CIF: Medium: Collaborative Research: Toward a General Theory of Information Transfer via Timing

作为通信、数据压缩和信息处理技术的创新引擎，信息理论、通信理论和统计信号处理已经被证明是非常成功的。虽然这些理论在原则上是相当普遍的，但在实践中，它们对特定的模型族最有用，例如离散马尔可夫源和具有加性高斯噪声的信道。尽管这个系列非常丰富，并且包含了许多实用的技术，但是有几个重要的场景不属于这些模型。特别是，离散事件的时间是许多应用中感兴趣的模态，例如神经科学和网络安全中的某些问题，并且这种模态并不完全适合标准类。本研究涉及扩展信息论，通信理论和统计信号处理，以发展通过定时信息传递的一般理论。本研究的第一阶段涉及解决几个涉及通过定时传输信息的具体问题，例如定时信道的保密能力以及如何在无线和有线网络中通过定时侧信道最小化信息传输。第二阶段涉及到将这些不同的问题联系起来，形成一个通过时间传递信息的一般理论。通过提升时间在信息传递中的作用，本研究更好地定位了信息论、通信理论和统计信号处理领域，以影响网络、神经科学和运筹学等相关领域，在这些领域，时间和延迟是至关重要的。通过专题课程和会议的特邀会议促进了这种影响，这两种课程的目的都是吸引来自一系列领域的参与者。

Information theory, communication theory, and statistical signal processing have proven spectacularly successful as innovation engines for communication, data compression, and information processing technologies. Although in principle these theories are quite general, in practice they are most useful for a particular family of models, such as discrete Markov sources and channels with additive Gaussian noise. Although this family is quite rich and encompasses many practical technologies, there are several important scenarios thatfall outside of these models. In particular, the timing of discrete events is the modality of interest in many applications, such as neuroscienceand certain problems in network security, and this modality does not fit neatly into the standard classes. This research involvesextending information theory, communication theory, and statistical signalprocessing to develop a general theory of information transfer via timing. The first phase of this research involves solving several concreteproblems involving information transfer via timing, such as thesecrecy capacity of timing channels and how to minimize informationtransfer via timing side channels in both wireless and wirelinenetworks. The second phase involves interconnecting these disparateproblems to form a general theory of information transfer via timing.By elevating the role of timing in information transfer,this research better positions the fields of information theory,communication theory, and statistical signal processing toimpact allied fields such as networking, neuroscience, and operations research, where timing and delay are of fundamentalimportance. This impact is facilitated through special topics courses and invited sessions at conferences, both of which are designed to attract participants from a range of areas.