On the capacity of large Gaussian relay networks：（在大型高斯中继网络的能力）.pdfVIP

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INFORMATION THEORY, VOL. 51, NO. 3, MARCH 2005 765 On the Capacity of Large Gaussian Relay Networks Michael Gastpar, Member, IEEE, and Martin Vetterli, Fellow, IEEE Abstract— The capacity of a particular large Gaussian relay network is determined in the limit as the number of relays tends to infinity. Upper bounds are derived from cut-set arguments, and lower bounds follow from an argument involving uncoded transmission. It is shown that in cases of interest, upper and lower bounds coincide in the limit as the number of relays tends to infinity. Hence, this paper provides a new example where a simple cut-set upper bound is achievable, and one more example where uncoded transmission achieves optimal performance. The findings are illustrated by geometric interpretations. The techniques developed in this paper are then applied to a sensor network situation. This is a network joint source–channel coding problem, and it is well known that the source–channel separation theorem does not extend to this case. The present paper extends this insight by providing an example where separating source from channel coding does not only lead to suboptimal Fig. 1. The considered Gaussian relay network. performance—it leads to an exponential penalty in performance scaling behavior (as a function of the number of nodes). Finally, the techniques developed in this paper are extended to include cer- have been studied in the literature, some of the most recent tain models of ad hoc wireless networks, where a capacity scaling examples being [7]–[14]. However, capacity results are rare, a law can be established: When all nodes act purely as relays for a few examples appearing in [15]