Physical-layer Network Coding System Research Articles

Implementation of DNN-Based Physical-Layer Network Coding

Physical-layer network coding (PNC) has been proposed to double the throughput of a wireless two-way relay network (TWRN) and has been adapted so that it can be applied in vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs). Deep neural network (DNN)-based physical-layer network coding (PNC) for the TWRN system has been studied in recent years, under the assumption that the channel state information (CSI) is available to the end nodes and the relay node. However, the state-of-the-art DNN-based PNC system was only feasible for theoretical simulations, and no practical system design has been studied. When moving from theory to practical wireless systems, there are two critical issues to tackle: 1) unlike conventional regularly shaped quadrature amplitude modulations (QAMs), the constellation points of a DNN-based PNC system's end nodes are irregular and unpredictable to the relay node; and 2) other than in high-precision simulations, the practical DNN-based PNC system's constellation points are not fixed, that is, there is usually a cluster of points that must be grouped together so that the transceiver's digital-to-analog converter (DAC) and analog-to-digital converter (ADC) can work properly. To solve the above issues, we proposed the DNN-PNC implementation that can be realized using the Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) platform. The computational complexity of our simulated DNN-PNC is one order of magnitude smaller than that given in the literature, while maintaining a good bit error rate (BER). In the implementation phase, we find that the naturally-happened power imbalance between the two end nodes' signals in our implementation can significantly boost the PNC constellation recovery, and hence reduce the system BER. Our experimental results showed that the BER of DNN-PNC can be lower than <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$10^{-4}$</tex-math></inline-formula> when the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is 16 dB for the 2-QAM case and 20 dB for the 4-QAM case, respectively. These results indicate that DNN-based PNC is feasible for VANET applications, where the CSI changes and is difficult to obtain.

DNN-Based Physical-Layer Network Coding for Visible Light Communications

The key difference between visible light communication (VLC) and radio frequency (RF) communication is the former’s line-of-sight (LOS) transmission nature, and hence a relay node has to be adopted for VLC to extend its coverage. Physical-layer network coding (PNC) has the advantage of doubling the throughput of a two-way relay network (TWRN), where two end nodes exchange information via the help of a relay, compared with the conventional store-and-forward routing strategy. Although PNC has been studied for VLC in the literature, the state-of-the-art schemes are highly inefficient, requiring tight phase synchronization between the two end nodes, and hence difficult to realize. This paper proposes the application of a deep neural network (DNN) to a PNC VLC system, named DP-VLC, that enables misaligned phases and can deal with the light channel gains and noises in a satisfactory manner without introducing additional computation complexities. We implement DP-VLC using the universal software radio peripheral (USRP) software radio platform and a self-developed VLC optical front-end using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and photo-diodes (PDs). We find that irregular constellations generated by DP-PNC can be transmitted and recovered in a 1.5 m VLC link effectively. Experimental results show that our DP-PNC prototype performs better than conventional PNC VLC system when the signal-interference-to-noise ratio (SINR) of received optical signals is larger than 13.63 dB and can achieve a throughput of up to 77.38 Mbps in a 20 MHz channel under PNC scheme when the SINR is 22.86 dB. More importantly, we find that DP-VLC performs even better than fixed-constellation PNC system in the saturated SINR regime (e.g., 20–25 dB) where non-linear effects may happen compared with moderate SINR regimes (e.g., 10–20 dB), showing its adaptability to unpredictable impairments in optical links. Our first attempt at realizing DNN-based optical PNC in a TWRN has paved the way for future PNC-enhanced VLC systems.

IRS-Assisted Physical Layer Network Coding Over Two-Way Relay Fading Channels

This article investigates the performance of intelligent reflective surfaces (IRS)-aided physical layer network coding (PNC) in two-way relaying channels (TWRC). Specifically, IRS is used to eliminate carrier phase offset (CPO) at the relay node. To this end, the IRS reflectors’ phase shifts are optimized to align the received signals from two source nodes at the relay. This facilitates using a simple mapping function at the relay to map the superimposed signal to a network-coded signal. Two scenarios are considered, the first of which assumes that each source node is served by a separate IRS panel, while the second scenario considers the more challenging case where only one IRS panel is available for the two source nodes. In the latter case, the IRS panel is seen by both source nodes and its phase shifts are optimized to mitigate the CPO problem while maximizing the received signal amplitude at the relay. This optimization problem is formulated and solved over the complex circle manifold. Finally, we extend the IRS-assisted PNC system to include channel coding and higher modulation orders, for which a repeat accumulate (RA) channel-coded IRS-aided PNC scheme is proposed for general quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) signals. A belief propagation (BP) based algorithm is designed to decode the network-coded sequences over a q-Ring using modular arithmetic. Our simulation results validate the theoretical error expressions derived for the two-IRS scenario as well as the efficacy of the proposed manifold optimization approach for the one-IRS scenario. The results also confirm the efficacy of the designed channel-coded IRS-aided PNC using high QAM modulation orders.

Noncoherent Detection for Physical-Layer Network Coding

This paper investigates the noncoherent detection in a two-way relay channel operated with physical-layer network coding (PNC), assuming FSK modulation and short-packet transmissions. For noncoherent detection, the detector has access to the magnitude but not the phase of the received signal. For conventional communication in which a receiver receives the signal from a transmitter only, the phase does not affect the magnitude, and hence the performance of the noncoherent detector is independent of the phase. PNC, on the other hand, is a multiuser system in which a receiver receives signals from multiple transmitters simultaneously. The relative phase of the signals from different transmitters affects the received signal magnitude through constructive-destructive interference. In particular, for good performance, the noncoherent detector of a multiuser system such as PNC must take into account the influence of the relative phase on the signal magnitude. Building on this observation, this paper delves into the fundamentals of PNC noncoherent detector design. To avoid excessive overhead, we assume a set-up in which the short packets in the PNC system do not have preambles. We show how the relative phase can be deduced directly from the magnitudes of the received data symbols, and that the knowledge of the relative phase thus deduced can in turn be used to enhance performance of noncoherent detection. Our overall detector design consists of two components: 1) a channel gains estimator that estimates channel gains without preambles; and 2) a detector that builds on top of the estimated channel gains to jointly estimate relative phase and detect data using a belief propagation algorithm. Numerical results show that our detector performs nearly as well as a “fictitious” optimal detector that has perfect knowledge of the channel gains and relative phase. Although this paper focuses on PNC with FSK modulation, we believe that the insight of this paper applies generally to noncoherent detection in other multiuser systems with other modulations. Specifically, our insight is that the relative phase of overlapped signals affects the signal magnitude in multiuser systems, but fortunately the relative phase can be deduced from the magnitudes and this knowledge can be used to improve the detection performance.

Mobile Lattice-Coded Physical-Layer Network Coding with Practical Channel Alignment

Physical-layer network coding (PNC) is a communications paradigm that exploits overlapped transmissions to boost the throughput of wireless relay networks. A high point of PNC research was a theoretical proof that PNC that makes use of nested lattice codes could approach the information-theoretic capacity of a two-way relay network (TWRN), where two end nodes communicate via a relay node. The capacity cannot be achieved by conventional methods of time-division or straightforward network coding. Many practical challenges, however, remain to be addressed before the full potential of lattice-coded PNC can be realized. Two major challenges are: (1) for good performance in lattice-coded PNC, channels of simultaneously transmitting nodes must be aligned; (2) for lattice-coded PNC to be practical, the complexity of lattice encoding at the transmitters and lattice decoding at the receiver must be reduced. We address these challenges and implement a first lattice-coded PNC system on a software-defined radio (SDR) platform. Specifically, we design and implement a low-overhead channel precoding system that accurately aligns the channels of distributed nodes. In our implementation, the nodes use low-cost temperature-compensated oscillators (TCXO) only—a consequent challenge is that the channel alignment must be done more frequently and more accurately compared with the use of expensive oscillators. The low overhead and accurate channel alignment are achieved by (1) a channel precoding system implemented over FPGA to realize fast feedback of channel state information; (2) a highly-accurate carrier frequency offset (CFO) estimation method; and (3) a partial-feedback channel estimation method that significantly reduces the amount of feedback information from the receiver to the transmitters for channel precoding at the transmitters. To reduce lattice encoding and decoding complexities, we adapt the low-density lattice code (LDLC) for use in PNC systems. Experiments show that our implemented lattice-coded PNC achieves better bit error rate performance compared with time-division and straightforward network coding systems. It also has good throughput performance in mobile non-LoS scenarios.

Multi-channel Tracking with Different Fading Rates in an OFDM-PLNC Network

In this paper, we address the problem of tracking the time varying/frequency selective fading channels with different fading rates in a decode-and-forward physical layer network coding (PLNC) structure. Since, in a PLNC system multi users send their information to the relay, simultaneously, the relay needs to estimate the uplink multi-channels, simultaneously, to be able to extract the network coded signal from superimposed signals. Different fading rates of channels due to different velocities of mobile users in a PLNC system make the channel tracking problem more complex. Providing an algorithm to simultaneous track multi-channels in such a system is the main object of this paper. To this end, a time domain channel tracking algorithm based on sum–product rules is derived, where, both frequency and time selectivity characteristics of the channels are taken into account. In order to stabilize against the frequency selectivity property of the channels, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing is also considered in this system. High accuracy, no phase ambiguity, and stability in fast fading conditions are some advantages of the proposed approach. The performance of the algorithm in the existence of channel coding has been also considered and compared with the non-coded channel system.

Practical Power-Balanced Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access

This paper is a theoretical-plus-experimental investigation of practical 5G strategies for power-balanced non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA). By allowing multiple users to share the same time and frequency, NOMA can scale up the number of served users and increase spectral efficiency compared with existing OMA. Conventional NOMA schemes with successive interference cancellation (SIC) do not work well when users with comparable received powers transmit together. To allow power-balanced NOMA (more exactly, near power-balanced NOMA), this paper investigates a new NOMA architecture, named network-coded multiple access (NCMA). A distinguishing feature of NCMA is the joint use of physical-layer network coding (PNC) and multiuser decoding to boost NOMA throughputs. We first show that a simple NCMA architecture in which all users use the same modulation, referred to as rate-homogeneous NCMA , can achieve substantial throughput improvement over SIC-based NOMA under near power-balanced scenarios. Then, we put forth a new NCMA architecture, referred to as rate-diverse NCMA , in which different users may adopt different modulations commensurate with their relative SNRs. A challenge for rate-diverse NCMA is the design of a channel-coded PNC system. This paper is the first attempt to design channel-coded rate-diverse PNC. Experimental results on our software-defined radio prototype show that the throughput of rate-diverse NCMA can outperform the state-of-the-art rate-homogeneous NCMA by 80%. Overall, rate-diverse NCMA is a practical solution for near power-balanced NOMA.

Reliable Physical-Layer Network Coding Supporting Real Applications

This paper presents the first reliable physical-layer network coding (PNC) system that supports real TCP/IP applications for the two-way relay network (TWRN). Theoretically, PNC could boost the throughput of TWRN by a factor of 2 compared with traditional scheduling (TS) in the high signal-to-noise (SNR) regime. Although there have been many theoretical studies on PNC performance, there have been relatively few experimental and implementation efforts. Our earlier PNC prototype, built in 2012, was an offline system that processed signals offline. For a system that supports real applications, signals must be processed online in real-time. Our real-time reliable PNC prototype, referred to as RPNC, solves a number of key challenges to enable the support of real TCP/IP applications. The enabling components include: 1) a time-slotted system that achieves $\mu s$ -level synchronization for the PNC system; 2) reduction of PNC signal processing complexity to meet real-time constraints; 3) an ARQ design tailored for PNC to ensure reliable packet delivery; and 4) an interface to the application layer. We took on the challenge to implement all of the above with general-purpose processors in PC through an SDR platform rather than ASIC or FPGA. With all of these components, we have successfully demonstrated image exchange with TCP and two-party video conferencing with UDP over RPNC. Experimental results show that the achieved throughput approaches the PHY-layer data rate at high SNR, demonstrating the high efficiency of the RPNC system.

BICM-ID with Physical Layer Network Coding in TWR Free Space Optical Communication Links

Physical layer network coding (PNC) is a promising technique to improve the network throughput in a two-way relay (TWR) channel for two users to exchange messages across a wireless network. The PNC technique incorporating a TWR channel is embraced by a free space optical (FSO) communication link for full utilization of network resources, namely TWR-FSO PNC. In this paper, bit interleaved coded modulation with iterative decoding (BICM-ID) is adopted to combat the deleterious effect of the turbulence channel by saving the message being transmitted to increase the reliability of the system. Moreover, based on this technique, comparative studies between end-to-end BICM-ID code, non-iterative convolutional coded and uncoded systems are carried out. Furthermore, this paper presents the extrinsic information transfer (ExIT) charts to evaluate the performance of BICM-ID code combined with the TWR-FSO PNC system. The simulation results show that the proposed scheme can achieve a significant bit error rate (BER) performance improvement through the introduction of an iterative process between a soft demapper and decoder. Similarly, Monte Carlo simulation results are provided to support the findings. Subsequently, the ExIT functions of the two receiver components are thoroughly analysed for a variety of parameters under the influence of a turbulence-induced channel fading, demonstrating the convergence behaviour of BICM-ID to enable the TWR-FSO PNC system, effectively mitigating the impact of the fading turbulence channel.

Iterative Channel Coded Physical Layer Network Coding on Impulsive Noise Channels

Physical-Layer Network Coding (PNC) employed on a conventional two-way relay communications is an active research area due to the potential doubling of the throughput compared with traditional routing. In this paper, we investigate the effects of impulsive noise added at the relay and sink nodes of a TWRC employing link-by-link coded PNC. The Gaussian mixture model is chosen to model the impulsive noise and the performance of bit-interleaved coded modulation with iterative decoding (BICM-ID) and turbo codes on the conventional two-way relay communications is evaluated through simulation results for different mixtures, , of impulsive noise. For high and low values of the turbo codes outperform trellis BICM, but it is shown that for values between = 0.1 and = 0.5, a PNC system with trellis BICM outperforms a comparable PNC system with turbo codes, where both coding schemes have the same block size, code rate and constraint length.

On the Subtleties of -PAM Linear Physical-Layer Network Coding

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 (TWRC). 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: 1) 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. 2) 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. 3) 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 (BP) decoder, can remove the sensitivity problem, allowing a robust high-order modulated PNC system to be built.

Physical Layer Network Coding With Spectrally Efficient Pulse Shapes

This letter investigates the use of spectrally efficient pulse shapes in a physical layer network coding (PNC) system. A multi-user detector is used in the form of a maximum likelihood sequence estimator that accounts for offsets in timing, amplitude and phase between the two incoming signals in the multiple-access phase of a PNC system. It is found that with root-raised cosine (RRC) pulses, the PNC system is much more sensitive to timing offset in terms of the performance of the receiver relative to when rectangular pulses are used. Simulation results confirm that it is necessary to keep the incoming signals aligned to within about 1/10th of a symbol interval to avoid substantial performance loss.

Optical Physical-Layer Network Coding

The application of physical-layer network coding (PNC) in optical communications is explored. We propose and demonstrate a practical optical PNC prototype for multicast protection in optical flow, burst, and packet switching networks. Different from conventional theoretical PNC studies, our proposed optical PNC system does not require bit synchronization and can be easily implemented.

Implementation of physical-layer network coding

This paper presents the first implementation of a two-way relay network based on the principle of physical-layer network coding (PNC). To date, only a simplified version of PNC, called analog network coding (ANC), has been successfully implemented. The advantage of ANC is that it is simple to implement; the disadvantage, on the other hand, is that the relay amplifies the noise along with the signal before forwarding the signal. PNC systems in which the relay performs XOR or other denoising PNC mappings of the received signal have the potential for significantly better performance. However, the implementation of such PNC systems poses many challenges. For example, the relay in a PNC system must be able to deal with symbol and carrier-phase asynchronies of the simultaneous signals received from multiple nodes, and the relay must perform channel estimation before detecting the signals. We investigate a PNC implementation in the frequency domain, referred to as FPNC, to tackle these challenges. FPNC is based on OFDM. In FPNC, XOR mapping is performed on the OFDM samples in each subcarrier rather than on the samples in the time domain. We implement FPNC on the universal soft radio peripheral (USRP) platform. Our implementation requires only moderate modifications of the packet preamble design of 802.11a/g OFDM PHY. With the help of the cyclic prefix (CP) in OFDM, symbol asynchrony and the multi-path fading effects can be dealt with simultaneously in a similar fashion. Our experimental results show that symbol-synchronous and symbol-asynchronous FPNC have essentially the same BER performance, for both channel-coded and non-channel-coded FPNC systems.