Dr. Ned A. Corron

 U.S. Army AMRDEC

WDI Missile Research and Innovation

Chaos in Optimal Communication Waveforms

 DATE:   Friday, October 13, 2017

TIME:       3:15 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.

PLACE:    Shelby Center 218

Modern communication technology is built upon the foundation established by Nyquist, Shannon, Wiener and others in the 1940s, whose theories enabled the rigorous derivation of optimal solutions to practical communication problems. In this talk, we apply the methods of communication theory to derive optimal waveforms for transmitting information through noise using very simple filters as receivers. Specifically we presume passive, linear RLC filters and derive the communication waveforms that maximize the receiver signal-to-noise performance. From routine application of standard methods, we surprisingly find that the optimal communication waveforms are provably chaotic. We extrapolate from simple examples to argue that the optimal communication waveform for any stable infinite impulse response filter is similarly chaotic. If true, this conjecture implies the phenomena of nonlinear dynamics and chaos are fundamental and essential to full understanding of modern communication theory.

Ned J. Corron was received a B.S. in mathematics and physics from North Central College in 1983 and a Ph.D. in Engineering Science and Applied Mathematics from Northwestern University in 1989.  From 1984 to 1987 he worked at the Amoco Research Center in Naperville, Illinois.  From 1990 to 2000, he worked at Dynetics, Inc., in Huntsville, Alabama. In 2000, Dr. Corron obtained his current position as a research physicist at the Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center (AMRDEC), Redstone Arsenal, Alabama.  Presently, his research interests include nonlinear dynamics and chaos, with an emphasis toward application in radar and communications system design. 

Refreshments will be served at 2:45 p.m. in SC 201 suite landing.