[pt] Este trabalho apresenta um estudo sobre compressão de imagens de sensoriamento remoto para serem transmitidas através de um canal com ruído. As imagens são capturadas por um satélite de sensoriamento remoto e transmitidas a uma estação terrestre. A compreensão das imagens é necessária para se economizar banda e potência de transmissão. Algumas técnicas muito boas de compressão de imagens apresentam sérios problemas quando na presença de ruído. Assim, a técnica de quantização vetorial foi escolhida para ser utilizada neste trabalho. Utilizando-se a idéia de quantização vetorial multi-estágios, propões-se um esquema de compressão com remoção de médias, onde separa-se a informação contida na imagem para tratá-la de forma diferenciada, de acordo com a sua importância. É feita então uma análise sobre o projeto do enlace do satélite do sensoriamento remoto comparando-se o esquema utilizado atualmente com o esquema proposto. / [en] This thesis presents a study of remote sensing image compression to be transmitted over a noisy channel. The images are obtained by a remote sensing satellite and transmitting to an earth station. The compression is due to savings in bandwidth and transmitting power. Some of the most efficient image codecs presents serious problems in the presence of noise. So, the vector quantization technique was chosen to be used. Using the multi-stage vector quantization idea, a compression scheme with mean remove is proposed as a manner to separate and treat unequally the image information as its importance. An analysis on the design of the remote sensing satellite link is done with a comparison between the current scheme used the proposed one.

[pt] Este trabalho estuda o problema de compressão de imagens de sensoriamento remoto segundo a ótica da codificação conjunta fonte-canal. É analisado o desempenho de métodos baseados em quantização vetorial segundo o algoritmo LBG, principalmente o COVQ (Channel Optimized Vector Quantizer) bem como a quantização vetorial estruturada em árvore. Dentro desse contexto, são propostos 2 novos métodos para a resolução do problema: (1)Uma quantização vetorial estruturada em árvores que leva em conta a transmissão através de canais ruidosos, solução denominada COTSVQ (Channel-Design Tree Strutured Vecotr Quantizer), bem como (2) uma classe de métodos que se utiliza de códigos corretores de erro sobre a estrutura progressiva do TSVQ, de forma a proteger os dados de forma ativa durante a transmissão. Os dois métodos propostos podem ser combinados no mesmo compressor, de forma a originar uma classe ampla de compressores adaptados à transmissão por canais com ruído. São apresentados resultados que comparam os desempenhos dos métodos propostos com aqueles já existentes para uma análise de desempenho, na situação de transmissão via satélite de imagens captadas e comprimidas para uma taxa de 1,5bpp. Os resultados mostram que os métodos propostos são muito menos complexos que os já existentes, porém conseguindo atingir uma qualidade de imagem equivalente, ou, em alguns casos, superior. / [en] This work studies the problem of remote sensorng image compression by joint source-channel coding. The vector quantizer methods evaluated are those designed with the LBG algorithm, the COVQ (channel-optimized vector quantizer) algorithm as well as tree-structured vector quantizer. The noisy channel is modelled as a BSC. In this context, two news methods are proposed: (1) A tree- structures vector quantizer that considers the transmission through noisy channels (denominated CD-TSVQ), and (2) a new class of compressors that uses forward error- correcting codes over the TSVQ structure, as a way to actively protect data during the transmission. The twoproposed methods can be combined on the same compressor architecture, resulting in a vast class of compressors well-adapted to the transmission through noisy channels. Results allowing the comparision of the proposed methods with existing ones are presented. Performance evaluated in a scenery where images are compressed to be transmited at a rate of 1.5bpp. Results yield to the conclusion that the porposed methods are much less complex than the existing methods, yet achieve equivalent or, in some situations, improved performance.

This research is concerned with the reliable delivery of scalable compressed data over lossy communication channels. Recent works proposed several strategies for assigning optimal code redundancies to elements of scalable data, which form a linear structure of dependency, under the assumption that all source elements are encoded onto a common group of network packets. Given large data and small network packets, such schemes require very long channel codes with high computational complexity. In networks with high loss, small packets are more desirable than long packets. The first contribution of this thesis is to propose a strategy for optimally assigning elements of the scalable data to clusters of packets, subject to constraints on packet size and code complexity. Given a packet cluster arrangement, the scheme then assigns optimal code redundancies to the source elements, subject to a constraint on transmission length. Experimental results show that the proposed strategy can outperform the previous code assignment schemes subject to the above-mentioned constraints, particularly at high channel loss rates. Secondly, we modify these schemes to accommodate complex structures of dependency. Source elements are allocated to clusters of packets according to their dependency structure, subject to constraints on packet size and channel codeword length. Given a packet cluster arrangement, the proposed schemes assign optimal code redundancies to the source elements, subject to a constraint on transmission length. Experimental results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed strategies for correctly modelling the dependency structure. The last contribution of this thesis is to propose a scheme for optimizing protection of scalable data where limited retransmission is possible. Previous work assumed that retransmission is not possible. For most real-time or interactive applications, however, retransmission of lost data may be possible up to some limit. In the present work we restrict our attention to streaming sources (e.g., video) where each source element can be transmitted in one or both of two time slots. An optimization algorithm determines the transmission and level of protection for each source element, using information about the success of earlier transmissions. Experimental results confirm the benefit of limited retransmission.

Networked embedded control systems are present almost everywhere. A recent trendis to introduce radio communication in these systems to increase mobility and flex-ibility. Network nodes, such as the sensors, are often simple devices with limitedcomputing and transmission power and low storage capacity, so an important prob-lem concerns how to optimize the use of resources to provide sustained overall sys-tem performance. The approach to this problem taken in the thesis is to analyzeand design the communication and control application layers in an integrated man-ner. We focus in particular on cross-layer design techniques for closed-loop controlover non-ideal communication channels, motivated by future control systems withvery low-rate and highly quantized sensor communication over noisy links. Severalfundamental problems in the design of source–channel coding and optimal controlfor these systems are discussed.The thesis consists of three parts. The first and main part is devoted to the jointdesign of the coding and control for linear plants, whose state feedback is trans-mitted over a finite-rate noisy channel. The system performance is measured by afinite-horizon linear quadratic cost. We discuss equivalence and separation proper-ties of the system, and conclude that although certainty equivalence does not holdin general it can still be utilized, under certain conditions, to simplify the overalldesign by separating the estimation and the control problems. An iterative opti-mization algorithm for training the encoder–controller pairs, taking channel errorsinto account in the quantizer design, is proposed. Monte Carlo simulations demon-strate promising improvements in performance compared to traditional approaches.In the second part of the thesis, we study the rate allocation problem for statefeedback control of a linear plant over a noisy channel. Optimizing a time-varyingcommunication rate, subject to a maximum average-rate constraint, can be viewedas a method to overcome the limited bandwidth and energy resources and to achievebetter overall performance. The basic idea is to allow the sensor and the controllerto communicate with a higher data rate when it is required. One general obstacle ofoptimal rate allocation is that it often leads to a non-convex and non-linear problem.We deal with this challenge by using high-rate theory and Lagrange duality. It isshown that the proposed method gives a good performance compared to some otherrate allocation schemes.In the third part, encoder–controller design for Gaussian channels is addressed.Optimizing for the Gaussian channel increases the controller complexity substan-tially because the channel output alphabet is now infinite. We show that an efficientcontroller can be implemented using Hadamard techniques. Thereafter, we proposea practical controller that makes use of both soft and hard channel outputs. / QC 20100623

In this thesis, different aspects of lattice-based precoding and decoding for the transmission of digital and analog data over MIMO fading channels are investigated: 1) Lattice-based precoding in MIMO broadcast systems: A new viewpoint for adopting the lattice reduction in communication over MIMO broadcast channels is introduced. Lattice basis reduction helps us to reduce the average transmitted energy by modifying the region which includes the constellation points. The new viewpoint helps us to generalize the idea of lattice-reduction-aided precoding for the case of unequal-rate transmission, and obtain analytic results for the asymptotic behavior of the symbol-error-rate for the lattice-reduction-aided precoding and the perturbation technique. Also, the outage probability for both cases of fixed-rate users and fixed sum-rate is analyzed. It is shown that the lattice-reduction-aided method, using LLL algorithm, achieves the optimum asymptotic slope of symbol-error-rate (called the precoding diversity). 2) Lattice-based decoding in MIMO multiaccess systems and MIMO point-to-point systems: Diversity order and diversity-multiplexing tradeoff are two important measures for the performance of communication systems over MIMO fading channels. For the case of MIMO multiaccess systems (with single-antenna transmitters) or MIMO point-to-point systems with V-BLAST transmission scheme, it is proved that lattice-reduction-aided decoding achieves the maximum receive diversity (which is equal to the number of receive antennas). Also, it is proved that the naive lattice decoding (which discards the out-of-region decoded points) achieves the maximum diversity in V-BLAST systems. On the other hand, the inherent drawbacks of the naive lattice decoding for general MIMO fading systems is investigated. It is shown that using the naive lattice decoding for MIMO systems has considerable deficiencies in terms of the diversity-multiplexing tradeoff. Unlike the case of maximum-likelihood decoding, in this case, even the perfect lattice space-time codes which have the non-vanishing determinant property can not achieve the optimal diversity-multiplexing tradeoff. 3) Lattice-based analog transmission over MIMO fading channels: The problem of finding a delay-limited schemes for sending an analog source over MIMO fading channels is investigated in this part. First, the problem of robust joint source-channel coding over an additive white Gaussian noise channel is investigated. A new scheme is proposed which achieves the optimal slope for the signal-to-distortion-ratio (SDR) curve (unlike the previous known coding schemes). Then, this idea is extended to MIMO channels to construct lattice-based codes for joint source-channel coding over MIMO channels. Also, similar to the diversity-multiplexing tradeoff, the asymptotic performance of MIMO joint source-channel coding schemes is characterized, and a concept called diversity-fidelity tradeoff is introduced in this thesis.

In this thesis, different aspects of lattice-based precoding and decoding for the transmission of digital and analog data over MIMO fading channels are investigated: 1) Lattice-based precoding in MIMO broadcast systems: A new viewpoint for adopting the lattice reduction in communication over MIMO broadcast channels is introduced. Lattice basis reduction helps us to reduce the average transmitted energy by modifying the region which includes the constellation points. The new viewpoint helps us to generalize the idea of lattice-reduction-aided precoding for the case of unequal-rate transmission, and obtain analytic results for the asymptotic behavior of the symbol-error-rate for the lattice-reduction-aided precoding and the perturbation technique. Also, the outage probability for both cases of fixed-rate users and fixed sum-rate is analyzed. It is shown that the lattice-reduction-aided method, using LLL algorithm, achieves the optimum asymptotic slope of symbol-error-rate (called the precoding diversity). 2) Lattice-based decoding in MIMO multiaccess systems and MIMO point-to-point systems: Diversity order and diversity-multiplexing tradeoff are two important measures for the performance of communication systems over MIMO fading channels. For the case of MIMO multiaccess systems (with single-antenna transmitters) or MIMO point-to-point systems with V-BLAST transmission scheme, it is proved that lattice-reduction-aided decoding achieves the maximum receive diversity (which is equal to the number of receive antennas). Also, it is proved that the naive lattice decoding (which discards the out-of-region decoded points) achieves the maximum diversity in V-BLAST systems. On the other hand, the inherent drawbacks of the naive lattice decoding for general MIMO fading systems is investigated. It is shown that using the naive lattice decoding for MIMO systems has considerable deficiencies in terms of the diversity-multiplexing tradeoff. Unlike the case of maximum-likelihood decoding, in this case, even the perfect lattice space-time codes which have the non-vanishing determinant property can not achieve the optimal diversity-multiplexing tradeoff. 3) Lattice-based analog transmission over MIMO fading channels: The problem of finding a delay-limited schemes for sending an analog source over MIMO fading channels is investigated in this part. First, the problem of robust joint source-channel coding over an additive white Gaussian noise channel is investigated. A new scheme is proposed which achieves the optimal slope for the signal-to-distortion-ratio (SDR) curve (unlike the previous known coding schemes). Then, this idea is extended to MIMO channels to construct lattice-based codes for joint source-channel coding over MIMO channels. Also, similar to the diversity-multiplexing tradeoff, the asymptotic performance of MIMO joint source-channel coding schemes is characterized, and a concept called diversity-fidelity tradeoff is introduced in this thesis.

<p>Networked embedded control systems are present almost everywhere. A recent trend is to introduce wireless sensor networks in these systems, to take advantage of the added mobility and flexibility offered by wireless solutions. In such networks, the sensor observations are typically quantized and transmitted over noisy links. Concerning the problem of closed-loop control over such non-ideal communication channels, relatively few works have appeared so far. This thesis contributes to this field, by studying some fundamentally important problems in the design of joint source--channel coding and optimal control.</p><p>The main part of the thesis is devoted to joint design of the coding and control for scalar linear plants, whose state feedbacks are transmitted over binary symmetric channels. The performance is measured by a finite-horizon linear quadratic cost function. The certainty equivalence property of the studied systems is utilized, since it simplifies the overall design by separating the estimation and the control problems. An iterative optimization algorithm for training the encoder--decoder pairs, taking channel errors into account in the quantizer design, is proposed. Monte Carlo simulations demonstrate promising improvements in performance compared to traditional approaches.</p><p>Event-triggered control strategies are a promising solution to the problem of efficient utilization of communication resources. The basic idea is to let each control loop communicate only when necessary. Event-triggered and quantized control are combined for plants affected by rarely occurring disturbances. Numerical experiments show that it is possible to achieve good control performance with limited control actuation and sensor communication.</p>

<p>This thesis treats the problem of source coding in situations where the encoded data is subject to errors. The typical scenario is a communication system, where source data such as speech or images should be transmitted from one point to another. A problem is that most communication systems introduce some sort of error in the transmission. A wireless communication link is prone to introduce individual bit errors, while in a packet based network, such as the Internet, packet losses are the main source of error.</p><p>The traditional approach to this problem is to add error correcting codes on top of the encoded source data, or to employ some scheme for retransmission of lost or corrupted data. The source coding problem is then treated under the assumption that all data that is transmitted from the source encoder reaches the source decoder on the receiving end without any errors. This thesis takes another approach to the problem and treats source and channel coding jointly under the assumption that there is some knowledge about the channel that will be used for transmission. Such joint source--channel coding schemes have potential benefits over the traditional separated approach. More specifically, joint source--channel coding can typically achieve better performance using shorter codes than the separated approach. This is useful in scenarios with constraints on the delay of the system.</p><p>Two different flavors of joint source--channel coding are treated in this thesis; multiple description coding and channel optimized vector quantization. Channel optimized vector quantization is a technique to directly incorporate knowledge about the channel into the source coder. This thesis contributes to the field by using channel optimized vector quantization in a couple of new scenarios. Multiple description coding is the concept of encoding a source using several different descriptions in order to provide robustness in systems with losses in the transmission. One contribution of this thesis is an improvement to an existing multiple description coding scheme and another contribution is to put multiple description coding in the context of channel optimized vector quantization. The thesis also presents a simple image coder which is used to evaluate some of the results on channel optimized vector quantization.</p>

Networked embedded control systems are present almost everywhere. A recent trend is to introduce wireless sensor networks in these systems, to take advantage of the added mobility and flexibility offered by wireless solutions. In such networks, the sensor observations are typically quantized and transmitted over noisy links. Concerning the problem of closed-loop control over such non-ideal communication channels, relatively few works have appeared so far. This thesis contributes to this field, by studying some fundamentally important problems in the design of joint source--channel coding and optimal control. The main part of the thesis is devoted to joint design of the coding and control for scalar linear plants, whose state feedbacks are transmitted over binary symmetric channels. The performance is measured by a finite-horizon linear quadratic cost function. The certainty equivalence property of the studied systems is utilized, since it simplifies the overall design by separating the estimation and the control problems. An iterative optimization algorithm for training the encoder--decoder pairs, taking channel errors into account in the quantizer design, is proposed. Monte Carlo simulations demonstrate promising improvements in performance compared to traditional approaches. Event-triggered control strategies are a promising solution to the problem of efficient utilization of communication resources. The basic idea is to let each control loop communicate only when necessary. Event-triggered and quantized control are combined for plants affected by rarely occurring disturbances. Numerical experiments show that it is possible to achieve good control performance with limited control actuation and sensor communication. / QC 20101109

This thesis treats the problem of source coding in situations where the encoded data is subject to errors. The typical scenario is a communication system, where source data such as speech or images should be transmitted from one point to another. A problem is that most communication systems introduce some sort of error in the transmission. A wireless communication link is prone to introduce individual bit errors, while in a packet based network, such as the Internet, packet losses are the main source of error. The traditional approach to this problem is to add error correcting codes on top of the encoded source data, or to employ some scheme for retransmission of lost or corrupted data. The source coding problem is then treated under the assumption that all data that is transmitted from the source encoder reaches the source decoder on the receiving end without any errors. This thesis takes another approach to the problem and treats source and channel coding jointly under the assumption that there is some knowledge about the channel that will be used for transmission. Such joint source--channel coding schemes have potential benefits over the traditional separated approach. More specifically, joint source--channel coding can typically achieve better performance using shorter codes than the separated approach. This is useful in scenarios with constraints on the delay of the system. Two different flavors of joint source--channel coding are treated in this thesis; multiple description coding and channel optimized vector quantization. Channel optimized vector quantization is a technique to directly incorporate knowledge about the channel into the source coder. This thesis contributes to the field by using channel optimized vector quantization in a couple of new scenarios. Multiple description coding is the concept of encoding a source using several different descriptions in order to provide robustness in systems with losses in the transmission. One contribution of this thesis is an improvement to an existing multiple description coding scheme and another contribution is to put multiple description coding in the context of channel optimized vector quantization. The thesis also presents a simple image coder which is used to evaluate some of the results on channel optimized vector quantization. / QC 20101108