Abstract — In this paper we address the problem of transmission of correlated sources over a fading multiple access channel (MAC). We provide sufficient conditions for transmission with given distortions. Next these conditions are specialized to a Gaussian MAC (GMAC). Transmission schemes for discrete and Gaussian sources over a fading GMAC are considered. Various power allocation strategies are also compared.

Abstract — We address the problem of estimating a random field via a wireless sensor network. We use a Multiple Access Channel (MAC) as the basic building block for such a network. For Gaussian sources over Gaussian MACs, we show that Amplify and Forward scheme (AF) performs well in such sensor network scenarios where the battery power is at a premium. We then extend this result to the hierarchical network scenario and show that it can perform favourably to the Slepian-Wolf based source coding and independent channel coding scheme. Since AF is simple and scalable, a good performance makes it an attractive scheme.

Abstract — We consider the transmission of correlated Gaussian sources over a Gaussian multiple access channel (GMAC) with side information. Three joint source-channel coding schemes: Amplify and Forward (AF), Separation based (SB) and a coding scheme developed by Lapidoth and Tinguely (LT) are studied. Various methods are proposed to effectively utilize the side information with these schemes such that the sum of the distortions is minimized. The performance of the three schemes is also compared. It is found that AF is the best at low SNR but the worst under high SNR. Also, decoder side information is more useful than encoder side information.

Abstract—In this paper we address the problem of transmission of correlated sources over a fast fading multiple access channel (MAC) with partial channel state information available at both the encoders and the decoder. We provide sufficient conditions for transmission with given distortions. Next these conditions are specialized to a Gaussian MAC (GMAC). We provide the optimal power allocation strategy and compare the strategy with various levels of channel state information.

We consider the problem of distributed joint source-channel coding of correlated Gaussian sources over a Gaussian Multiple Access Channel (GMAC). There may be side information at the decoder and/or at the encoders. First we specialize a general result in [20] to obtain sufficient conditions for reliable transmission over a Gaussian MAC. This system does not satisfy the source-channel separation. We study and compare three joint source-channel coding schemes available in literature. We show that each of these schemes is optimal under different scenarios. One of the schemes, Amplify and Forward (AF) which simplifies the design of encoders and the decoder, is optimal at low SNR but not at high SNR. Another scheme is asymptotically optimal at high SNR. The third coding scheme is optimal for orthogonal Gaussian channels. We also show that AF is close to the optimal scheme for orthogonal channels even at high SNR.