OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
Index coding via linear programming
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2011
Year: 2011

Index Coding has received considerable attention recently motivated in part by real-world applications and in part by its connection to Network Coding. The basic setting of Index Coding encodes the problem input as an undirected graph and the fundamental parameter is the broadcast rate $β$, the average communication cost per bit for sufficiently long messages (i.e. the non-linear vector capacity). Recent nontrivial bounds on $β$ were derived from the study of other Index Coding capacities (e.g. the scalar capacity $β_1$) by Bar-Yossef et al (2006), Lubetzky and Stav (2007) and Alon et al (2008). However, these indirect bounds shed little light on the behavior of $β$: there was no known polynomial-time algorithm for approximating $β$ in a general network to within a nontrivial (i.e. $o(n)$) factor, and the exact value of $β$ remained unknown for any graph where Index Coding is nontrivial. Our main contribution is a direct information-theoretic analysis of the broadcast rate $β$ using linear programs, in contrast to previous approaches that compared $β$ with graph-theoretic parameters. This allows us to resolve the aforementioned two open questions. We provide a polynomial-time algorithm with a nontrivial approximation ratio for computing $β$ in a general network along with a polynomial-time decision procedure for recognizing instances with $β=2$. In addition, we pinpoint $β$ precisely for various classes of graphs (e.g. for various Cayley graphs of cyclic groups) thereby simultaneously improving the previously known upper and lower bounds for these graphs. Via this approach we construct graphs where the difference between $β$ and its trivial lower bound is linear in the number of vertices and ones where $β$ is uniformly bounded while its upper bound derived from the naive encoding scheme is polynomially worse.
Fastest Distributed Consensus Problem on Branches of an Arbitrary Connected Sensor Network
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2011
Year: 2011

This paper studies the fastest distributed consensus averaging problem on branches of an arbitrary connected sensor network. In the previous works full knowledge about the sensor network's connectivity topology was required for determining the optimal weights and convergence rate of distributed consensus averaging algorithm over the network. Here in this work for the first time, the optimal weights are determined analytically for the edges of certain types of branches, independent of the rest of network. The solution procedure consists of stratification of associated connectivity graph of the branches and Semidefinite Programming (SDP), particularly solving the slackness conditions, where the optimal weights are obtained by inductive comparing of the characteristic polynomials initiated by slackness conditions. Several examples and numerical results are provided to confirm the optimality of the obtained weights.
The Compound Multiple Access Channel with Partially Cooperating Encoders
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2011
Year: 2011

The goal of this paper is to provide a rigorous information-theoretic analysis of subnetworks of interference networks. We prove two coding theorems for the compound multiple-access channel with an arbitrary number of channel states. The channel state information at the transmitters is such that each transmitter has a finite partition of the set of states and knows which element of the partition the actual state belongs to. The receiver may have arbitrary channel state information. The first coding theorem is for the case that both transmitters have a common message and that each has an additional common message. The second coding theorem is for the case where rate-constrained, but noiseless transmitter cooperation is possible. This cooperation may be used to exchange information about channel state information as well as the messages to be transmitted. The cooperation protocol used here generalizes Willems' conferencing. We show how this models base station cooperation in modern wireless cellular networks used for interference coordination and capacity enhancement. In particular, the coding theorem for the cooperative case shows how much cooperation is necessary in order to achieve maximal capacity in the network considered.
A Survey on Temporal Logics
Venue: arXiv cs.LO 2011
Year: 2011

This paper surveys main and recent studies on temporal logics in a broad sense by presenting various logic systems, dealing with various time structures, and discussing important features, such as decidability (or undecidability) results, expressiveness and proof systems.
Bounding the Impact of Unbounded Attacks in Stabilization
Venue: arXiv cs.DC 2011
Year: 2011

Self-stabilization is a versatile approach to fault-tolerance since it permits a distributed system to recover from any transient fault that arbitrarily corrupts the contents of all memories in the system. Byzantine tolerance is an attractive feature of distributed systems that permits to cope with arbitrary malicious behaviors. Combining these two properties proved difficult: it is impossible to contain the spatial impact of Byzantine nodes in a self-stabilizing context for global tasks such as tree orientation and tree construction. We present and illustrate a new concept of Byzantine containment in stabilization. Our property, called Strong Stabilization enables to contain the impact of Byzantine nodes if they actually perform too many Byzantine actions. We derive impossibility results for strong stabilization and present strongly stabilizing protocols for tree orientation and tree construction that are optimal with respect to the number of Byzantine nodes that can be tolerated in a self-stabilizing context.
Optimal Exact-Regenerating Codes for Distributed Storage at the MSR and MBR Points via a Product-Matrix Construction
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2011
Year: 2011

Regenerating codes are a class of distributed storage codes that optimally trade the bandwidth needed for repair of a failed node with the amount of data stored per node of the network. Minimum Storage Regenerating (MSR) codes minimize first, the amount of data stored per node, and then the repair bandwidth, while Minimum Bandwidth Regenerating (MBR) codes carry out the minimization in the reverse order. An [n, k, d] regenerating code permits the data to be recovered by connecting to any k of the n nodes in the network, while requiring that repair of a failed node be made possible by connecting (using links of lesser capacity) to any d nodes. Previous, explicit and general constructions of exact-regenerating codes have been confined to the case n=d+1. In this paper, we present optimal, explicit constructions of MBR codes for all feasible values of [n, k, d] and MSR codes for all [n, k, d >= 2k-2], using a product-matrix framework. The particular product-matrix nature of the constructions is shown to significantly simplify system operation. To the best of our knowledge, these are the first constructions of exact-regenerating codes that allow the number n of nodes in the distributed storage network, to be chosen independent of the other parameters. The paper also contains a simpler description, in the product-matrix framework, of a previously constructed MSR code in which the parameter d satisfies [n=d+1, k, d >= 2k-1].
Tight and simple Web graph compression
Venue: arXiv cs.DS 2011
Year: 2011

Analysing Web graphs has applications in determining page ranks, fighting Web spam, detecting communities and mirror sites, and more. This study is however hampered by the necessity of storing a major part of huge graphs in the external memory, which prevents efficient random access to edge (hyperlink) lists. A number of algorithms involving compression techniques have thus been presented, to represent Web graphs succinctly but also providing random access. Those techniques are usually based on differential encodings of the adjacency lists, finding repeating nodes or node regions in the successive lists, more general grammar-based transformations or 2-dimensional representations of the binary matrix of the graph. In this paper we present two Web graph compression algorithms. The first can be seen as engineering of the Boldi and Vigna (2004) method. We extend the notion of similarity between link lists, and use a more compact encoding of residuals. The algorithm works on blocks of varying size (in the number of input lines) and sacrifices access time for better compression ratio, achieving more succinct graph representation than other algorithms reported in the literature. The second algorithm works on blocks of the same size, in the number of input lines, and its key mechanism is merging the block into a single ordered list. This method achieves much more attractive space-time tradeoffs.
Decoding of Convolutional Codes over the Erasure Channel
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2011
Year: 2011

In this paper we study the decoding capabilities of convolutional codes over the erasure channel. Of special interest will be maximum distance profile (MDP) convolutional codes. These are codes which have a maximum possible column distance increase. We show how this strong minimum distance condition of MDP convolutional codes help us to solve error situations that maximum distance separable (MDS) block codes fail to solve. Towards this goal, we define two subclasses of MDP codes: reverse-MDP convolutional codes and complete-MDP convolutional codes. Reverse-MDP codes have the capability to recover a maximum number of erasures using an algorithm which runs backward in time. Complete-MDP convolutional codes are both MDP and reverse-MDP codes. They are capable to recover the state of the decoder under the mildest condition. We show that complete-MDP convolutional codes perform in certain sense better than MDS block codes of the same rate over the erasure channel.
Better size estimation for sparse matrix products
Venue: arXiv cs.DS 2011
Year: 2011

We consider the problem of doing fast and reliable estimation of the number of non-zero entries in a sparse boolean matrix product. This problem has applications in databases and computer algebra. Let n denote the total number of non-zero entries in the input matrices. We show how to compute a 1 +- epsilon approximation (with small probability of error) in expected time O(n) for any epsilon > 4/\sqrt[4]{z}. The previously best estimation algorithm, due to Cohen (JCSS 1997), uses time O(n/epsilon^2). We also present a variant using O(sort(n)) I/Os in expectation in the cache-oblivious model. In contrast to these results, the currently best algorithms for computing a sparse boolean matrix product use time omega(n^{4/3}) (resp. omega(n^{4/3}/B) I/Os), even if the result matrix has only z=O(n) nonzero entries. Our algorithm combines the size estimation technique of Bar-Yossef et al. (RANDOM 2002) with a particular class of pairwise independent hash functions that allows the sketch of a set of the form A x C to be computed in expected time O(|A|+|C|) and O(sort(|A|+|C|)) I/Os. We then describe how sampling can be used to maintain (independent) sketches of matrices that allow estimation to be performed in time o(n) if z is sufficiently large. This gives a simpler alternative to the sketching technique of Ganguly et al. (PODS 2005), and matches a space lower bound shown in that paper. Finally, we present experiments on real-world data sets that show the accuracy of both our methods to be significantly better than the worst-case analysis predicts.
Sound Bisimulations for Higher-Order Distributed Process Calculus
Venue: arXiv cs.LO 2011
Year: 2011

While distributed systems with transfer of processes have become pervasive, methods for reasoning about their behaviour are underdeveloped. In this paper we propose a bisimulation technique for proving behavioural equivalence of such systems modelled in the \emph{higher-order $π$-calculus with passivation} (and restriction). Previous research for this calculus is limited to context bisimulations and normal bisimulations which are either impractical or unsound. In contrast, we provide a sound and useful definition of \emph{environmental bisimulations}, with several non-trivial examples. Technically, a central point in our bisimulations is the clause for parallel composition, which must account for passivation of the spawned processes in the middle of their execution.
On the Capacity Achieving Covariance Matrix for Frequency Selective MIMO Channels Using the Asymptotic Approach
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2011
Year: 2011

In this contribution, an algorithm for evaluating the capacity-achieving input covariance matrices for frequency selective Rayleigh MIMO channels is proposed. In contrast with the flat fading Rayleigh case, no closed-form expressions for the eigenvectors of the optimum input covariance matrix are available. Classically, both the eigenvectors and eigenvalues are computed numerically and the corresponding optimization algorithms remain computationally very demanding. In this paper, it is proposed to optimize (w.r.t. the input covariance matrix) a large system approximation of the average mutual information derived by Moustakas and Simon. The validity of this asymptotic approximation is clarified thanks to Gaussian large random matrices methods. It is shown that the approximation is a strictly concave function of the input covariance matrix and that the average mutual information evaluated at the argmax of the approximation is equal to the capacity of the channel up to a O(1/t) term, where t is the number of transmit antennas. An algorithm based on an iterative waterfilling scheme is proposed to maximize the average mutual information approximation, and its convergence studied. Numerical simulation results show that, even for a moderate number of transmit and receive antennas, the new approach provides the same results as direct maximization approaches of the average mutual information.
Second-Order Weight Distributions
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2011
Year: 2011

A fundamental property of codes, the second-order weight distribution, is proposed to solve the problems such as computing second moments of weight distributions of linear code ensembles. A series of results, parallel to those for weight distributions, is established for second-order weight distributions. In particular, an analogue of MacWilliams identities is proved. The second-order weight distributions of regular LDPC code ensembles are then computed. As easy consequences, the second moments of weight distributions of regular LDPC code ensembles are obtained. Furthermore, the application of second-order weight distributions in random coding approach is discussed. The second-order weight distributions of the ensembles generated by a so-called 2-good random generator or parity-check matrix are computed, where a 2-good random matrix is a kind of generalization of the uniformly distributed random matrix over a finite filed and is very useful for solving problems that involve pairwise or triple-wise properties of sequences. It is shown that the 2-good property is reflected in the second-order weight distribution, which thus plays a fundamental role in some well-known problems in coding theory and combinatorics. An example of linear intersecting codes is finally provided to illustrate this fact.
Achieving the Secrecy Capacity of Wiretap Channels Using Polar Codes
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2011
Year: 2011

Suppose Alice wishes to send messages to Bob through a communication channel C_1, but her transmissions also reach an eavesdropper Eve through another channel C_2. The goal is to design a coding scheme that makes it possible for Alice to communicate both reliably and securely. Reliability is measured in terms of Bob's probability of error in recovering the message, while security is measured in terms of the mutual information between the message and Eve's observations. Wyner showed that the situation is characterized by a single constant C_s, called the secrecy capacity, which has the following meaning: for all $ε> 0$, there exist coding schemes of rate $R \ge C_s - ε$ that asymptotically achieve both the reliability and the security objectives. However, his proof of this result is based upon a nonconstructive random-coding argument. To date, despite a considerable research effort, the only case where we know how to construct coding schemes that achieve secrecy capacity is when Eve's channel C_2 is an erasure channel, or a combinatorial variation thereof. Polar codes were recently invented by Arikan; they approach the capacity of symmetric binary-input discrete memoryless channels with low encoding and decoding complexity. Herein, we use polar codes to construct a coding scheme that achieves the secrecy capacity of general wiretap channels. Our construction works for any instantiation of the wiretap channel model, as originally defined by Wyner, as long as both C_1 and C_2 are symmetric and binary-input. Moreover, we show how to modify our construction in order to achieve strong security, as defined by Maurer, while still operating at a rate that approaches the secrecy capacity. In this case, we cannot guarantee that the reliability condition will be satisfied unless the main channel C_1 is noiseless, although we believe it can be always satisfied in practice.
Improved construction of irregular progressive edge-growth Tanner graphs
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2011
Year: 2011

The progressive edge-growth algorithm is a well-known procedure to construct regular and irregular low-density parity-check codes. In this paper, we propose a modification of the original algorithm that improves the performance of these codes in the waterfall region when constructing codes complying with both, check and symbol node degree distributions. The proposed algorithm is thus interesting if a family of irregular codes with a complex check node degree distribution is used.
Unbounded-error quantum computation with small space bounds
Venue: arXiv cs.CC 2011
Year: 2011

We prove the following facts about the language recognition power of quantum Turing machines (QTMs) in the unbounded error setting: QTMs are strictly more powerful than probabilistic Turing machines for any common space bound $ s $ satisfying $ s(n)=o(\log \log n) $. For "one-way" Turing machines, where the input tape head is not allowed to move left, the above result holds for $s(n)=o(\log n) $. We also give a characterization for the class of languages recognized with unbounded error by real-time quantum finite automata (QFAs) with restricted measurements. It turns out that these automata are equal in power to their probabilistic counterparts, and this fact does not change when the QFA model is augmented to allow general measurements and mixed states. Unlike the case with classical finite automata, when the QFA tape head is allowed to remain stationary in some steps, more languages become recognizable. We define and use a QTM model that generalizes the other variants introduced earlier in the study of quantum space complexity.
Symmetric Determinantal Representation of Formulas and Weakly Skew Circuits
Venue: arXiv cs.CC 2011
Year: 2011

We deploy algebraic complexity theoretic techniques for constructing symmetric determinantal representations of for00504925mulas and weakly skew circuits. Our representations produce matrices of much smaller dimensions than those given in the convex geometry literature when applied to polynomials having a concise representation (as a sum of monomials, or more generally as an arithmetic formula or a weakly skew circuit). These representations are valid in any field of characteristic different from 2. In characteristic 2 we are led to an almost complete solution to a question of Bürgisser on the VNP-completeness of the partial permanent. In particular, we show that the partial permanent cannot be VNP-complete in a finite field of characteristic 2 unless the polynomial hierarchy collapses.
Interference Alignment for Clustered Multicell Joint Decoding
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2011
Year: 2011

Multicell joint processing has been proven to be very efficient in overcoming the interference-limited nature of the cellular paradigm. However, for reasons of practical implementation global multicell joint decoding is not feasible and thus clusters of cooperating Base Stations have to be considered. In this context, intercluster interference has to be mitigated in order to harvest the full potential of multicell joint processing. In this paper, four scenarios of intercluster interference are investigated, namely a) global multicell joint processing, b) interference alignment, c) resource division multiple access and d) cochannel interference allowance. Each scenario is modelled and analyzed using the per-cell ergodic sum-rate capacity as a figure of merit. In this process, a number of theorems are derived for analytically expressing the asymptotic eigenvalue distributions of the channel covariance matrices. The analysis is based on principles from Free Probability theory and especially properties in the R and Stieltjes transform domain.
Improved Parameterized Algorithms for Constraint Satisfaction
Venue: arXiv cs.DS 2011
Year: 2011

For many constraint satisfaction problems, the algorithm which chooses a random assignment achieves the best possible approximation ratio. For instance, a simple random assignment for {\sc Max-E3-Sat} allows 7/8-approximation and for every $\eps >0$ there is no polynomial-time ($7/8+\eps$)-approximation unless P=NP. Another example is the {\sc Permutation CSP} of bounded arity. Given the expected fraction $ρ$ of the constraints satisfied by a random assignment (i.e. permutation), there is no $(ρ+\eps)$-approximation algorithm for every $\eps >0$, assuming the Unique Games Conjecture (UGC). In this work, we consider the following parameterization of constraint satisfaction problems. Given a set of $m$ constraints of constant arity, can we satisfy at least $ρm +k$ constraint, where $ρ$ is the expected fraction of constraints satisfied by a random assignment? {\sc Constraint Satisfaction Problems above Average} have been posed in different forms in the literature \cite{Niedermeier2006,MahajanRamanSikdar09}. We present a faster parameterized algorithm for deciding whether $m/2+k/2$ equations can be simultaneously satisfied over ${\mathbb F}_2$. As a consequence, we obtain $O(k)$-variable bikernels for {\sc boolean CSPs} of arity $c$ for every fixed $c$, and for {\sc permutation CSPs} of arity 3. This implies linear bikernels for many problems under the "above average" parameterization, such as {\sc Max-$c$-Sat}, {\sc Set-Splitting}, {\sc Betweenness} and {\sc Max Acyclic Subgraph}. As a result, all the parameterized problems we consider in this paper admit $2^{O(k)}$-time algorithms. We also obtain non-trivial hybrid algorithms for every Max $c$-CSP: for every instance $I$, we can either approximate $I$ beyond the random assignment threshold in polynomial time, or we can find an optimal solution to $I$ in subexponential time.