengths.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, conferenc