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Goal-oriented communication (GoC) is a form of semantic communication where the effectiveness of information transmission is measured by its impact on achieving the desired goal. In the context of the Internet of Things (IoT), GoC can make IoT sensors to selectively transmit data pertinent to the intended goals of the receiver. Therefore, GoC holds significant value for IoT networks as it facilitates timely decision-making at the receiver, reduces network congestion, and enhances spectral efficiency. In this paper, we consider a scenario where an edge node polls sensors monitoring the state of a non-linear dynamic system (NLDS) to respond to the queries of several clients. Our work delves into the foregoing GoC problem, which we term goal-oriented scheduling (GoS). Our proposed GoS utilizes deep reinforcement learning (DRL) with meticulously devised action space, state space, and reward function. The devised action space and reward function play a pivotal role in reducing the number of sensor transmissions. Meanwhile, the devised state space empowers our DRL scheduler to poll the sensor whose observation is expected to minimize the mean square error (MSE) of the query responses. Our numerical analysis demonstrates that the proposed GoS can either effectively minimize the query response MSE further or obtain a resembling MSE compared to benchmark scheduling methods, depending on the type of query. Furthermore, the proposed GoS proves to be energy-efficient for the sensors and of lower complexity compared to benchmark scheduling methods.

With a motive of ubiquitous connectivity over the globe with enhanced spectral efficiency, intelligent reflecting surfaces (IRS) integrated satellite-terrestrial communications is a topic of research interest in an infrastructure-deficient remote terrains. In line with this vision, this paper entails the performance analysis of satellite-terrestrial networks leveraging both aerial and terrestrial IRS nodes, with the support of high altitude platforms over diverse fading channels including shadowed Rician, Rician, and Nakagami-$m$ fading channels. The merits of IRS in enhancing spectral efficiency is analyzed through closed-form expressions of outage probability and ergodic rate. Further, the average symbol error rate analysis for the higher-order quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) schemes such as hexagonal QAM, rectangular QAM, cross QAM, and square QAM is performed. Practical constraints like antenna gains, path loss, and link fading are considered to characterize the satellite terrestrial links. Finally, a comparison between the high-altitude platforms based IRS node and terrestrial IRS nodes is performed and various insights are drawn under various fading scenarios and path loss conditions. This paper contribute towards understanding and potential implementation of IRS-integrated satellite-terrestrial networks for efficient and reliable communication.

An efficient caching can be achieved by predicting the popularity of the files accurately. It is well known that the popularity of a file can be nudged by using recommendation, and hence it can be estimated accurately leading to an efficient caching strategy. Motivated by this, in this paper, we consider the problem of joint caching and recommendation in a 5G and beyond heterogeneous network. We model the influence of recommendation on demands by a Probability Transition Matrix (PTM). The proposed framework consists of estimating the PTM and use them to jointly recommend and cache the files. In particular, this paper considers two estimation methods namely a) Bayesian estimation and b) a genie aided Point estimation. An approximate high probability bound on the regret of both the estimation methods are provided. Using this result, we show that the approximate regret achieved by the genie aided Point estimation approach is $\mathcal{O}(T^{2/3} \sqrt{\log T})$ while the Bayesian estimation method achieves a much better scaling of $\mathcal{O}(\sqrt{T})$. These results are extended to a heterogeneous network consisting of M small base stations (sBSs) with a central macro base station. The estimates are available at multiple sBSs, and are combined using appropriate weights. Insights on the choice of these weights are provided by using the derived approximate regret bound in the multiple sBS case. Finally, simulation results confirm the superiority of the proposed algorithms in terms of average cache hit rate, delay and throughput., Comment: 34 pages, 6 figures

Main visual techniques used to obtain information from speckle patterns are Fujii method, generalized difference, weighted generalized difference, mean windowed difference, structural function (SF), modified SF, etc. In this work, a comparative analysis of major visual techniques for natural gum sample is carried out. Obtained results conclusively establish SF based method as an optimum tool for visual inspection of dynamic speckle data.

In present communication, we report our investigations undertaken towards detection of defects and non-destructive evaluation of low-modulus sample of Poly Methyl Metha Acrylate (PMMA) material using phase measuring deflectometry and windowed Fourier transform (WFT). The slope of the phase provides the information regarding defects and surface variation of the object. Experimental results conclusively establish the viability of the technique.

Deployment of optical network infrastructure and network services is growing exponentially for beyond 5G networks. Since the uptake of e-commerce and e-services has seen unprecedented serge in recent months due to the global COVID-19 pandemic era, the security of such transactions in optical communication has gained much importance. Optical fiber communication networks are vulnerable to several types of security threats, such as single point failure, wormhole attacks, and sybil attacks. Therefore, blockchain is a promising solution to protect confidential information against attacks and helps in achieving trusted network architecture by creating a distributed ledger platform. Recently, blockchain has received much attention because of its decentralized and distributed ledger technology. Hence, blockchain has also been employed to protect network against such attacks. However, blockchain technology's security relies on the platform of computational complexity, and because of the evolution of quantum computers, it will become insecure in the near future. Therefore, for enhancing blockchain security, research focus on combining quantum key distribution (QKD) with blockchain. This new technology is known as quantum-secured blockchain. The article describes the attacks in optical networks and provides a solution to protect network against security attacks by employing quantum-secured blockchain in optical networks. It provides a brief overview of blockchain technology with its security loopholes and focuses on QKD, which makes blockchain technology more robust against quantum-attacks. Next, the article provides a broad view of quantum-secured blockchain and presents the network architecture for future research and development of secure and trusted optical communication networks using quantum-secured blockchain.

With the advent of 5G and the need for energy-efficient massively connected wireless networks, in this work, we consider an energy harvesting (EH) based multi-relay downlink cooperative non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) system with practical constraints. The base station serves NOMA users with the help of decode-and-forward based multiple EH relays, where relays harvest the energy from the base station's radio frequency. A relay is selected from the multiple K-relay by using a partial relay selection protocol. The system is considered to operate in half-duplex mode over a generalized independent and identical Nakagami$-m$ fading channel. The closed-form expression of outage probability and ergodic rate are derived for users, under the assumption of imperfect channel state information (CSI) and imperfect successive interference cancellation (SIC) at the receiver node. Expression of outage probability and ergodic rate for both users under the assumption of perfect CSI and perfect SIC are also presented. Further, the asymptotic expression for the outage probability is also shown. The derived analytical expressions are verified through Monte-Carlo simulations.

Design of distributed caching mechanisms is considered as an active area of research due to its promising solution in reducing data load in the backhaul link of a cellular network. In this paper, the problem of distributed content caching in a small-cell Base Stations (sBSs) wireless network that maximizes the cache hit performance is considered. Most of the existing works focus on static demands, however, here, data at each sBS is considered to be correlated across time and sBSs. The caching strategy is assumed to be a weighted combination of past caching strategies. A high probability generalization guarantees on the performance of the proposed caching strategy is derived. The theoretical guarantee provides following insights on obtaining the caching strategy: (i) run regret minimization at each sBS to obtain a sequence of caching strategies across time, and (ii) maximize an estimate of the bound to obtain a set of weights for the caching strategy which depends on the discrepancy. Also, theoretical guarantee on the performance of the LRFU caching strategy is derived. Further, federated learning based heuristic caching algorithm is also proposed. Finally, it is shown through simulations using Movie Lens dataset that the proposed algorithm significantly outperforms LRFU algorithm., Comment: 30 pages, 6 figures

In telecommunications, network service accessibility as a requirement is closely related to equitably serving the population residing at locations that can most appropriately be described as remote. Remote connectivity, however, would have benefited from a more inclusive consideration in the existing generations of mobile communications. To remedy this, sustainability and its social impact are being positioned as key drivers of sixth generation's (6G) research and standardization activities. In particular, there has been a conscious attempt to understand the demands of remote wireless connectivity, which has led to a better understanding of the challenges that lie ahead. In this perspective, this article overviews the key challenges associated with constraints on network design and deployment to be addressed for providing broadband connectivity to rural areas, and proposes novel approaches and solutions for bridging the digital divide in those regions., Comment: This paper has been accepted for publication in IEEE Wireless Communications. 9 pages, 5 figures, 1 table

As the research on beyond 5G heats up, we survey and explore power and bandwidth efficient modulation schemes in details. In the existing publications and in various communication standards, initially square quadrature amplitude modulation (SQAM) constellations (even power of 2) were considered. However, only the square constellations are not efficient for varying channel conditions and rate requirements, and hence, odd power of 2 constellations were introduced. For odd power of 2 constellations, rectangular QAM (RQAM) is commonly used. However, RQAM is not a good choice due to its lower power efficiency, and a modified cross QAM (XQAM) constellation is preferred as it provides improved power efficiency over RQAM due to its energy efficient two dimensional (2D) structure. The increasing demand for high data-rates has further encouraged the research towards more compact 2D constellations which lead to hexagonal lattice structure based constellations, referred to as hexagonal QAM (HQAM). In this work, various QAM constellations are discussed and detailed study of star QAM, XQAM, and HQAM constellations is presented. Generation, peak and average energies, peak-to-average-power ratio, symbol-error-rate, decision boundaries, bit mapping, Gray code penalty, and bit-error-rate of star QAM, XQAM, and HQAM constellations with different constellation orders are presented. Finally, a comparative study of various QAM constellations is presented which justifies the supremacy of HQAM over other QAM constellations. With this, it can be claimed that the use of the HQAM in various wireless communication systems and standards can further improve the performance targeted for beyond 5G wireless communication systems.

In many places all over the world rural and remote areas lack proper connectivity that has led to increasing digital divide. These areas might have low population density, low incomes, etc., making them less attractive places to invest and operate connectivity networks. 6G could be the first mobile radio generation truly aiming to close the digital divide. However, in order to do so, special requirements and challenges have to be considered since the beginning of the design process. The aim of this white paper is to discuss requirements and challenges and point out related, identified research topics that have to be solved in 6G. This white paper first provides a generic discussion, shows some facts and discusses targets set in international bodies related to rural and remote connectivity and digital divide. Then the paper digs into technical details, i.e., into a solutions space. Each technical section ends with a discussion and then highlights identified 6G challenges and research ideas as a list., Comment: A 6G white paper, 17 pages

The focus of this white paper is on machine learning (ML) in wireless communications. 6G wireless communication networks will be the backbone of the digital transformation of societies by providing ubiquitous, reliable, and near-instant wireless connectivity for humans and machines. Recent advances in ML research has led enable a wide range of novel technologies such as self-driving vehicles and voice assistants. Such innovation is possible as a result of the availability of advanced ML models, large datasets, and high computational power. On the other hand, the ever-increasing demand for connectivity will require a lot of innovation in 6G wireless networks, and ML tools will play a major role in solving problems in the wireless domain. In this paper, we provide an overview of the vision of how ML will impact the wireless communication systems. We first give an overview of the ML methods that have the highest potential to be used in wireless networks. Then, we discuss the problems that can be solved by using ML in various layers of the network such as the physical layer, medium access layer, and application layer. Zero-touch optimization of wireless networks using ML is another interesting aspect that is discussed in this paper. Finally, at the end of each section, important research questions that the section aims to answer are presented.

Two of the most challenging goals to be achieved in the fifth generation (5G) and beyond communication are massive connectivity and higher capacity. The use of traditional orthogonal multiple access techniques limits the number of users that can be served using the available resources due to orthogonality constraint. Moreover, the available resources may not be utilized effectively by the alloted users thereby resulting in inefficiency and user unfairness. This imposes a severe drawback in cases where the number of users to be served are high, like in the 5G networks. Hence, introducing non-orthogonality to the multiple access scheme is advocated as a supreme methodology to serve multiple users simultaneously, thereby enhancing the connectivity. In scenarios with massive number of users, non-orthogonal multiple access scheme increases the number of active connections by superimposing the signal of multi-users on a same resource block, thereby also utilizing the available resources efficiently.

The ever-increasing demand for high data-rate applications and the proliferation of connected devices pose several theoretical and technological challenges for the fifth generation (5G) networks and beyond. Among others, this includes the spectrum scarcity and massive connectivity of devices, particularly in the context of the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem. In this respect, visible light communication (VLC) has recently emerged as a potential solution for these challenges, particularly in scenarios relating to indoor communications. Additionally, non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) for VLC has been envisioned to address some of the key challenges in the next generation wireless networks. However, in realistic environments, it has been shown that VLC systems suffer from additive optical interference due to ambient light, and user-mobility which cause detrimental outages and overall degraded data rates. Motivated by this, in this work, we first derive the statistics of the incurred additive interference, and then analyze the rate of the considered NOMA-VLC channel. An analytical expression is subsequently derived for the rate of NOMA-VLC systems with ambient light and user-mobility, followed by the formulation of a power-allocation technique for the underlying scenario, which has been shown to outperform classical gain-ratio power allocation in terms of achievable rate. The obtained analytical results are corroborated with computer simulations for various realistic VLC scenarios of interest, which lead to useful insights of theoretical and practical interest. For example, it is shown that, in a NOMA-enabled VLC system, the maximum rate at which information can be transmitted over a static VLC communication channel with ambient light asymptotically converges to the Shannon Hartley capacity formula.

Caching popular contents in advance is an important technique to achieve the low latency requirement and to reduce the backhaul costs in future wireless communications. Considering a network with base stations distributed as a Poisson point process (PPP), optimal content placement caching probabilities are derived for known popularity profile, which is unknown in practice. In this paper, online prediction (OP) and online learning (OL) methods are presented based on popularity prediction model (PPM) and Grassmannian prediction model (GPM), to predict the content profile for future time slots for time-varying popularities. In OP, the problem of finding the coefficients is modeled as a constrained non-negative least squares (NNLS) problem which is solved with a modified NNLS algorithm. In addition, these two models are compared with log-request prediction model (RPM), information prediction model (IPM) and average success probability (ASP) based model. Next, in OL methods for the time-varying case, the cumulative mean squared error (MSE) is minimized and the MSE regret is analyzed for each of the models. Moreover, for quasi-time varying case where the popularity changes block-wise, KWIK (know what it knows) learning method is modified for these models to improve the prediction MSE and ASP performance. Simulation results show that for OP, PPM and GPM provides the best ASP among these models, concluding that minimum mean squared error based models do not necessarily result in optimal ASP. OL based models yield approximately similar ASP and MSE, while for quasi-time varying case, KWIK methods provide better performance, which has been verified with MovieLens dataset., Comment: 9 figure, 29 pages

Seed priming is one of the well-established and low cost method to improve seed germination properties, productivity, and stress tolerance in different crops. It is a pre-germination treatment that partially hydrates the seed and allows controlled imbibition. This stimulates and induces initial germination process, but prevents radicle emergence. Consequently, treated seeds are fortified with enhanced germination characteristics, improved physiological parameters, uniformity in growth, and improved capability to cope up with different biotic and abiotic stresses. Existing techniques for evaluating the effectiveness of seed priming suffer from several drawbacks, including very high operating time, indirect and destructive analysis, bulky experimental arrangement, high cost, and require extensive analytical expertise. To circumvent these drawbacks, we propose a biospeckle based technique to analyse the effects of different priming treatments on germination characteristics of seeds. The study employs non-primed (T0) and priming treatments (T1-T75), including hydropriming and chemical priming (using three chemical agents namely sodium chloride, potassium nitrate, and urea) for different time durations and solution concentrations. The results conclusively establish biospeckle analysis as an efficient active tool for seed priming analysis. Furthermore, the proposed setup is extremely simple, low-cost, involves non-mechanical scanning and is highly stable.

In this paper, performance of a dual-hop cooperative multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) system is analyzed over Rayleigh faded channels. For the considered system model, non-regenerative MIMO scheme with transmit antenna selection strategy (TAS) is employed. In this scheme, a single transmit antenna which maximizes the total received signal power at the receiver is selected for transmission. Useful insights from average symbol error rate for various quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) schemes such as general order hexagonal QAM (HQAM), general order rectangular QAM (RQAM) and 32-cross QAM (XQAM) are drawn. Monte-Carlo simulations are performed to validate the derived analytical expressions., Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures

Ever increasing number of cellular users and their high data requirements, necessitates need for improvement in the present heterogeneous cellular networks (HetNet). Carrier sensing prevents base stations within a certain range of the transmitter from transmitting and hence aids in reducing the interference. Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) has proven its superiority for the 5th generation (5G) networks. This work proposes a mathematical model for an improved HetNet with macro base station (MBS) and femto base station (FBS) tier. The FBS tier is equipped to support NOMA and carrier sensing for its transmissions. Offloading is performed for load balancing in HetNet where the macro users (MU) from congested MBS tier are offloaded to the FBS tier. The FBS tier pairs the offloaded MU (OMU) with an appropriate pairing user (PU) to perform NOMA. The performance of the OMU is studied under different channel conditions with respect to the available PU at the FBS and some useful observations are drawn. A decrease in outage probability by $74.04\%$ for cell center user (CCU) and $48.65\%$ for cell edge user (CEU) is observed for low density FBS. The outage probability decreases by $99.60\%$, for both the CCU and CEU, for high density FBS using the proposed carrier sensing in NOMA. The results are validated using simulations.

Visible light communication (VLC) is one of the main technologies driving the future 5G communication systems due to its ability to support high data rates with low power consumption, thereby facilitating high speed green communications. To further increase the capacity of VLC systems, a technique called non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) has been suggested to cater to increasing demand for bandwidth, whereby users' signals are superimposed prior to transmission and detected at each user equipment using successive interference cancellation (SIC). Some recent results on NOMA exist which greatly enhance the achievable capacity as compared to orthogonal multiple access techniques. However, one of the performance-limiting factors affecting VLC systems is the nonlinear characteristics of a light emitting diode (LED). This paper considers the nonlinear LED characteristics in the design of pre-distorter for cognitive radio inspired NOMA in VLC, and proposes singular value decomposition based Chebyshev precoding to improve performance of nonlinear multiple-input multiple output NOMA-VLC. A novel and generalized power allocation strategy is also derived in this work, which is valid even in scenarios when users experience similar channels. Additionally, in this work, analytical upper bounds for the bit error rate of the proposed detector are derived for square $M$-quadrature amplitude modulation., Comment: R. Mitra and V. Bhatia are with Indian Institute of Technology Indore, Indore-453552, India, Email:phd1301202010@iiti.ac.in, vbhatia@iiti.ac.in. This work was submitted to IEEE Transactions on Communications on October 26, 2016, decisioned on March 3, 2017, and revised on April 25, 2017, and is currently under review in IEEE Transactions on Communications

In many applications, ultra-wide band (UWB) system experiences impulse noise due to surrounding physical noise sources. Therefore, a conventional receiver (correlator or matched filter) designed for additive Gaussian noise system is not optimum for an impulse noise affected communication channel. In this paper, we propose a new robust receiver design that utilizes the received UWB signal cluster sparsity to mitigate impulse noise. Further, multipath channel diversity enhances the signal-to-noise ratio, as compared to the single path after impulse noise removal in the proposed receiver design. The proposed receiver is analyzed in time hopping binary phase shift keying UWB system and is compared with popular blanking non-linearity based receiver in Bernoulli-Gaussian impulse noise over both single and multipath IEEE 802.15.4a channels. Unlike existing designs, the proposed receiver does not require any training sequence. The proposed receiver is observed to be robust with improved bit error rate performance as compared to a blanking receiver in the presence of impulse noise.

Optical backbone networks carry a huge amount of bandwidth and serve as a key enabling technology to provide telecommunication connectivity across the world. Hence, in events of network component (node/link) failures, communication networks may suffer from huge amount of bandwidth loss and service disruptions. Natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, etc., occur at different places around the world, causing severe communication service disruptions due to network component failures. Most of the previous works on optical network survivability assume that the failures are going to occur in future, and the network is made survivable to ensure connectivity in events of failures. With the advancements in seismology, the predictions of earthquakes are becoming more accurate. Earthquakes have been a major cause of telecommunication service disruption in the past. Hence, the information provided by the meteorological departments and other similar agencies of different countries may be helpful in designing networks that are more robust against earthquakes. In this work, we consider the actual information provided by the Indian meteorological department (IMD) on seismic zones, and earthquakes occurred in the past in India, and propose a scheme to improve the survivability of the existing Indian optical network through minute changes in network topology. Simulations show significant improvement in the network survivability can be achieved using the proposed scheme in events of earthquakes.