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Neural Architecture Search (NAS) has emerged as one of the effective methods to design the optimal neural network architecture automatically. Although neural architectures have achieved human-level performances in several tasks, few of them are obtained from the NAS method. The main reason is the huge search space of neural architectures, making NAS algorithms inefficient. This work presents a novel architecture search algorithm, called GPT-NAS, that optimizes neural architectures by Generative Pre-Trained (GPT) model with an evolutionary algorithm (EA) as the search strategy. In GPT-NAS, we assume that a generative model pre-trained on a large-scale corpus could learn the fundamental law of building neural architectures. Therefore, GPT-NAS leverages the GPT model to propose reasonable architecture components given the basic one and then utilizes EAs to search for the optimal solution. Such an approach can largely reduce the search space by introducing prior knowledge in the search process. Extensive experimental results show that our GPT-NAS method significantly outperforms seven manually designed neural architectures and thirteen architectures provided by competing NAS methods. In addition, our experiments also indicate that the proposed algorithm improves the performance of finely tuned neural architectures by up to about 12% compared to those without GPT, further demonstrating its effectiveness in searching neural architectures.

The bound of the information transmission rate of direct current biased optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DCO-OFDM) for visible light communication (VLC) with finite-alphabet inputs is yet unknown, where the corresponding spectral efficiency (SE) and energy efficiency (EE) stems out as the open research problems. In this paper, we derive the exact achievable rate of {the} DCO-OFDM system with finite-alphabet inputs for the first time. Furthermore, we investigate SE maximization problems of {the} DCO-OFDM system subject to both electrical and optical power constraints. By exploiting the relationship between the mutual information and the minimum mean-squared error, we propose a multi-level mercury-water-filling power allocation scheme to achieve the maximum SE. Moreover, the EE maximization problems of {the} DCO-OFDM system are studied, and the Dinkelbach-type power allocation scheme is developed for the maximum EE. Numerical results verify the effectiveness of the proposed theories and power allocation schemes., Comment: 14 pages, 14 figures, accepted by IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications

In this paper, we study the spectral efficiency (SE) and energy efficiency (EE) of asymmetrically clipped optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (ACO-OFDM) for visible light communication (VLC). Firstly, we derive the achiev-able rates for Gaussian distributions inputs and practical finite-alphabet inputs. Then, we investigate the SE maximization problems subject to both the total transmit power constraint and the average optical power constraint with the above two inputs, respectively. By exploiting the relationship between the mutual information and the minimum mean-squared error, an optimal power allocation scheme is proposed to maximize the SE with finite-alphabet inputs. To reduce the computational complexity of the power allocation scheme, we derive a closed-form lower bound of the SE. Also, considering the quality of service, we further tackle the non-convex EE maximization problems of ACO-OFDM with the two inputs, respectively. The problems are solved by the proposed Dinkelbach-type iterative algorithm. In each iteration, the interior point algorithm is applied to obtain the optimal power allocation.The performance of the proposed power allocation schemes for the SE and EE maximization are validated through numerical analysis., Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures, accepted by IEEE Trans. Wireless Commun

In this paper, we consider a light fidelity (LiFi)-enabled bidirectional Internet of Things (IoT) communication system, where visible light and infrared light are used in the downlink and uplink, respectively. In order to improve the energy efficiency (EE) of the bidirectional LiFi-IoT system, non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) with a quality-of-service (QoS)-guaranteed optimal power allocation (OPA) strategy is applied to maximize the EE of the system. We derive a closed-form OPA set based on the identification of the optimal decoding orders in both downlink and uplink channels, which can enable low-complexity power allocation. Moreover, we propose an adaptive channel and QoS-based user pairing approach by jointly considering users' channel gains and QoS requirements. We further analyze the EE of the bidirectional LiFi-IoT system and the user outage probabilities (UOPs) of both downlink and uplink channels of the system. Extensive analytical and simulation results demonstrate the superiority of NOMA with OPA in comparison to orthogonal multiple access (OMA) and NOMA with typical channel-based power allocation strategies. It is also shown that the proposed adaptive channel and QoS-based user pairing approach greatly outperforms individual channel/QoS-based approaches, especially when users have diverse QoS requirements.

The limitation of commercially available single-crystal substrates and the lack of continuous strain tunability preclude the ability to take full advantage of strain engineering for further exploring novel properties and exhaustively studying fundamental physics in complex oxides. Here we report an approach for imposing continuously tunable, large epitaxial strain in oxide heterostructures beyond substrate limitations by inserting an interface layer through tailoring its gradual strain relaxation. Taking BiFeO3 as a model system, we demonstrate that the introduction of an ultrathin interface layer allows the creation of a desired strain that can induce phase transition and stabilize a new metastable super-tetragonal phase as well as morphotropic phase boundaries overcoming substrate limitations. Furthermore, continuously tunable strain from tension to compression can be generated by precisely adjusting the thickness of the interface layer, leading to the first achievement of continuous O-R-T phase transition in BiFeO3 on a single substrate. This proposed route could be extended to other oxide heterostructures, providing a platform for creating exotic phases and emergent phenomena.

Microwave photonics (MWP) studies the interaction between microwave and optical waves for the generation, transmission and processing of microwave signals (i.e., three key domains), taking advantages of broad bandwidth and low loss offered by modern photonics. Integrated MWP using photonic integrated circuits (PICs) can reach a compact, reliable and green implementation. Most PICs, however, are recently developed to perform one or more functions restricted inside a single domain. In this paper, as highly desired, a multifunctional PIC is proposed to cover the three key domains. The PIC is fabricated on InP platform by monolithically integrating four laser diodes and two modulators. Using the multifunctional PIC, seven fundamental functions across microwave signal generation, transmission and processing are demonstrated experimentally. Outdoor field trials for electromagnetic environment surveillance along an in-service high-speed railway are also performed. The success to such a PIC marks a key step forward for practical and massive MWP implementations., Comment: 17 pages

Staircase codes (SCCs) are typically decoded using iterative bounded-distance decoding (BDD) and hard decisions. In this paper, a novel decoding algorithm is proposed, which partially uses soft information from the channel. The proposed algorithm is based on marking certain number of highly reliable and highly unreliable bits. These marked bits are used to improve the miscorrection-detection capability of the SCC decoder and the error-correcting capability of BDD. For SCCs with $2$-error-correcting Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem component codes, our algorithm improves upon standard SCC decoding by up to $0.30$~dB at a bit-error rate (BER) of $10^{-7}$. The proposed algorithm is shown to achieve almost half of the gain achievable by an idealized decoder with this structure. A complexity analysis based on the number of additional calls to the component BDD decoder shows that the relative complexity increase is only around $4\%$ at a BER of $10^{-4}$. This additional complexity is shown to decrease as the channel quality improves. Our algorithm is also extended (with minor modifications) to product codes. The simulation results show that in this case, the algorithm offers gains of up to $0.44$~dB at a BER of $10^{-8}$., Comment: 10 pages, 12 figures