Computing on Dirty Paper: Interference-Free Integrated Communication and Computing

Inspired by Costa's pioneering work on dirty paper coding (DPC), this paper proposes a novel scheme for integrated communication and computing (ICC), named Computing on Dirty Paper, whereby the transmission of discrete data symbols for communication, and over-the-air computation (AirComp) of nomographic functions can be achieved simultaneously over common multiple-access channels. In particular, the proposed scheme allows for the integration of communication and computation in a manner that is asymptotically interference-free, by precanceling the computing symbols at the transmitters (TXs) using DPC principles. A simulation-based assessment of the proposed ICC scheme under a single-input multiple-output (SIMO) setup is also offered, including the evaluation of performance for data detection, and of mean-squared-error (MSE) performance for function computation, over a block of symbols. The results validate the proposed method and demonstrate its ability to significantly outperform state-of-the-art (SotA) ICC schemes in terms of both bit error rate (BER) and MSE.