Efficient Signal-Time Coding Design and its Application in Wireless Gaussian Relay Networks

Signal-time coding, which combines the traditional encoding/modulation mode in the signal domain with signal pulse phase modulation in the time domain, was proposed to improve the information flow rate in relay networks. In this paper, we mainly focus on the efficient signal-time coding design. We first derive an explicit iterative algorithm to estimate the maximum number of available codes given the code length of signal-time coding, and then present an iterative construction method of codebooks. It is shown that compared with conventional computer search, the proposed iterative construction method can reduce the complexity greatly. Numerical results will also indicate that the new constructed codebook is optimal in terms of coding rate. To minimize the buffer size needed to store the codebook while keeping a relatively high efficiency, we shall propose a combinatorial construction method. We will then consider applications in wireless Gaussian relay networks. It will be shown that in the three node network model, the mixed transmission by using two-hop and direct transmissions is not always a good option. Index Terms Signal-time coding, network information flow, network information theory, max-flow min-cut, rate splitting, Gaussian relay network. The corresponding author is Prof. Pingyi Fan