Putting Physical-Layer Network Coding in Practice

Speaker: Prof. Lu Lu (CUHK)

Time and Date: 14:00-15:00, Mar. 21, 2016

Place: Room 521, Physics Building, Handan Campus

 

 

Abstract

This talk focuses on the practical aspects of putting physical-layer network coding (PNC) into practice in our prototyping efforts of PNC. PNC was first proposed in 2006 and has been attracting a wide following. PNC is founded on the idea that the electromagnetic waves received simultaneously from different sources are an additive superposition of signals. A form of network coding operation is performed automatically by nature during the reception process when multiple sources transmit simultaneously. Most work on PNC is theoretical in nature, focusing on various mathematical properties and models related to PNC systems. There has been relatively little implementation effort to examine whether the theoretical advantages of PNC can be realized in real systems when various practical challenges need to be surmounted. In this talk, I will relate our experience in prototyping PNC on the software-defined radio (SDR) platform. In particular, I will focus on how we address the various practical challenges. I will show a video clip of our most recent prototype of a PNC two-way relay network. The significant achievement of this prototype is that we now have a complete TCP/IP compatible system that can support standard TCP/IP applications (e.g., web browsing, video delivery) in real-time. I will also present a second prototype that realizes network-coded multiple access (NCMA). While the first prototype demonstrates the use of PNC on a relay network, the second prototype shows that PNC decoding can also find use in non-relay networks where the receiver aims to decode the individual messages simultaneously transmitted by a number of transmitters rather than a network-coded message. Lastly, I will talk about the potential prototyping of “real XOR in the air” systems where the network coding operations are performed by a node in the air (e.g., satellites), where the node can be moving. It has been 10 years since PNC was first proposed. I will end this talk by reflecting on where we should go from here.

 

 

Biography

Prof. Lu Lu received his B.E. from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in 2007, and his Ph.D. from The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), in 2012. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the Institute of Network Coding at CUHK from 2012 to 2014. Since 2014, he has been a research assistant professor at the Institute of Network Coding, CUHK. Prof. Lu’s research interests include wireless communications, multi-user detection, physical-layer network coding, and software-defined radios. Prof. Lu is the recipient of the Faculty’s Outstanding Ph.D. Thesis Award and the Postgraduate Research Output Award both in 2013 at CUHK.