# ChannelComp: A General Method for Computation by Communications

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.06532 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.06532/

## Key facts

- Cited by 10 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 10 Oct 2023.

## Built on by (most cited first, 10 of 10)

- [Blind Federated Learning via Over-the-Air q-QAM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.04253/) (2023)
- [Private Collaborative Edge Inference via Over-the-Air Computation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.21151/) (2024)
- [Multiple Access in the Era of Distributed Computing and Edge Intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.07903/) (2024)
- [Over-the-Air Federated Learning: Rethinking Edge AI Through Signal Processing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.03719/) (2025)
- [Scalable and Reliable Over-the-Air Federated Edge Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.11807/) (2024)
- [VecComp: Vector Computing via MIMO Digital Over-the-Air Computation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.02765/) (2025)
- [Waveform Design for Over-the-Air Computing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.20877/) (2024)
- [Learned Digital Codes for Over-the-Air Computation in Federated Edge Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.19777/) (2025)
- [MD-AirComp+: Adaptive Quantization for Blind Massive Digital Over-the-Air Computation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.18332/) (2026)
- [Out-of-Air Computation: Enabling Structured Function Extraction from Wireless Superposition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.04312/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Over-the-air computation (AirComp) is a well-known technique by which several wireless devices transmit by analog amplitude modulation to achieve a sum of their transmit signals at a common receiver. The underlying physical principle is the superposition property of the radio waves. Since such superposition is analog and in amplitude, it is natural that AirComp uses analog amplitude modulations. Unfortunately, this is impractical because most wireless devices today use digital modulations. It would be highly desirable to use digital communications because of their numerous benefits, such as error correction, synchronization, acquisition of channel state information, and widespread use. However, when we use digital modulations for AirComp, a general belief is that the superposition property of the radio waves returns a meaningless overlapping of the digital signals. In this paper, we break through such beliefs and propose an entirely new digital channel computing method named ChannelComp, which can use digital as well as analog modulations. We propose a feasibility optimization problem that ascertains the optimal modulation for computing arbitrary functions over-the-air. Additionally, we propose pre-coders to adapt existing digital modulation schemes for computing the function over the multiple access channel. The simulation results verify the superior performance of ChannelComp compared to AirComp, particularly for the product functions, with more than 10 dB improvement of the computation error.