In this semi-tutorial paper, a comprehensive survey of closest-point search methods for lattices without a regular structure is presented. The existing search strategies are described in a unified framework, and differences between them are elucidated. An efficient closest-point search algorithm, based on the Schnorr-Euchner variation of the Pohst method, is implemented. Given an arbitrary point x ∈ R m and a generator matrix for a lattice Λ, the algorithm computes the point of Λ that is closest to x. The algorithm is shown to be substantially faster than other known methods, by means of a theoretical comparison with the Kannan algorithm and an experimental comparison with the Pohst algorithm and its variants, such as the recent Viterbo-Boutros decoder. Modifications of the algorithm are developed to solve a number of related search problems for lattices, such as finding a shortest vector, determining the kissing number, computing the Voronoi-relevant vectors, and finding a Korkine-Zolotareff reduced basis.

Abstract-It is known that every solvable multicast network has a scalar linear solution over a sufficiently large finite-field alphabet. It is also known that this result does not generalize to arbitrary networks. There are several examples in the literature of solvable networks with no scalar linear solution over any finite field. However, each example has a linear solution for some vector dimension greater than one. It has been conjectured that every solvable network has a linear solution over some finite-field alphabet and some vector dimension. We provide a counterexample to this conjecture. We also show that if a network has no linear solution over any finite field, then it has no linear solution over any finite commutative ring with identity. Our counterexample network has no linear solution even in the more general algebraic context of modules, which includes as special cases all finite rings and Abelian groups. Furthermore, we show that the network coding capacity of this network is strictly greater than the maximum linear coding capacity over any finite field (exactly 10% greater), so the network is not even asymptotically linearly solvable. It follows that, even for more general versions of linearity such as convolutional coding, filter-bank coding, or linear time sharing, the network has no linear solution.

Abstract-We define a class of networks, called matroidal networks, which includes as special cases all scalar-linearly solvable networks, and in particular solvable multicast networks. We then present a method for constructing matroidal networks from known matroids. We specifically construct networks that play an important role in proving results in the literature, such as the insufficiency of linear network coding and the unachievability of network coding capacity. We also construct a new network, from the Vámos matroid, which we call the Vámos network, and use it to prove that Shannon-type information inequalities are in general not sufficient for computing network coding capacities. To accomplish this, we obtain a capacity upper bound for the Vámos network using a non-Shannon-type information inequality discovered in 1998 by Zhang and Yeung, and then show that it is smaller than any such bound derived from Shannon-type information inequalities. This is the first application of a non-Shannon-type inequality to network coding. We also compute the exact routing capacity and linear coding capacity of the Vámos network. Finally, using a variation of the Vámos network, we prove that Shannon-type information inequalities are insufficient even for computing network coding capacities of multiple-unicast networks.

AbstractÐPrincipal curves have been defined as ªself-consistentº smooth curves which pass through the ªmiddleº of a d-dimensional probability distribution or data cloud. They give a summary of the data and also serve as an efficient feature extraction tool. We take a new approach by defining principal curves as continuous curves of a given length which minimize the expected squared distance between the curve and points of the space randomly chosen according to a given distribution. The new definition makes it possible to theoretically analyze principal curve learning from training data and it also leads to a new practical construction. Our theoretical learning scheme chooses a curve from a class of polygonal lines with k segments and with a given total length to minimize the average squared distance over n training points drawn independently. Convergence properties of this learning scheme are analyzed and a practical version of this theoretical algorithm is implemented. In each iteration of the algorithm, a new vertex is added to the polygonal line and the positions of the vertices are updated so that they minimize a penalized squared distance criterion. Simulation results demonstrate that the new algorithm compares favorably with previous methods, both in terms of performance and computational complexity, and is more robust to varying data models.

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