From Constrained Signaling to Network Interference Alignment via an Information-Estimation Perspective
Presenter(s)

2011 Shannon Lecture
From Constrained Signaling to Network Interference Alignment via an Information-Estimation Perspective
Shlomo Shamai (Shitz)
Technion—Israel Institute of Technology

Abstract

A subjective overview of selected topics in Information Theory, Communications, and Signal Processing will be presented taking an Information-Estimation perspective.

We first review basic information-estimation (I-MMSE) relations and properties in Gaussian additive channels, and then address via this framework specific problems and results in:

Nonlinear optimal filtering;
Constrained signaling;
Multi-terminal models, touching upon broadcast, interference, wiretap, and cognitive settings as well cellular networks of the Wyner type, and novel aspects of interference alignment;
Efficient codes for point-to-point, interference and relay channels;

A statistical physics view of I-MMSE related relations, is shortly mentioned. So are, time permitting, different other applications motivated by the incremental channel decomposition, namely deterministic and random vector Gaussian channels, and the broadcasting strategy (variable-to-fixed channel coding).

Based on the overviewed framework, we emphasize specific research challenges in these areas motivated by the information-estimation perspective and close the lecture with an outlook examining general channels and network information theoretic concepts. 

Shlomo Shamai (Shitz) received the B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the Technion—Israel Institute of Technology, in 1975, 1981 and 1986 respectively.

During 1975-1985 he was with the Communications Research Labs in the capacity of a Senior Research Engineer. Since 1986 he is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, where he is now a Technion Distinguished Professor, and holds the William Fondiller Professor of Telecommunications. His research interests encompass a wide spectrum of topics in information theory and statistical communications.

Biography
Biography: Dr. Shamai (Shitz) is an IEEE Fellow, a Member of the Israeli Academy of Sciences and Humanities and a Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Engineering. He is the recepient of the 2011 Claude E. Shannon Award and the 2014 Rothschild Prize in Mathematics/Computer Sciences and Engineering. He has been awarded the 1999 van der Pol Gold Medal of the Union Radio Scientifique Internationale (URSI), and is a co-recipient of the 2000 IEEE Donald G. Fink Prize Paper Award, the 2003, and the 2004 Joint IT/COM Societies Paper Award, the 2007 IEEE Information Theory Society Paper Award, the 2009 European Commission FP7, Network of Excellence in Wireless COMmunications (NEWCOM++) Best Paper Award, and 2014 EURASIP Best Paper Award (for the EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking). He is also the recipient of the 2010 Thomson Reuters Award for International Excellence in Scientific Research and is listed in the 2014 Thomson Reuters “The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds”. He is also the recipient of 1985 Alon Grant for distinguished young scientists and the 2000 Technion Henry Taub Prize for Excellence in Research. He has served on the Executive Editorial Board of the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory and has also served as a Shannon Theory Associate Editor for this journal. He has served twice on the Board of Governors of the Information Theory Society. He has served as Associate Editor for the Shannon Theory of the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, and has also served on the Board of Governors of the Information Theory Society. He is a member of the Executive Editorial Board of the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory.