1.      Plenary Speakers

Richard E. Blahut
Richard E. Blahut, FIEEE, Shannon Lecturer (2005)
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA,
Email: blahut@uiuc.edu

Title: A Unified Approach to Multiterminal Source Coding [Download PPT/PDF file]

Abstract: Since Shannon's pioneering theory of one-terminal source coding, a number of advances have been reported in multiterminal source coding. These include works of Slepian-wolf, Wyner, Ahlswede-Korner, Wyner-Ziv, Berger et al., Berger-Yeung, etc. However, connection among such results as well as a unified basis for the general multiterminal source coding has remained elusive. In this talk, a novel approach is introduced where the distortion metric is dissociated from the inherent coding problem and the desired unification is achieved. In the course of analysis, Berger's type covering lemma is generalized in the one-terminal setting.

Richard E. Blahut, 2005 Shannon Lecturer，Professor, Department Head，Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

An internationally known expert on information theory and error control codes, Richard Blahut joined the ECE faculty in 1994 after a successful 30-year career at IBM's Federal Systems Division in Oswego, New York. While at IBM, Blahut developed a bar code technology for Great Britain's Royal Mail service. His encoding technology has reduced the error rate of automated mail sorting more than a million-fold since it was implemented in 1998.

Professor Blahut was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1990 for pioneering work in coherent emitter signal processing and for contributions to information theory and error control codes. His research focuses on communications, signal processing, imaging systems, coding theory, and optical recording.

An IEEE Fellow, Professor Blahut earned his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Cornell University in 1972. He has written five books and is working on a series of advanced textbooks in the mathematical aspects of statistical informa¬tion processing and telecommunications. He is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a recipient of the IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal.

Sergio Benedetto
Sergio Benedetto, FIEEE
Politecnico di Torino, Italy
Email: sergio.benedetto@polito.it

Title: Analog Iterative Decoders: Myth or Reality? [Download PPT/PDF file, compressed]

Abstract: The possibility of implementing iterative decoders for turbo and LDPC codes using analog VLSI technology has been demonstrated with a significant number of chips. Nonetheless, turning these "toy' decoders into practical applications is still an unsolved issue. The talk will introduce the basic of analog decoders, discuss the available implementation examples, outline the remaining "practical" problems, and present state-of-the art ways of tackling them aiming at viable solutions.

Sergio Benedetto is a Full Professor of Digital Communications with the Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy, since 1981. He has been a Visiting Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and is an Adjoint Professor with the Ecole Nationale Superieure de Telecommunications, Paris, France.

He has coauthored two books on probability and signal theory (in Italian), the books Digital Transmission Theory (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1987), Optical Fiber Communications (Norwood, MA: Artech House, 1996), and Principles of Digital Communications with Wireless Applications (New York: Plenum-Kluwer, 1999), and over 250 papers in leading journals and conferences. He has taught several continuing education courses on the subject of channel coding for the UCLA Extension Program and for the CEI organization. Dr. Benedetto received the Italgas Prize for Scientific Research and Innovation in 1998. He was Chairman of the Communications Theory Symposium of ICC 2001, and has organized numerous sessions in major conferences worldwide. He has been the Area Editor for the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS for Modulation and Signal Design, and a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Communications Society. He has been the Chairman of the Communication Theory Committee of IEEE.

Marc Fossorier
Marc P.C. Fossorier, FIEEE
University of Hawaii, USA
Email : marc@spectra.eng.hawaii.edu

Title: Doubly-Generalized Low-Density Parity-Check Codes [Download PPT/PDF file]

Abstract:

In this talk, the design of doubly generalized low-density parity-check (DGLDPC) codes with generic block linear codes at both bit and check nodes (instead of the traditional repetition and single parity-check codes) is considered. Both analysis and simulations show that this approach can provide more flexibility in constructing codes with good threshold and good error floor behavior.

Marc P.C. Fossorier received the B.E. degree from the National Institute of Applied Sciences (I.N.S.A.) Lyon, France in 1987, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Hawai'i at Manoa in 1991 and 1994, all in electrical engineering. In 1996, he joined the Faculty of the University of Hawai'i, Honolulu, as an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1999. Dr. Fossorier worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow in this department in 1995. He was a recipient of a 1997 National Science Foundation Career Award. Dr. Fossorier was elected as an IEEE fellow in 2005.

His research interests include decoding techniques for linear codes, development and VLSI implementation of communication algorithms, joint source-channel coding, combining coding and equalization for ISI channels, magnetic recording and statistics. He coauthored (with S. Lin, T. Kasami and T. Fujiwara) the book, Trellises and Trellis-Based Decoding Algorithms (Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1998). He has served as Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Communications since 1996, as Editor for the IEEE Communications Letters since 1999, and he is currently the Treasurer of the IEEE Information Theory Society.

Ralf Koetter
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA
Email: koetter@uiuc.edu

Title: Separation for Source, Channel and Network Coding [Download PPT/PDF file]

Abstract:

Network coding is a new paradigm for information transmission in networks which allow for arbitrary operations on data at switches inside the network, thus breaking with the traditional transportation model of networking. While network coding is most often considered for error free links and i.i.d. sources, interesting separation questions arise if either of these assumptions is dropped. We review some of the separation and non-separation results in this context.

Ralf Koetter received the Diploma degree in electrical engineering from the Technical University Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany, in 1990, and the Ph.D. degree from the Department of Electrical Engineering, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden. From 1996 to 1998, he was a Visiting Scientist at the IBM Almaden Research Laboratory, San Jose, CA. He was a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Visiting Scientist at CNRS, Sophia Antipolis, France. He joined the faculty of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1999, and is currently an Associate Professor at the Coordinated Science Laboratory at the University.

His research interests include coding and information theory and their application to communication systems. Dr. Koetter served as Associate Editor for Coding Theory and Techniques for the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS from 1999 to 2001. In 2000, he started a term as Associate Editor for Coding Theory of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INFORMATION THEORY. He received an IBM Invention Achievement Award in 1997, an NSF CAREER Award in 2000, and an IBM Partnership Award in 2001. He is a member of the Board of Governors of the IEEE Information Theory Society.

2.       Invited Speakers and Invited Session Chairs

Monday, Oct.23, 2006(1^st Day)

Invited Session:  Iterative Decoding and Detection Techniques. Chair: Marc Fossorier, University of Hawaii, USA

09:25-09:50  Non-binary adaptive LDPC codes for frequency selective channels:  code construction and iterative decoding, Joseph Boutros(Ecole Nationale Sup¨¦rieure des T¨¦l¨¦communications, France), Alaa Ghaith(Ecole Nationale Sup¨¦rieure des T¨¦l¨¦communications, France), Yi Yuan-Wu(France T¨¦l¨¦communications R&D, France), paper presented by Gilles Zemor (Bordeaux University, France) on behalf of the authors.

09:50-10:15  Adaptive Increment Redundancy Coding and Decoding Schemes using Feedback Information, Toshiyasu Matsushima(Waseda University,Japan)

Invited Session: Error Control Codes. Chair: Torleiv Klove (University of Bergen, Norway)

13:30-13:50 A Grassmannian Packing Based on the Nordstrom-Robinson Code,Vaneet Aggarwal(Princeton University, USA), Alexei Ashikhmin (Bell Laboratories, USA), A. Robert Calderbank(Princeton University, USA), presented by Alexei Ashikhmin.

13:50-14:10 An Introduction to Tensor Product Codes and Applications to Digital Storage Systems, Jack Keil Wolf (University of California, San Diego, USA)

14:10-14:30 Constructing Self-Dual Codes Using An Automorphism Group, Radinka Yorgova (University of Bergen, Norway)

Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2006(2^nd Day)

Invited Session: Quantum-Theoretical Aspects of Coding. Chair: Alexei Ashikhmin (Bell Laboratories, USA)

09:00-09:25  Convolutional and Block Quantum Error-Correcting Codes, Markus Grassl (Universität Karlsruhe, Germany)

09:25-09:50  Conjugate Codes for Secure and Reliable Information Transmission, Mitsuru Hamada (Tamagawa University Research Institute, Japan)

09:50-10:15  Random and Not-So-Random Codes for Quantum Channels, Andreas Winter (University of Bristol, UK)      

Invited Session: Space-time codes, multi-user and MIMO systems. Chair: David Tse (University of California, Berkeley, USA) 

        13:30-13:55  The Gaussian Many-Help-One Distributed Source Coding Problem, Saurabha Tavildar(University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA), Pramod Viswanath(University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA), Aaron B. Wagner(Cornell University, USA), presented by Pramod Viswanath.

13:55-14:20  Gaussian Interference Channel Capacity to Within One Bit: the Symmetric Case,Raul Etkin(University of California, Berkeley, USA), David N. C. Tse(University of California, Berkeley, USA), Hua Wang(University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA), presented by David N. C. Tse.

14:20-14:25  New Recursive Space-Time Trellis Codes from General Differential Encoding, Shengli Fu(University of North Texas, Denton, USA), Haiquan Wang(University of Waterloo, Canada), Xiang-Gen Xia(University of Delaware, Newak, USA), presented by Xiang-Gen Xia.

Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2006(3^rd Day)

Invited Session: Network Coding. Chair: Emina Soljanin (Bell Laboratories, USA)  

09:00-09:25  On the Queuing Delay of a Multicast Erasure Channel, Brooke Shrader, Tony Ephremides (University of Maryland, College Park, USA), presented by Tony Ephremides.

09:25-09:50  Heuristic algorithms for small field multicast encoding, Angela I. Barbero(University of Valladolid, Spain), Oyvind Ytrehus(University of Bergen, Norway), presented by Oyvind Ytrehus

09:50-10:15  Network Error Correction Coding in Packetized Networks, Zhen Zhang (University of Southern California, USA)     

Invited Session: Data Compression.  Chair: Zhen Zhang (University of Southern California, USA)

13:30-13:55  Combined Source Coding and Watermarking, En-hui Yang, Wei Sun(University of Waterloo, Canada), presented by En-hui Yang

13:55-14:20 The Redundancy of Multi-resolution Coding for Successively Refinable Sources, Jun Yang(Philips Research North America, USA), Zhen Zhang (University of Southern California, USA), presented by Zhen Zhang.

14:20-14:25  On the Relationship between Redundancy and Decoding Error in Slepian-Wolf Coding, Da-ke He (IBM T.J.Watson Research Center, USA), Luis A. Lastras-Montano(IBM T.J.Watson Research Center, USA), En-hui Yang(University of Waterloo, Canada), presented by Da-ke He.