Polar-code-based achievable schemes and capacity bounds for strong coordination over networks

Joerg Kliewer

Assistant Professor Klipsch School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, NM 88003-8001

Abstract:

We consider the coordination of multiagent systems over point-to-point channels and small multiterminal networks. Rather than distributing explicit messages to coordinate the behavior of different agents, we specify coordination by means of an achievable joint distribution between the actions of the agents and communicate only that amount of information needed to achieve a given joint target distribution. In particular, in this talk we address strong coordination where the target joint distribution and the joint distribution induced by a coordination code are required to be statistically indistinguishable.

Specifically, we consider a two-node network in which the action imposed by nature at the source node is binary and uniform, and the action to coordinate at the destination node is obtained via a symmetric discrete memoryless channel. By exploiting the connection between channel resolvability and strong coordination and the observation that polar codes are useful for channel resolvability over binary symmetric channels, we prove that nested polar codes achieve a subset of the strong coordination capacity region. Therefore these codes provide a constructive and low complexity solution for strong coordination. Finally, we consider coordination over three-node multiterminal structures as line networks, broadcast, and multiple access channels, and provide expressions for the achievable coordination regions.

Biography:

Joerg Kliewer received the Dipl.-Ing. (M.Sc.) degree in electrical engineering from Hamburg University of Technology, Germany, in 1993 and the Dr.-Ing. degree (Ph.D.) in electrical engineering from the University of Kiel, Germany, in 1999, respectively. From 1993 to 1998, he was a Research Assistant at the University of Kiel, and from 1999 to 2004, he was a Senior Researcher and Lecturer with the same institution. In 2004, he visited the University of Southampton, Southampton, U.K., for one year, and from 2005 until 2007, he was with the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, as a Visiting Assistant Professor. In August 2007, he joined New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, as an Assistant Professor. His research interests include information theory, error correcting codes, network coding, and communication networks. Dr. Kliewer was the recipient of a Leverhulme Trust Award and a German Research Foundation Fellowship Award in 2003 and 2004, respectively. He is Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Communications since 2008.