We consider the problem of communicating the sum of $m$ sources to $n$ terminals in a directed acyclic network. Recently, it was shown that for a network of unit capacity links with either $m=2$ or $n=2$, the sum of the sources can be communicated to the terminals if and only if every source-terminal pair is connected in the network. We show in this paper that for any finite set of primes, there exists a network where the sum of the sources can be communicated to the terminals only over finite fields of characteristic belonging to that set. As a corollary, this gives networks where the sum can not be communicated over any finite field even though every source is connected to every terminal.
We consider directed acyclic {\em sum-networks} with $m$ sources and $n$ terminals where the sources generate symbols from an arbitrary alphabet field $F$, and the terminals need to recover the sum of the sources over $F$. We show that for any co-finite set of primes, there is a sum-network which is solvable only over fields of characteristics belonging to that set. We further construct a sum-network where a scalar solution exists over all fields other than the binary field $F_2$. We also show that a sum-network is solvable over a field if and only if its reverse network is solvable over the s…
We consider directed acyclic networks with multiple sources and multiple terminals where each source generates one i.i.d. random process over an abelian group and all the terminals want to recover the sum of these random processes. The different source processes are assumed to be independent. The solvability of such networks has been considered in some previous works. In this paper we investigate on the capacity of such networks, referred as {\it sum-networks}, and present some bounds in terms of min-cut, and the numbers of sources and terminals.
We consider a network (that is capable of network coding) with a set of sources and terminals, where each terminal is interested in recovering the sum of the sources. Considering directed acyclic graphs with unit capacity edges and independent, unit-entropy sources, we show the rate region when (a) there are two sources and $n$ terminals, and (b) $n$ sources and two terminals. In these cases as long as there exists at least one path from each source to each terminal we demonstrate that there exists a valid assignment of coding vectors to the edges such that the terminals can recover the sum of…
A new coding technique, based on \textit{fixed block-length} codes, is proposed for the problem of communicating a pair of correlated sources over a $2-$user interference channel. Its performance is analyzed to derive a new set of sufficient conditions. The latter is proven to be strictly less binding than the current known best, which is due to Liu and Chen [Dec, 2011]. Our findings are inspired by Dueck's example [March, 1981].
This paper considers the problem of transmitting the difference of two jointly Gaussian sources over a two-user additive Gaussian noise multiple access channel (MAC). The goal is to recover this difference within an average mean squared error distortion criterion. Each transmitter has access to only one of the two Gaussian sources and is limited by an average power constraint. In this work, a lattice coding scheme that achieves a distortion within a constant of a distortion lower bound is presented if the signal to noise ratio (SNR) is greater than a threshold. Further, uncoded transmission is…
We consider the network communication scenario, over directed acyclic networks with unit capacity edges in which a number of sources $s_i$ each holding independent unit-entropy information $X_i$ wish to communicate the sum $\sum{X_i}$ to a set of terminals $t_j$. We show that in the case in which there are only two sources or only two terminals, communication is possible if and only if each source terminal pair $s_i/t_j$ is connected by at least a single path. For the more general communication problem in which there are three sources and three terminals, we prove that a single path connecting…
We consider the two scenarios of communicating a pair $S_{1},S_{2}$ of correlated sources over multiple access (MAC) and interference channels (IC) respectively. We undertake a Shannon theoretic study and focus on achievability, i.e., characterizing sufficient conditions. In the absence of a Gaćs-Körner-Witsenhausen common part, the current known single-letter (S-L) coding schemes are constrained to the S-L long Markov Chain (LMC) $X_{1}-S_{1}-S_{2}-X_{2}$. Taking the lead of Dueck's example [Dueck, Mar 1981], we recognize that the latter constraint is debilitating, leading to sub-optimality o…
Relay networks aid in increasing the rate of communication from source to destination. However, the capacity of even a three-terminal relay channel is an open problem. In this work, we propose a new lower bound for the capacity of the three-terminal relay channel with destination-to-source feedback in the presence of correlated noise. Our lower bound improves on the existing bounds in the literature. We then extend our lower bound to general relay network configurations using an arbitrary number of filter-and-forward relay nodes. Such network configurations are common in many multi-hop communi…
We consider the task of communicating a generic bivariate function of two classical sources over a Classical-Quantum Multiple Access Channel (CQ-MAC). The two sources are observed at the encoders of the CQ-MAC, and the decoder aims at reconstructing a bivariate function from the received quantum state. Inspired by the techniques developed for the analogous classical setting, and employing the technique of simultaneous (joint) decoding developed for the classical-quantum setting, we propose and analyze a coding scheme based on a fusion of algebraic structured and unstructured codes. This coding…
Communicating arbitrarily correlated sources over interference channels is considered in this paper. A sufficient condition is found for the lossless transmission of a pair of correlated sources over a discrete memoryless interference channel. With independent sources, the sufficient condition reduces to the Han-Kobayashi achievable rate region for the interference channel. For a special correlation structure (in the sense of Slepian-Wolf, 1973), the proposed region reduces to the known achievable region for interference channels with common information. A simple example is given to show that …
A new approach to joint source-channel coding is presented in the context of communicating correlated sources over multiple access channels. Similar to the separation architecture, the joint source-channel coding system architecture in this approach is modular, whereby the source encoding and channel decoding operations are decoupled. However, unlike the separation architecture, the same codeword is used for both source coding and channel coding, which allows the resulting hybrid coding scheme to achieve the performance of the best known joint source-channel coding schemes. Applications of the…
We consider the problem of communicating a general bivariate function of two classical sources observed at the encoders of a classical-quantum multiple access channel. Building on the techniques developed for the case of a classical channel, we propose and analyze a coding scheme based on coset codes. The proposed technique enables the decoder recover the desired function without recovering the sources themselves. We derive a new set of sufficient conditions that are weaker than the current known for identified examples. This work is based on a new ensemble of coset codes that are proven to ac…
We study the problem of communicating over a single-source single-terminal network in the presence of an adversary that may jam a single link of the network. If any one of the edges can be jammed, the capacity of such networks is well understood and follows directly from the connection between the minimum cut and maximum flow in single-source single- terminal networks. In this work we consider networks in which some edges cannot be jammed, and show that determining the network communication capacity is at least as hard as solving the multiple-unicast network coding problem for the error-free c…
In this paper, we investigate the problem of communication over cognitive interference channel (CIC) with partially cooperating (PC) destinations (CIC-PC). This channel consists of two source nodes communicating two independent messages to their corresponding destination nodes. One of the sources, referred to as the cognitive source, has a noncausal knowledge of the message of the other source, referred to as the primary source. Each destination is assumed to decode only its intended message. In addition, the destination corresponding to the cognitive source assists the other destination by tr…
In this paper we introduce Neural Network Coding(NNC), a data-driven approach to joint source and network coding. In NNC, the encoders at each source and intermediate node, as well as the decoder at each destination node, are neural networks which are all trained jointly for the task of communicating correlated sources through a network of noisy point-to-point links. The NNC scheme is application-specific and makes use of a training set of data, instead of making assumptions on the source statistics. In addition, it can adapt to any arbitrary network topology and power constraint. We show empi…
We study the problem of communicating a distributed correlated memoryless source over a memoryless network, from source nodes to destination nodes, under quadratic distortion constraints. We establish the following two complementary results: (a) for an arbitrary memoryless network, among all distributed memoryless sources of a given correlation, Gaussian sources are least compressible, that is, they admit the smallest set of achievable distortion tuples, and (b) for any memoryless source to be communicated over a memoryless additive-noise network, among all noise processes of a given correlati…
Motivated by applications in the security of cyber-physical systems, we pose the finite blocklength communication problem in the presence of a jammer as a zero-sum game between the encoder-decoder team and the jammer, by allowing the communicating team as well as the jammer only locally randomized strategies. The communicating team's problem is non-convex under locally randomized codes, and hence, in general, a minimax theorem need not hold for this game. However, we show that approximate minimax theorems hold in the sense that the minimax and maximin values of the game approach each other asy…
Analog (uncoded) transmission provides a simple and robust scheme for communicating a Gaussian source over a Gaussian channel under the mean squared error (MSE) distortion measure. Unfortunately, its performance is usually inferior to the all-digital, separation-based source-channel coding solution, which requires exact knowledge of the channel at the encoder. The loss comes from the fact that except for very special cases, e.g. white source and channel of matching bandwidth (BW), it is impossible to achieve perfect matching of source to channel and channel to source by linear means. We show t…
This work focuses on the minimum transmission energy required for communicating a pair of correlated Gaussian sources over a two-user Gaussian broadcast channel with noiseless and causal channel output feedback (GBCF). We study the fundamental limit on the required transmission energy for broadcasting a pair of source samples, such that each source can be reconstructed at its respective receiver to within a target distortion, when the source-channel bandwidth ratio is not restricted. We derive a lower bound and three distinct upper bounds on the minimum required energy. For the upper bounds we…
A sum-network is a directed acyclic network where each source independently generates one symbol from a given field $\mathbb F$ and each terminal wants to receive the sum $($over $\mathbb F)$ of the source symbols. For sum-networks with two sources or two terminals, the solvability is characterized by the connection condition of each source-terminal pair [3]. A necessary and sufficient condition for the solvability of the $3$-source $3$-terminal $(3$s$/3$t$)$ sum-networks was given by Shenvi and Dey [6]. However, the general case of arbitrary sources/sinks is still open. In this paper, we inve…
For a number of lossy source coding problems it is shown that even if the usual single-letter sum-rate-distortion expressions may become invalid for non-infinite distortion functions, they can be approached, to any desired accuracy, via the usual valid expressions for appropriately truncated finite versions of the distortion functions.
We consider the communication capacity of wireline networks for a two-unicast traffic pattern. The network has two sources and two destinations with each source communicating a message to its own destination, subject to the capacity constraints on the directed edges of the network. We propose a simple outer bound for the problem that we call the Generalized Network Sharing (GNS) bound. We show this bound is the tightest edge-cut bound for two-unicast networks and is tight in several bottleneck cases, though it is not tight in general. We also show that the problem of computing the GNS bound is…
This work considers the quadratic Gaussian multiterminal (MT) source coding problem and provides a new sufficient condition for the Berger-Tung sum-rate bound to be tight. The converse proof utilizes a set of virtual remote sources given which the MT sources are block independent with a maximum block size of two. The given MT source coding problem is then related to a set of two-terminal problems with matrix-distortion constraints, for which a new lower bound on the sum-rate is given. Finally, a convex optimization problem is formulated and a sufficient condition derived for the optimal BT sch…
We consider a directed acyclic network with three sources and three terminals such that each source independently generates one symbol from a given field $F$ and each terminal wants to receive the sum (over $F$) of the source symbols. Each link in the network is considered to be error-free and delay-free and can carry one symbol from the field in each use. We call such a network a 3-source 3-terminal {\it $(3s/3t)$ sum-network}. In this paper, we give a necessary and sufficient condition for a $3s/3t$ sum-network to allow all the terminals to receive the sum of the source symbols over \textit{…
We consider an energy harvesting two-hop network where a source is communicating to a destination through a relay. During a given communication session time, the source collects measurement updates from a physical phenomenon and sends them to the relay, which then forwards them to the destination. The objective is to send these updates to the destination as timely as possible; namely, such that the total age of information is minimized by the end of the communication session, subject to energy causality constraints at the source and the relay, and data causality constraints at the relay. Both …
Efficient low-delay video encoders are of fundamental importance to provide timely feedback in remotely controlled platforms such as drones. In order to fully understand the theoretical limits of low-delay video encoders, we consider an ideal differential predictive coded modulation (DPCM) encoder and provide the explicit derivation of the sum-rate-distortion region for a generic number of successive correlated Gauss-Markov sources along the line of the work by Ma and Ishwar. Furthermore, we provide an upper bound on the minimum distortion achievable in case an arbitrary number of sources are …
This paper derives a novel sum-rate outer bound for the general memoryless interference channel with three users. The derivation is a generalization of the techniques developed by Kramer and by Etkin et al for the Gaussian two-user channel. For the three-user Gaussian channel the proposed sum-rate outer bound outperforms known bounds for certain channel parameters.
The problem of computing sum of sources over a multiple access channel (MAC) is considered. Building on the technique of linear computation coding (LCC) proposed by Nazer and Gastpar [2007], we employ the ensemble of nested coset codes to derive a new set of sufficient conditions for computing the sum of sources over an \textit{arbitrary} MAC. The optimality of nested coset codes [Padakandla, Pradhan 2011] enables this technique outperform LCC even for linear MAC with a structural match. Examples of nonadditive MAC for which the technique proposed herein outperforms separation and systematic b…
We study a fading linear finite-field relay network having multiple source-destination pairs. Because of the interference created by different unicast sessions, the problem of finding its capacity region is in general difficult. We observe that, since channels are time-varying, relays can deliver their received signals by waiting for appropriate channel realizations such that the destinations can decode their messages without interference. We propose a block Markov encoding and relaying scheme that exploits such channel variations. By deriving a general cut-set upper bound and an achievable ra…
We consider a directed acyclic network with multiple sources and multiple terminals where each terminal is interested in decoding the sum of independent sources generated at the source nodes. We describe a procedure whereby a simple undirected graph can be used to construct such a sum-network and demonstrate an upper bound on its computation rate. Furthermore, we show sufficient conditions for the construction of a linear network code that achieves this upper bound. Our procedure allows us to construct sum-networks that have any arbitrary computation rate $\frac{p}{q}$ (where $p,q$ are non-neg…
We consider a relay-assisted wireless network, where the energy-harvesting buffer-aided relay node is powered by radio-frequency signals from a source node wishing to communicate with its destination. We propose two secure cooperative protocols for a network composed of a source node equipped with a data buffer communicating with its destination in the presence of a buffer-aided relay node and an eavesdropper. Our proposed protocols are designed based on the channel state information and the buffer state information at the source and relay nodes. The burstiness of data at the source node queue…
We present the problem of two-terminal source coding with Common Sum Reconstruction (CSR). Consider two terminals, each with access to one of two correlated sources. Both terminals want to reconstruct the sum of the two sources under some average distortion constraint, and the reconstructions at two terminals must be identical with high probability. In this paper, we develop inner and outer bounds to the achievable rate distortion region of the CSR problem for a doubly symmetric binary source. We employ existing achievability results for Steinberg's common reconstruction and Wyner-Ziv's source…
