From Gaussian Multiterminal Source Coding to Distributed Karhunen–Loève Transform

ABSTRACT: Characterizing the rate-distortion region of Gaussian multiterminal source coding is a longstanding open problem in network information theory. In this talk, I will show how to obtain new conclusive results for this problem using nonlinear analysis and convex relaxation techniques. A byproduct of this line of research is an efficient algorithm for determining the optimal distributed Karhunen–Loève transform in the high-resolution regime, which partially settles a question posed by Gastpar, Dragotti, and Vetterli. I will also introduce a generalized version of the Gaussian multiterminal source coding problem where the source-encoder connections can be arbitrary. It will be demonstrated that probabilistic graphical models offer an ideal mathematical language for describing how the performance limit of a generalized Gaussian multiterminal source coding system depends on its topology, and more generally they can serve as the long-sought platform for systematically integrating the existing achievability schemes and converse arguments. The architectural implication of our work for low-latency lossy source coding will also be discussed. This talk is based on joint work with Jia Wang, Farrokh Etezadi, and Ashish Khisti.

BIO: Jun Chen received the B.E. degree with honors in communication engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China, in 2001 and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical and computer engineering from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, in 2004 and 2006, respectively. He was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Coordinated Science Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, from September 2005 to July 2006, and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY, from July 2006 to August 2007. Since September 2007 he has been with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada, where he is currently an Associate Professor and a Joseph Ip Distinguished Engineering Fellow. His research interests include information theory, machine learning, wireless communications, and signal processing. He received the Josef Raviv Memorial Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2006, the Early Researcher Award from the Province of Ontario in 2010, and the IBM Faculty Award in 2010. He served as an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory from 2014 to 2016.

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