Maximum Information Rate Research Articles

Rate-Energy Region of SWIPT for MIMO Broadcasting Under Nonlinear Energy Harvesting Model

This paper explores the rate-energy (R-E) region of simultaneous wireless information and power transfer for MIMO broadcasting channel under the nonlinear radio frequency energy harvesting (EH) model. The goal is to characterize the tradeoff between the maximal energy transfer versus information rate. The separated EH and information decoding (ID) receivers and the co-located EH and ID receivers scenarios are considered. For the co-located receivers scenario, both time switching (TS) and power splitting (PS) receiver architectures are investigated. Optimization problems are formulated to derive the boundaries of the R-E region s for the considered systems. As the problems are nonconvex, we first transform them into equivalent ones and derive some semi-closed-form solutions, and then design efficient algorithms to solve them. Numerical results are provided to show the R-E region s of the systems, which provide some interesting insights. It is shown that all practical circuit specifications greatly affect the system R-E region. Compared with the systems under traditional linear EH model, the ones under the nonlinear EH model achieve smaller R-E region s due to the limitations of practical circuit features and also show very different R-E tradeoff behaviors.

On the Capacity of Bandlimited Optical Intensity Channels With Gaussian Noise

We determine the lower and upper bounds on the capacity of bandlimited optical intensity channels (BLOIC) with white Gaussian noise. Three types of input power constraints are considered: 1) only an average power constraint; 2) only a peak power constraint; and 3) an average and a peak power constraint. Capacity lower bounds are derived by a two-step process including: 1) for each type of constraint, designing admissible pulse amplitude modulated input waveform ensembles and 2) lower bounding the maximum achievable information rates of the designed input ensembles. Capacity upper bounds are derived by exercising constraint relaxations and utilizing known results on discrete-time optical intensity channels. We obtain degrees-of-freedom-optimal (DOF-optimal) lower bounds which have the same pre-log factor as the upper bounds, thereby characterizing the high SNR capacity of BLOIC to within a finite gap. We further derive intersymbol-interference-free (ISI-free) signaling-based lower bounds, which perform well for all practical SNR values. In particular, the ISI-free signaling-based lower bounds outperform the DOF-optimal lower bound when the SNR is below 10 dB.

Analytical modelling of the effect of noise on the terahertz in-vivo communication channel for body-centric nano-networks

The paper presents an analytical model of the terahertz (THz) communication channel (0.1 - 10 THz) for in-vivo nano-networks by considering the effect of noise on link quality and information rate. The molecular absorption noise model for in-vivo nano-networks is developed based on the physical mechanisms of the noise present in the medium, which takes into account both the radiation of the medium and the molecular absorption from the transmitted signal. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the communication channel is investigated for different power allocation schemes and the maximum achievable information rate is studied to explore the potential of THz communication inside the human body. The obtained results show that the information rate is inversely proportional to the transmission distance. Based on the studies on channel performance, it can be concluded that the achievable transmission distance of in-vivo THz nano-networks should be restrained to approximately 2 mm maximum, while the operation band of in-vivo THz nano-networks should be limited to the lower band of the THz band. This motivates the utilisation of hierarchical/cooperative networking concepts and hybrid communication techniques using molecular and electromagnetic methods for future body-centric nano-networks.

Not flying blind: A comparative study of photoreceptor function in flying and non-flying cockroaches

Flying is often associated with superior visual performance, as good vision is crucial for detection and implementation of rapid visually guided aerial movements. To understand the evolution of insect visual systems it is therefore important to compare phylogenetically related species with different investments in flight capability. Here, we describe and compare morphological and electrophysiological properties of photoreceptors from the habitually flying green cockroach Panchlora nivea and the American cockroach Periplaneta americana, which flies only at high ambient temperatures. In contrast to Periplaneta, ommatidia in Panchlora were characterized by two-tiered rhabdom, which might facilitate detection of polarized light while flying in the dark. In patch-clamp experiments, we assessed the absolute sensitivity to light, elementary and macroscopic light-activated current and voltage responses, voltage-activated potassium (Kv) conductances, and information transfer. Both species are nocturnal, and their photoreceptors were similarly sensitive to light. However, a number of important differences were found, including the presence in Panchlora of a prominent transient Kv current and a generally low variability in photoreceptor properties. The maximal information rate in Panchlora was one-third higher than in Periplaneta, owing to a substantially higher gain and membrane corner frequency. The differences in performance could not be completely explained by dissimilarities in the light-activated or Kv conductances; instead, we suggest that the superior performance of Panchlora photoreceptors mainly originates from better synchronization of elementary responses. These findings raise the issue of whether the evolutionary tuning of photoreceptor properties to visual demands proceeded differently in Blattodea than in Diptera.

Multiphase Hadamard receivers for classical communication on lossy bosonic channels

A scheme for transferring classical information over a lossy bosonic channel is proposed by generalizing the proposal presented in Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 240502 (2011) by Guha. It employs codewords formed by products of coherent states of fixed mean photon number with multiple phases which, through a passive unitary transformation, reduce to a Pulse-Position Modulation code with multiple pulse phases. The maximum information rate achievable with optimal, yet difficult to implement, detection schemes is computed and shown to saturate the classical capacity of the channel in the low energy regime. An easy to implement receiver based on a conditional Dolinar detection scheme is also proposed finding that, while suboptimal, it allows for improvements in an intermediate photon-number regime with respect to previous proposals.

Superadditivity of Quantum Channel Coding Rate With Finite Blocklength Joint Measurements

The maximum rate at which classical information can be reliably transmitted per use of a quantum channel strictly increases in general with $N$, the number of channel outputs that are detected jointly by the quantum joint-detection receiver (JDR). This phenomenon is known as superadditivity of the maximum achievable information rate over a quantum channel. We study this phenomenon for a pure-state classical-quantum (cq) channel and provide a lower bound on $C_N/N$, the maximum information rate when the JDR is restricted to making joint measurements over no more than $N$ quantum channel outputs, while allowing arbitrary classical error correction. We also show the appearance of a superadditivity phenomenon---of mathematical resemblance to the aforesaid problem---in the channel capacity of a classical discrete memoryless channel (DMC) when a concatenated coding scheme is employed, and the inner decoder is forced to make hard decisions on $N$-length inner codewords. Using this correspondence, we develop a unifying framework for the above two notions of superadditivity, and show that for our lower bound to $C_N/N$ to be equal to a given fraction of the asymptotic capacity $C$ of the respective channel, $N$ must be proportional to $V/C^2$, where $V$ is the respective channel dispersion quantity.

Spectral distribution of local field potential responses to electrical stimulation of the retina

Objective. Different frequency bands of the local field potential (LFP) have been shown to reflect neuronal activity occurring at varying cortical scales. As such, recordings of the LFP may offer a novel way to test the efficacy of neural prostheses and allow improvement of stimulation strategies via neural feedback. Here we use LFP measurements from visual cortex to characterize neural responses to electrical stimulation of the retina. We aim to show that the LFP is a viable signal that contains sufficient information to optimize the performance of sensory neural prostheses. Approach. Clinically relevant electrode arrays were implanted in the suprachoroidal space of one eye in four felines. LFPs were simultaneously recorded in response to stimulation of individual electrodes using penetrating microelectrode arrays from the visual cortex. The frequency response of each electrode was extracted using multi-taper spectral analysis and the uniqueness of the responses was determined via a linear decoder. Main results. We found that cortical LFPs are reliably modulated by electrical stimulation of the retina and that the responses are spatially localized. We further characterized the spectral distribution of responses, with maximum information being contained in the low and high gamma bands. Finally, we found that LFP responses are unique to a large range of stimulus parameters (∼40) with a maximum conveyable information rate of 6.1 bits. Significance. These results show that the LFP can be used to validate responses to electrical stimulation of the retina and we provide the first steps towards using these responses to provide more efficacious stimulation strategies.

Generalized Precoder Designs Based on Weighted MMSE Criterion for Energy Harvesting Constrained MIMO Channels

This paper studies precoder designs for simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) in multi-input multi-output (MIMO) channels, where a transmitter sends information to information decoding (ID) users while satisfying the minimum energy requirement of energy harvesting users. In contrast to the previous designs focused only on maximum information rate (MIR), we propose a more general and simpler solution using the weighted minimum mean squared error (WMMSE) criterion. To solve the SWIPT-WMMSE problem which is generally non-convex, we suggest two different design schemes, separate and joint designs. Interestingly, it is shown that the joint design achieves optimal performance with a single initial point and a few iterations, while the separate design needs a large number of iterations and initial points to approach the optimum. Based on the observation, we propose a simple closed-form solution, which is shown to achieve near optimal performance with reduced complexity. The derived solution can be adopted in various pragmatic applications of MIMO communications, such as the MMSE, quality-of-service, equal error designs, as well as the MIR by adjusting the weight matrix. We also confirm that our design strategies are a great use for managing co-channel interference in multiple ID-user scenarios. Finally, simulation results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed MIMO-SWIPT framework.

On the Diversity of Linear Transceivers in MIMO AF Relaying Systems

In this paper, we provide a comprehensive survey on designs and analyses of various relay-destination transceiving schemes, such as zero-forcing (ZF), minimum mean squared error (MMSE), and maximum information rate (MIR) criteria, in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying systems. In the first part of the paper, we suggest a new framework for the transceiver designs utilizing a decomposable property of the error covariance matrix to give a general insight on the system and make the analysis more tractable. Then, in the second part of the paper, we provide an in-depth analysis on their diversity performance. Our analysis embraces two different scenarios, namely, the diversity-multiplexing tradeoff (DMT) and the diversity-rate tradeoff (DRT). First, we derive compact closed-form expressions for the DMT through tight upper and lower bounds. Then, we observe that while our DMT analysis accurately predicts performance of the ZF and MIR schemes, the MMSE-based designs exhibit a complicated rate-dependent behavior and, thus, are very unpredictable via DMT for finite rate cases. Thus, second, we highlight this interesting observation and characterize the diversity of the MMSE schemes at all finite rates. This leads to closed-form expressions for the DRT which reveals relationship between diversity, spectral efficiency, and the number of antennas at each node. The DRT analysis compliments our work on DMT, and thus, the paper provides a complete understanding on the diversity of MIMO AF relaying systems.

Outage performance of a network coding aided multi‐user cooperative secondary network

AbstractWe evaluate the performance of a network‐coded cooperative secondary network in a cognitive radio system under spectrum sharing constraints. The secondary network is composed of multiple sources that cooperate to transmit their own information to a common secondary destination. The outage probability is analysed under a given maximum interference constraint set by the primary network as well as to the maximum transmit power limit of the secondary sources. Moreover, we also obtain a closed‐form equation for the ϵ‐outage capacity, that is, the maximum information rate achieved by the secondary sources given a target outage probability. Also, we resort to the Dinkelbach algorithm in order to find the optimum number of parity packets that maximises the ϵ‐outage capacity. The influence of the number of source nodes and another system parameters in the secondary's performance is also evaluated, and we show through theoretical and numerical results that cooperative communication with network coding can provide significant gains in terms of outage probability and diversity order when compared with non‐cooperative or traditional cooperative. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Biophysical properties of photoreceptors in Corixa punctata facilitate diurnal life-style

Measurement of evolutionary adaptations of a visual system to its visual and operational ecology requires comparison of visual function in different species with similar morphologies and visual ecologies, occupying the same habitats but displaying differences in visually-guided behavior. The goal here was to document the biophysical properties of photoreceptors in the lesser water boatman Corixa punctata, which shares many features with the previously studied aquatic predator water boatman backswimmer Notonecta glauca. However, unlike the backswimmer, which heavily relies on vision to catch its prey, Corixa is a detritivore. Using the patch-clamp method, I found that the average whole-cell capacitance of Corixa photoreceptors was 441±206pF, higher than in any other insect studied so far, and that absolute sensitivity was positively correlated with capacitance (Spearman rank correlation coefficient, 0.73). Interestingly, both the sensitivity distribution median and variation in Corixa were similar to the corresponding values in the diurnal water strider Gerris lacustris and were substantially smaller than in the noctidial N. glauca or the nocturnal/crepuscular cockroach Periplaneta americana. Furthermore, capacitance was correlated with the amplitudes of light-induced (0.70) and delayed rectifier K+ (0.46) currents, membrane corner frequency (0.68) and maximal information rate (IRmax, 0.74). No correlation was observed between capacitance and transient K+ current. Average IRmax in Corixa was 36.0±21.3bitss−1, much higher than in G. lacustris but smaller than in N. glauca. These findings support the hypothesis that Corixa’s retinal function is adapted to its diurnal life-style, which is also consistent with field observations.

Zero-forcing beamforming for physical layer security of energy harvesting wireless communications

Abstract In this paper, we consider the physical layer security for simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) in a multiple-input single-output (MISO) system that is consisted of three nodes: one transmitter with multiple antennas, one information decoding (ID) receiver with single antenna, and one energy harvesting (EH) receiver with single antenna. We propose a new zero-forcing based strategy that contains both the information beamforming and the energy beamforming, pointing to different receivers. To prevent the energy receiver from possibly eavesdropping the information, our target is to maximize the secrecy-rate of the ID receiver while at the same time maintaining a minimum required energy for the EH receiver. For the case that artificial noise is not used, the original non-convex problem can be directly converted into convex subproblems, where the closed-form optimal solutions are derived. For the case that artificial noise is used, the initial non-convex problem can be decomposed into two quasi-convex subproblems where closed-form solutions are derived, and the global optimal solutions are obtained with the aid of one-dimensional search. Simulations results demonstrate the trade-off between the maximum secret information rate and the transferred energy, which is characterized by the boundary of secret rate-energy (R-E) region.

Parallel Sub-Channel Transmission for Cognitive Radios with Multiple Antennas

In a cognitive radio network that the transceivers have multiple antennas, the secondary users are in cognizant of the spatial channels toward the primary users. The secondary transmitter adjusts the spatial spectrum of its transmission in order to maximize its own information rate while generating acceptable interference to the primary receivers. This paper investigates the rate maximization problem of parallel sub-channel transmission for cognitive radios. The sub-channels are along the spatial directions of the projected channel matrix that nullifies the dominant directions toward the primary receiver, and the power allocation on these sub-channels follows a multi-level water-filling solution. Simulation and experimental results show that, when the number of dimensions of the projected channel matrix is appropriately chosen, this practical transmission method can reach a maximum information rate that is close to the rate of the computationally expensive optimal transmission.

Developmental changes in biophysical properties of photoreceptors in the common water strider (Gerris lacustris): better performance at higher cost.

Although the dependence of invertebrate photoreceptor biophysical properties on visual ecology has already been investigated in some cases, developmental aspects have largely been ignored due to the general research emphasis on holometabolous insects. Here, using the patch-clamp method, we examined changes in biophysical properties and performance of photoreceptors in the common water strider Gerris lacustris during postembryonic development. We identified two types of peripheral photoreceptors, green and blue sensitive. Whole cell capacitance (a measure of cell size) of blue photoreceptors was significantly higher than the capacitance of green photoreceptors (69 ± 20 vs. 43 ± 12 pF, respectively). Most of the measured morphological and biophysical parameters changed with development. Photoreceptor capacitance increased progressively and was positively correlated with sensitivity to light, magnitudes and densities of light-induced (LIC) and delayed rectifier K(+) (IDR) currents, membrane corner frequency, and maximal information rate [Spearman rank correlation coefficients: 0.70 (sensitivity), 0.79 (LIC magnitude), 0.79 (IDR magnitude), 0.48 (corner frequency), and 0.57 (information rate)]. Transient K(+) current increased to a smaller extent, while its density decreased. We found no significant changes in the properties of single photon responses or levels of light-induced depolarization, the latter indicating a balanced channelome expansion associated with IDR expression. However, the dramatic ∼7.6-fold increase in IDR from first instars to adults indicated a development-related rise in the metabolic cost of information. In conclusion, this study provides novel insights into functional photoreceptor adaptations with development and illustrates remarkable variability in patterns of postembryonic retinal development in hemimetabolous insects with dissimilar visual ecologies and behaviors.

Design of AWG Devices for All-Optical Time-Frequency Packing

We present the design guidelines for novel passive arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) devices to all-optically implement time-frequency packing techniques in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. The proposed approach can increase the spectral efficiency in long-haul fiber links. We analyze the system performances, evaluating the maximum achievable information rate and spectral efficiency, and we found the optimal AWG layout to maximize the overall system capacity. We demonstrate, through simulations, that an overall 1.4 Tb/s transmission over 200 GHz bandwidth can be reached, using two polarizations, quadrature phase shift keying modulation, and digital feedback equalization.

Does amplify-and-forward cooperative relay improve OFDM/OFDMA ergodic capacity?

The ergodic information rate for Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing / Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access with amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying systems in the presence of frequency offsets is evaluated. Unlike previous work, per-subcarrier adaptive power allocation is performed on each relay to optimize the system ergodic information rate. For a given frequency offset and total number of relays M, the AF ergodic information rate is proven to be a monotonically increasing function of a (the ratio of the power allocated to the source node and the total transmit power), implying that the maximum ergodic information rate can be obtained at α=1 (i.e., there is no cooperative relay). Furthermore, the proof of "cooperative relays cannot improve the AF ergodic information rate in a quasi-static wireless channel" is also provided in this letter.

The Effect of Cell Size and Channel Density on Neuronal Information Encoding and Energy Efficiency

Identifying the determinants of neuronal energy consumption and their relationship to information coding is critical to understanding neuronal function and evolution. Three of the main determinants are cell size, ion channel density, and stimulus statistics. Here we investigate their impact on neuronal energy consumption and information coding by comparing single-compartment spiking neuron models of different sizes with different densities of stochastic voltage-gated Na+ and K+ channels and different statistics of synaptic inputs. The largest compartments have the highest information rates but the lowest energy efficiency for a given voltage-gated ion channel density, and the highest signaling efficiency (bits spike−1) for a given firing rate. For a given cell size, our models revealed that the ion channel density that maximizes energy efficiency is lower than that maximizing information rate. Low rates of small synaptic inputs improve energy efficiency but the highest information rates occur with higher rates and larger inputs. These relationships produce a Law of Diminishing Returns that penalizes costly excess information coding capacity, promoting the reduction of cell size, channel density, and input stimuli to the minimum possible, suggesting that the trade-off between energy and information has influenced all aspects of neuronal anatomy and physiology.

MIMO Broadcasting for Simultaneous Wireless Information and Power Transfer

Wireless power transfer (WPT) is a promising new solution to provide convenient and perpetual energy supplies to wireless networks. In practice, WPT is implementable by various technologies such as inductive coupling, magnetic resonate coupling, and electromagnetic (EM) radiation, for short-/mid-/long-range applications, respectively. In this paper, we consider the EM or radio signal enabled WPT in particular. Since radio signals can carry energy as well as information at the same time, a unified study on simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) is pursued. Specifically, this paper studies a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless broadcast system consisting of three nodes, where one receiver harvests energy and another receiver decodes information separately from the signals sent by a common transmitter, and all the transmitter and receivers may be equipped with multiple antennas. Two scenarios are examined, in which the information receiver and energy receiver are separated and see different MIMO channels from the transmitter, or co-located and see the identical MIMO channel from the transmitter. For the case of separated receivers, we derive the optimal transmission strategy to achieve different tradeoffs for maximal information rate versus energy transfer, which are characterized by the boundary of a so-called rate-energy (R-E) region. For the case of co-located receivers, we show an outer bound for the achievable R-E region due to the potential limitation that practical energy harvesting receivers are not yet able to decode information directly. Under this constraint, we investigate two practical designs for the co-located receiver case, namely time switching and power splitting, and characterize their achievable R-E regions in comparison to the outer bound.

Reliable Communication over Non-Binary Insertion/Deletion Channels

We consider the problem of reliable communication over non-binary insertion/deletion channels where symbols are randomly deleted from or inserted in the received sequence and all symbols are corrupted by additive white Gaussian noise. To this end, we utilize the inherent redundancy achievable in non-binary symbol sets by first expanding the symbol set and then allocating part of the bits associated with each symbol to watermark symbols. The watermark sequence, known at the receiver, is then used by a forward-backward algorithm to provide soft information for an outer code which decodes the transmitted sequence. Through numerical results and discussions, we evaluate the performance of the proposed solution and show that it leads to significant system ability to detect and correct insertions/deletions. We also provide estimates of the maximum achievable information rates of the system, compare them with the available bounds, and construct practical codes capable of approaching these limits.

Postembryonic Developmental Changes in Photoreceptors of the Stick InsectCarausius morosus Enhance the Shift to an Adult Nocturnal Life-Style

Optimization of sensory processing during development can be studied by using photoreceptors of hemimetabolous insects (with incomplete metamorphosis) as a research model. We have addressed this topic in the stick insect Carausius morosus, where retinal growth after hatching is accompanied by a diurnal-to-nocturnal shift in behavior, by recording from photoreceptors of first instar nymphs and adult animals using the patch-clamp method. In the nymphs, ommatidia were smaller and photoreceptors were on average 15-fold less sensitive to light than in adults. The magnitude of A-type K(+) current did not increase but the delayed rectifier doubled in adults compared with nymphs, the K(+) current densities being greater in the nymphs. By contrast, the density of light-induced current did not increase, although its magnitude increased 8.6-fold, probably due to the growth of microvilli. Nymph photoreceptors performed poorly, demonstrating a peak information rate (IR) of 2.9 ± 0.7 bits/s versus 34.1 ± 5.0 bits/s in adults in response to white-noise stimulation. Strong correlations were found between photoreceptor capacitance (a proxy for cell size) and IR, and between light sensitivity and IR, with larger and more sensitive photoreceptors performing better. In adults, IR peaked at light intensities matching irradiation from the evening sky. Our results indicate that biophysical properties of photoreceptors at each age stage and visual behavior are interdependent and that developmental improvement in photoreceptor performance may facilitate the switch from the diurnal to the safer nocturnal lifestyle. This also has implications for how photoreceptors achieve optimal performance.