Non-Adaptive Distributed Compression in Networks

TL;DR

This paper compares conventional routing and one-step Quantized Network Coding for distributed compression of correlated messages, showing QNC reduces network load and maintains quality without requiring source coding rates.

Contribution

It introduces and analyzes one-step QNC as an efficient alternative to traditional routing for distributed compression in networks.

Findings

One-step QNC significantly reduces total network load.

QNC maintains low distortion levels comparable to routing.

Analytic guarantees support QNC's effectiveness.

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss non-adaptive distributed compression of inter-node correlated real-valued messages. To do so, we discuss the performance of conventional packet forwarding via routing, in terms of the total network load versus the resulting quality of service (distortion level). As a better alternative for packet forwarding, we briefly describe our previously proposed one-step Quantized Network Coding (QNC), and make motivating arguments on its advantage when the appropriate marginal rates for distributed source coding are not available at the encoder source nodes. We also derive analytic guarantees on the resulting distortion of our one-step QNC scenario. Finally, we conclude the paper by providing a mathematical comparison between the total network loads of one-step QNC and conventional packet forwarding, showing a significant reduction in the case of one-step QNC.