The objective of this project is to develop a new coding technique for three basic multiuser communication problems that form the building blocks of many networks: (a) distributed source coding, (b) multiple description coding and (c) broadcast channel. This project is based on two recent preliminary investigations. In the former, a new coding phenomenon was uncovered in distributed source coding. In the latter, a new unified algebraic coding framework for all three problems was developed that strengthened the connection among them, and thus suggesting that the new phenomenon is also at play in the other two. It is well-known that for point-to-point communication problem (both source coding and channel coding), as the block-length of the code is increased the performance keeps improving more or less all the way to infinity. For the problem of distributed source coding, with a particular class of technique called quantization and binning using identical codes at multiple terminals, it turns out that as the block-length is increased, the performance improves initially, reaches a plateau and then decreases after that. So the best performance is achieved when the block-length of the code is at some finite value but not infinity. This project addresses the problem of reliable transmission and processing of information over general networks by developing a new framework based on these codes to construct efficient encoding and decoding systems. The performance of these codes for the distributed source coding problem is analyzed and computable bounds on the performance limits are provided. This project uses this framework for the broadcast channel problem and the multiple description problem using a fundamental connection that exists among the three problems. This project also pursues code construction with computationally efficient encoding and decoding algorithms toward practical implementation of the coding systems developed above.
This project will have an impact on (i) the exchange of ideas and concepts among different research fields, (ii) the design and development of the next generation of communication networks such as ad-hoc wireless and sensor networks, and (iii) education of future engineers by incorporating research advances into a curriculum development program and an effort toward recruitment of underrepresented minority and women graduate students.
