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We introduce a fundamental lemma called the Poisson matching lemma, and apply it to prove one-shot achievability results for various settings, namely channels with state information at the encoder, lossy source coding with side information at the decoder, joint source-channel coding, broadcast channels, distributed lossy source coding, multiple access channels and channel resolvability. Our one-shot bounds improve upon the best known one-shot bounds in most of the aforementioned settings (except multiple access channels and channel resolvability, where we recover bounds comparable to the best known bounds), with shorter proofs in some settings even when compared to the conventional asymptotic approach using typicality. The Poisson matching lemma replaces both the packing and covering lemmas, greatly simplifying the error analysis. This paper extends the work of Li and El Gamal on Poisson functional representation, which mainly considered variable-length source coding settings, whereas this paper studies fixed-length settings, and is not limited to source coding, showing that the Poisson functional representation is a viable alternative to typicality for most problems in network information theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider a status updating system where updates are generated at a constant rate at $K$ sources and sent to the corresponding recipients through a noise-free broadcast channel. We assume that perfect channel state information (CSI) is available at the transmitter before each transmission, and the transmitter is able to utilize the CSI to precode the updates. Our object is to design optimal precoding schemes to minimize the summed average age of information (AoI) at the recipients. Under various assumptions on the size of each update $B$ , the number of transmit antennas $M$ , and the number of receive antennas $N$ at each user, this paper identifies the corresponding age-optimal precoding and transmission scheduling strategies. Specifically, for the case when $N=1$ , a round-robin based updating scheme is shown to be optimal. For the two-user systems with $N>B$ or $M\notin [N:2N]$ , framed updating schemes are proven to be optimal. For other cases in the two-user systems, a framed alternating updating scheme is proven to be 2-optimal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study a security problem on a simple wiretap network, consisting of a source node S, a destination node D, and an intermediate node R. The intermediate node connects the source and the destination nodes via a set of noiseless parallel channels, with sizes n1 and n2 , respectively. A message $M$ is to be sent from S to D. The information in the network may be eavesdropped by a set of wiretappers. The wiretappers cannot communicate with one another. Each wiretapper can access a subset of channels, called a wiretap set. All the chosen wiretap sets form a wiretap pattern. A random key $K$ is generated at S, and a coding scheme on $(M, K)$ is employed to protect $M$ . We define two decoding classes at D. In Class-I, only $M$ is required to be recovered, and in Class-II, both $M$ and $K$ are required to be recovered. The objective is to minimize $H(K)/H(M)$ for a given wiretap pattern under the perfect secrecy constraint. The first question we address is whether routing is optimal on this simple network. By enumerating all the wiretap patterns on the Class-I/II (3, 3) networks and harnessing the power of Shannon-type inequalities, we find that gaps exist between the bounds implied by routing and the bounds implied by Shannon-type inequalities for a small fraction (<2%) of all the wiretap patterns. The second question we investigate is the following: What is $\min H(K)/H(M)$ for the remaining wiretap patterns where gaps exist? We study some simple wiretap patterns and find that their Shannon bounds (i.e., the lower bound induced by Shannon-type inequalities) can be achieved by linear codes, which means routing is not sufficient even for the (3, 3) network. For some complicated wiretap patterns, we study the structures of linear coding schemes under the assumption that they can achieve the corresponding Shannon bounds. This paper indicates that the determination of the entropic region of six linear vector spaces cannot be sidestepped. Some subtle issues on the network models are discussed, and interesting observations are stated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In coding schemes for the wire-tap channel or for broadcast channels with confidential messages, it is well-known that the sender needs to use stochastic encoding to avoid information about the transmitted confidential message from being leaked to an eavesdropper. In this paper, we investigate the tradeoff between the rate of random numbers needed to realize the stochastic encoding and the rates of common, private, and confidential messages. For the direct theorem, we use the superposition coding scheme for the wire-tap channel, recently proposed by Chia and El Gamal, and its strong security is proved. The matching converse theorem is also established. Our result clarifies that a combination of ordinary stochastic encoding and channel prefixing by channel simulation is suboptimal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the problem of secure communications over broadcast channels under the individual secrecy constraints. That is, the transmitter wants to send two independent messages to two legitimate receivers in the presence of an eavesdropper, while keeping the eavesdropper ignorant of each message (i.e., the information leakage rate from each message to the eavesdropper is made vanishing). Building upon Carleial–Hellman’s secrecy coding, Wyner’s secrecy coding, and the framework of Marton’s coding together with techniques, such as rate splitting and indirect decoding, an achievable individual secrecy rate region is established with the characterization of capacity regions for some special cases. In particular, the individual secrecy capacity region for the linear deterministic model is fully characterized, and for the Gaussian model, a constant gap (i.e., 0.5 b within the individual secrecy capacity region) result is obtained. To illustrate the impact of different secrecy constraints on the corresponding capacity regions, comparisons are made with those satisfying joint secrecy and without secrecy constraints. Overall, when compared with the joint secrecy constraint, the results allow for trading off secrecy level and throughput in the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we make use of channel symmetry properties to determine the capacity region of three types of two-way networks: 1) two-user memoryless two-way channels (TWCs); 2) two-user TWCs with memory; and 3) three-user multiaccess/degraded broadcast (MA/DB) TWCs. For each network, symmetry conditions under which a Shannon-type random coding inner bound (under independent non-adaptive inputs) is tight are given. For two-user memoryless TWCs, prior results are substantially generalized by viewing a TWC as two interacting state-dependent one-way channels. The capacity of symmetric TWCs with memory, whose outputs are functions of the inputs and independent stationary and ergodic noise processes, is also obtained. Moreover, various channel symmetry properties under which the Shannon-type inner bound is tight are identified for three-user MA/DB TWCs. The results not only enlarge the class of symmetric TWCs whose capacity region can be exactly determined but also imply that interactive adaptive coding, not improving capacity, is unnecessary for such channels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates various subtleties of applying linear physical-layer network coding (PNC) with $q$ -level pulse amplitude modulation ( $q$ -PAM) in two-way relay channels. A critical issue is how the PNC system performs when the received powers from the two users at the relay are imbalanced. In particular, how would the PNC system perform under slight power imbalance that is inevitable in practice, even when power control is applied? To answer these questions, this paper presents a comprehensive analysis of $q$ -PAM PNC. Our contributions are as follows. First, we give a systematic way to obtain the analytical relationship between the minimum distance of the signal constellation induced by the superimposed signals of the two users (a key performance determining factor) and the channel-gain ratio of the two users, for all $q$ . In particular, we show how the minimum distance changes in a piecewise linear fashion as the channel-gain ratio varies. Second, we show that the performance of $q$ -PAM PNC is highly sensitive to imbalanced received powers from the two users at the relay, even when the power imbalance is slight (e.g., the residual power imbalance in a power-controlled system). This sensitivity problem is exacerbated as $q$ increases, calling into question the robustness of high-order modulated PNC. Third, we propose an asynchronized PNC system in which the symbol arrival times of the two users at the relay are deliberately made to be asynchronous. We show that such asynchronized PNC, when operated with a belief propagation decoder, can remove the sensitivity problem, allowing a robust high-order modulated PNC system to be built. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well known that the capacity region of an average transmit power constrained Gaussian Broadcast Channel (GBC) with independent noise realizations at the receivers is enlarged by the presence of causal noiseless feedback. When the noise variances at the receivers are identical, even passive feedback via independent memoryless Gaussian links can lead to a capacity region enlargement. The last fact remains true even when the feedback noise variance is very high, and available only from one of the receivers. While such capacity enlargements are feasible for several other feedback models in the Gaussian BC setting, it is also known that feedback does not change the capacity region for physically degraded broadcast channels. In this paper, we consider a two user GBC with independent noise realizations at the receivers, where the feedback links from the receivers are corrupted by independent additive Gaussian noise processes. We investigate the set of four noise variances, two forward and two feedback, for which no capacity enlargement is possible. A sharp characterization of this region is derived, i.e., any quadruple outside the presented region will lead to a capacity enlargement, whereas quadruples inside will leave the capacity region unchanged. Our results lead to the conclusion that when the forward noise variances are different, too noisy a feedback from one of the receivers alone is not always beneficial for enlarging the capacity region, be it from the stronger user or the weaker one, in sharp contrast to the case of equal forward noise variances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of sending two correlated vector Gaussian sources over a bandwidth-matched two-user scalar Gaussian broadcast channel is studied in this paper, where each receiver wishes to reconstruct its target source under a covariance distortion constraint. We derive a lower bound on the optimal tradeoff between the transmit power and the achievable reconstruction distortion pair. Our derivation is based on a new bounding technique which involves the introduction of appropriate remote sources. Furthermore, it is shown that this lower bound is achievable by a class of hybrid schemes for the special case, where the weak receiver wishes to reconstruct a scalar source under the mean squared error distortion constraint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An index code for broadcast channel with receiver side information is locally decodable if each receiver can decode its demand by observing only a subset of the transmitted codeword symbols instead of the entire codeword. Local decodability in index coding is known to reduce receiver complexity, improve user privacy and decrease decoding error probability in wireless fading channels. Conventional index coding solutions assume that the receivers observe the entire codeword, and as a result, for these codes the number of codeword symbols queried by a user per decoded message symbol, which we refer to as locality, could be large. In this paper, we pose the index coding problem as that of minimizing the broadcast rate for a given value of locality (or vice versa) and designing codes that achieve the optimal trade-off between locality and rate. We identify the optimal broadcast rate corresponding to the minimum possible value of locality for all single unicast problems. We present new structural properties of index codes which allow us to characterize the optimal trade-off achieved by: vector linear codes when the side information graph is a directed cycle; and scalar linear codes when the minrank of the side information graph is one less than the order of the problem. We also identify the optimal trade-off among all codes, including non-linear codes, when the side information graph is a directed 3-cycle. Finally, we present techniques to design locally decodable index codes for arbitrary single unicast problems and arbitrary values of locality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The wiretap channel model of Wyner is one of the first communication models with both reliability and security constraints. Capacity-achieving schemes for various models of the wiretap channel have received considerable attention in recent literature. In this paper, we show that capacity of the general (not necessarily degraded or symmetric) wiretap channel under a “strong secrecy constraint” can be achieved using a transmission scheme based on polar codes. We also extend our construction to the case of broadcast channels with confidential messages defined by Csiszár and Körner, achieving the entire capacity region of this communication model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the index coding problem a sender holds a message $x \in \{0,1\}^{n}$ and wishes to broadcast information to $n$ receivers in a way that enables the $i$ th receiver to retrieve the $i$ th bit $x_{i}$. Every receiver has prior side information comprising a subset of the bits of $x$ , and the goal is to minimize the length of the information sent via the broadcast channel. Porter and Wootters have recently introduced the model of embedded index coding, where the receivers also play the role of the sender and the goal is to minimize the total length of their broadcast information. An embedded index code is said to be task-based if every receiver retrieves its bit based only on the information provided by one of the receivers. This paper studies the effect of the task-based restriction on linear embedded index coding. It is shown that for certain side information maps there exists a linear embedded index code of length quadratically smaller than that of any task-based embedded index code. The result attains, up to a multiplicative constant, the largest possible gap between the two quantities. The proof is by an explicit construction and the analysis involves spectral techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two independent data streams are to be transmitted over a noisy discrete memoryless channel with noiseless (ideal) feedback. Errors are tolerated only in the second stream, provided that they occur with vanishing probability. The rate of the error-free stream cannot, of course, exceed the channel’s zero-error feedback capacity, and nor can the sum of the streams’ rates exceed the channel’s Shannon capacity. Using a suitable coding scheme, these necessary conditions are shown to characterize all the achievable rate pairs. Planning for the worst channel behavior—as is needed to achieve zero-error communication—and planning for the typical channel behavior—as is needed to communicate near the Shannon limit—are thus not incompatible. It is further shown that feedback may be beneficial for the multiplexing problem even on channels on which it does not increase the zero-error capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An erasure broadcast network is considered with two disjoint sets of receivers: a set of weak receivers with all-equal erasure probabilities and equal cache sizes and a set of strong receivers with all-equal erasure probabilities and no cache memories. Lower and upper bounds are presented on the capacity-memory tradeoff of this network (the largest rate at which messages can be reliably communicated for given cache sizes). The lower bound is achieved by means of a joint cache-channel coding scheme and significantly improves over traditional schemes based on the separate cache-channel coding. In particular, it is shown that the joint cache-channel coding offers new global caching gains that scale with the number of strong receivers in the network. The upper bound uses bounding techniques from degraded broadcast channels and introduces an averaging argument to capture the fact that the contents of the cache memories are designed before knowing users’ demands. The derived upper bound is valid for all stochastically degraded broadcast channels. The lower and upper bounds match for a single weak receiver (and any number of strong receivers) when the cache size does not exceed a certain threshold. Improved bounds are presented for the special case of a single weak and a single strong receiver with two files and the bounds are shown to match over a large range of cache sizes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We derive universal classical-quantum superposition coding and universal classical-quantum multiple access channel coding by using generalized packing lemmas for the type method. Using our classical-quantum universal superposition code, we establish the capacity region of a classical-quantum compound broadcast channel with degraded message sets. Our universal classical-quantum multiple access channel codes have two types of codes. One is a code with joint decoding and the other is a code with separate decoding. It is not so easy to construct a former code that universally achieves general points of the capacity region beyond corner points. First, we construct the latter code that universally achieves general points of the capacity region. Then, converting the latter code to the former coder, we construct the above desired code with the former type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lossy transmission of Gaussian sources over energy-limited Gaussian point-to-point and broadcast channels is studied under the infinite bandwidth regime, i.e., when the number of channel uses is unlimited. Using previously known asymptotic achievability and converse results, the energy-distortion exponent, defined as the rate of decay of the square-error distortion as the available energy-to-noise ratio increases without bound, is completely characterized for both the point-to-point and broadcast channel cases. Turning then to the scenario of zero-delay transmission, where outage events with arbitrarily small probability are allowed, it is shown that the same energy-distortion exponent as in the infinite-delay case can be achieved in all the studied scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linear network coding transmits data through networks by letting the intermediate nodes combine the messages they receive and forward the combinations toward their destinations. The solvability problem asks whether the demands of all the destinations can be simultaneously satisfied by using linear network coding. The guessing number approach converts this problem into determining the number of fixed points of coding functions f:A^n\to A^n over a finite alphabet $A$ (usually referred to as Boolean networks if A = \{0,1\} ) with a given interaction graph that describes which local functions depend on which variables. In this paper, we generalize the so-called reduction of coding functions in order to eliminate variables. We then determine the maximum number of fixed points of a fully reduced coding function, whose interaction graph has a loop on every vertex. Since the reduction preserves the number of fixed points, we then apply these ideas and results to obtain four main results on the linear network coding solvability problem. First, we prove that non-decreasing coding functions cannot solve any more instances than routing already does. Second, we show that the triangle-free undirected graphs are linearly solvable if and only if they are solvable by routing. This is the first classification result for the linear network coding solvability problem. Third, we exhibit a new class of non-linearly solvable graphs. Fourth, we determine large classes of strictly linearly solvable graphs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The two user multiple-input single-output (MISO) broadcast channel with confidential messages (BCCM) is studied, in which the nature of channel state information at the transmitter (CSIT) from each user can be of the form Ii , i=1,2 where I_{1}, I_{2}\in \{\mathsf {P}, \mathsf {D}, \mathsf {N}\} , and the forms \mathsf {P} , \mathsf D , and \mathsf N correspond to perfect and instantaneous, completely delayed, and no CSIT, respectively. Thus, the overall CSIT can alternate between nine possible states corresponding to all possible values of I1I2 , with each state occurring for \lambda I1I2 fraction of the total duration. We assume that perfect and instantaneous CSI is available at the all receivers. The main contribution of this paper is to establish the secure degrees of freedom (s.d.o.f.) region of the MISO BCCM with alternating CSIT with the symmetry assumption, where \lambda I1 I2=\lambda I2I1 . The main technical contributions include developing 1) novel achievable schemes for MISO BCCM with alternating CSIT with security constraints, which also highlight the synergistic benefits of inter-state coding for secrecy; 2) new converse proofs via local statistical equivalence and channel enhancement; and 3) showing the interplay between various aspects of channel knowledge and their impact on s.d.o.f. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A broadcast channel (BC) where the decoders cooperate via a one-sided link is considered. One common and two private messages are transmitted and the private message to the cooperative user should be kept secret from the cooperation-aided user. The secrecy level is measured in terms of strong secrecy, i.e., a vanishing information leakage. An inner bound on the capacity region is derived by using a channel-resolvability-based code that double-bins the codebook of the secret message, and by using a likelihood encoder to choose the transmitted codeword. The inner bound is shown to be tight for semi-deterministic and physically degraded BCs, and the results are compared with those of the corresponding BCs without a secrecy constraint. Blackwell and Gaussian BC examples illustrate the impact of secrecy on the rate regions. Unlike the case without secrecy, where sharing information about both private messages via the cooperative link is optimal, our protocol conveys parts of the common and non-confidential messages only. This restriction reduces the transmission rates more than the usual rate loss due to secrecy requirements. An example that illustrates this loss is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Two alternative exact characterizations of the minimum error probability of Bayesian $M$ -ary hypothesis testing are derived. The first expression corresponds to the error probability of an induced binary hypothesis test and implies the tightness of the meta-converse bound by Polyanskiy et al.; the second expression is a function of an information-spectrum measure and implies the tightness of a generalized Verdú-Han lower bound. The formulas characterize the minimum error probability of several problems in information theory and help to identify the steps where existing converse bounds are loose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aligned-Images Sum-set Inequalities are used in this work to study the Generalized Degrees of Freedom (GDoF) of the symmetric layered multi-hop interference channel under the robust assumption that the channel state information at the transmitters (CSIT) is limited to finite precision. First, the sum-GDoF value is characterized for the $2\times 2\times 2$ setting that is comprised of 2 sources, 2 relays, and 2 destinations. It is shown that the sum-GDoF does not improve even if perfect CSIT is allowed in the first hop, as long as the CSIT in the second hop is limited to finite precision. The sum GDoF characterization is then generalized to the $2\times 2\times \cdots \times 2$ setting that is comprised of $L$ hops. Remarkably, for large $L$ , the sum-GDoF value approaches that of the one-hop broadcast channel that is obtained by full cooperation among the two transmitters of the last hop, with finite precision CSIT. Previous studies of multi-hop interference networks either identified sophisticated GDoF optimal schemes under perfect CSIT, such as aligned interference neutralization and network diagonalization, that are powerful in theory but too fragile to be practical, or studied robust achievable schemes like classical amplify/decode/compress-and-forward without claims of information-theoretic optimality. In contrast, under finite precision CSIT, we show that the benefits of fragile schemes are lost, while a combination of classical random coding schemes that are simpler and much more robust, namely a rate-splitting between decode-and-forward and amplify-and-forward, is shown to be GDoF optimal. As such, this work represents another step towards bridging the gap between theory (optimality) and practice (robustness) with the aid of Aligned-Images Sum-set Inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce a new analysis technique to derive a single-letter upper bound on the mismatch capacity of a stationary, single-user, memoryless channel with a decoding metric $q$. Our bound is obtained by considering a multicast transmission over a two-user broadcast channel with decoding metrics $q$ and $\rho $ at the receivers, referred to as $(q,\rho)$ -surely degraded. This channel has the property that the intersection event of correct $q$ -decoding of receiver 1 and erroneous $\rho $ -decoding of receiver 2 has zero probability for any fixed-composition codebook of a certain composition $P$. Our bound holds in the strong converse sense of an exponential decay of the probability of correct decoding at rates above the bound. Further, we refine the proof and present a bound that is tighter than that of any choice of $\rho $. Several examples that demonstrate the strict improvement of our bound compared to previous results are analyzed. Finally, we detect equivalence classes of isomorphic channel-metric pairs $(W,q)$ that share the same mismatch capacity. We prove that if the class contains a matched pair, then our bound is tight and the mismatch capacity of the entire class is fully characterized and is equal to the LM rate, which is achievable by random coding, and may be strictly lower that the matched capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Degraded K-user broadcast channels (BCs) are studied when the receivers are facilitated with cache memories. Lower and upper bounds are derived on the capacity-memory tradeoff, i.e., on the largest rate of reliable communication over the BC as a function of the receivers’ cache sizes, and the bounds are shown to match for interesting special cases. The lower bounds are achieved by two new coding schemes that benefit from nonuniform cache assignments. Lower and upper bounds are also established on the global capacity-memory tradeoff, i.e., on the largest capacity-memory tradeoff that can be attained by optimizing the receivers’ cache sizes subject to a total cache memory budget. The bounds coincide when the total cache memory budget is sufficiently small or sufficiently large, where the thresholds depend on the BC statistics. For small cache memories, it is optimal to assign all the cache memory to the weakest receiver. In this regime, the global capacity-memory tradeoff grows by the total cache memory budget divided by the number of files in the system. In other words, a perfect global caching gain is achievable in this regime and the performance corresponds to a system where all the cache contents in the network are available to all receivers. For large cache memories, it is optimal to assign a positive cache memory to every receiver, such that the weaker receivers are assigned larger cache memories compared to the stronger receivers. In this regime, the growth rate of the global capacity-memory tradeoff is further divided by the number of users, which corresponds to a local caching gain. It is observed numerically that a uniform assignment of the total cache memory is suboptimal in all regimes, unless the BC is completely symmetric. For erasure BCs, this claim is proved analytically in the regime of small cache sizes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Wyner–Ahlswede–Körner (WAK) empirical-coordination problem where the encoders cooperate via a finite-capacity one-sided link is considered. The coordination-capacity region is derived by combining several source coding techniques, such as Wyner–Ziv coding, binning, and superposition coding. Furthermore, a semi-deterministic (SD) broadcast channel (BC) with one-sided decoder cooperation is considered. Duality principles relating the two problems are presented, and the capacity region for the SD-BC setting is derived. The direct part follows from an achievable region for a general BC that is tight for the SD scenario. A converse is established by using telescoping identities. The SD-BC is shown to be operationally equivalent to a class of relay-BCs, and the correspondence between their capacity regions is established. The capacity region of the SD-BC is transformed into an equivalent region that is shown to be dual to the admissible region of the WAK problem in the sense that the information measures defining the corner points of both regions coincide. Achievability and converse proofs for the equivalent region are provided. For the converse, we use a probabilistic construction of auxiliary random variables that depends on the distribution induced by the codebook. Several examples illustrate the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study low-delay erasure correction codes in a real-time streaming setup. The encoder observes a stream of source packets and outputs the channel packets in a causal fashion, which are broadcast to two receivers over burst-erasure channels. Each receiver must decode the source packets sequentially with a deadline of Ti , while its channel can introduce an erasure burst of maximum length Bi , where i \in \1,2\ and w.l.o.g. B2 > B1 . We study the associated capacity as a function of the burst lengths and decoding deadlines. We observe that the operation of the system can be divided into two main regimes. The so-called large-delay regime corresponds to the case when either T1 \ge B2 or T2 \ge B1+B2 . We show that for these parameters, the optimal code is obtained through simple modifications of previously proposed single-user codes by Martinian et al. and the diversity embedded streaming codes proposed by Badr et al. When both T1 < B2 and T2 < B1 + B2 , the system is said to be in the low-delay regime. We propose a new code construction and establish its optimality when T2 \ge T1 + B1 . In the case when T2 < T1 + B1, we establish upper and lower bounds on the capacity and characterize the exact capacity when either T1=B1 or T2=B2 . Our upper bounds in the low-delay regime are based on novel information theoretic arguments that capture the tension between the decoding constraints at the two receivers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]