Channel-coded Over-the-Air Computation

2026-05-03

AI Summary

This work addresses the vulnerability of aggregation accuracy in wireless over-the-air computation (AirComp) to channel impairments, a challenge inadequately mitigated by existing approaches due to the absence of effective channel coding. The paper presents the first systematic design of a dedicated channel coding scheme tailored for AirComp, which preserves the inherent signal superposition structure while jointly optimizing the code construction with the requirements of the target computation task to effectively suppress channel-induced distortions. Theoretical analysis demonstrates that the computation error of the proposed scheme asymptotically vanishes as the code rate increases. Extensive simulations confirm that the method substantially enhances both computational accuracy and overall system performance in AirComp.

Abstract

This letter studies channel coding for over-the-air computation (AirComp). AirComp enables efficient wireless data aggregation, where computation accuracy is the key performance metric. However, this accuracy is sensitive to channel impairments. As a promising solution, the role of channel coding in AirComp has been largely unexplored, creating a critical gap in achieving reliable AirComp systems. To address this, we propose a novel channel coding scheme tailored for AirComp that preserves the aggregation structure while mitigating channel distortions. We show that the computation error decreases with the coding rate and can asymptotically approach zero. Both theoretical and simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme significantly enhances computation performance.

Problem

• over-the-air computation
• channel coding
• computation accuracy
• channel impairments
• wireless data aggregation

Innovation

• Over-the-Air Computation
• Channel Coding
• Wireless Data Aggregation
• Computation Accuracy
• Error Mitigation