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The Covid-19 pandemic has spawned numerous dynamic modeling attempts aimed at estimation, prediction, and ultimately control. The predictive power of these attempts has varied, and there remains a lack of consensus regarding the mechanisms of virus spread and the effectiveness of various non-pharmaceutical interventions that have been enforced regionally as well as nationally. Setting out in data available in the spring of 2020, and with a now-famous model by Imperial College researchers as example, we employ an information-theoretical approach to shed light on why the predictive power of early modeling approaches have remained disappointingly poor.

A maximum likelihood estimator is presented for self-calibrating both accelerometers and gyroscopes in an inertial sensor array, including scale factors, misalignments, biases, and sensor positions. By simultaneous estimation of the calibration parameters and the motion dynamics of the array, external equipment is not required for the method. A computational efficient iterative optimization method is proposed where the calibration problem is divided into smaller subproblems. Further, an identifiability analysis of the calibration problem is presented. The analysis shows that it is sufficient to know the magnitude of the local gravity vector and the average scale factor gain of the gyroscopes, and that the array is exposed to two types of motions for the calibration problem to be well defined. The proposed estimator is evaluated by real-world experiments and by Monte Carlo simulations. The results show that the parameters can be consistently estimated and that the calibration significantly improves the accuracy of the motion estimation. This enables on-the-fly calibration of small inertial sensors arrays by simply twisting them by hand.

A logconcave likelihood is as important to proper statistical inference as a convex cost function is important to variational optimization. Quantization is often disregarded when writing likelihood models, ignoring the limitations of the physical detectors used to collect the data. These two facts call for the question: would including quantization in likelihood models preclude logconcavity? are the true data likelihoods logconcave? We provide a general proof that the same simple assumption that leads to logconcave continuous-data likelihoods also leads to logconcave quantized-data likelihoods, provided that convex quantization regions are used., 5 pages, Accepted in the IEEE Signal Processing Letters

One of the first widespread uses of multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) is in 5G networks, where each base station has an advanced antenna system (AAS) that is connected to the baseband unit (BBU) with a capacity-constrained fronthaul. In the AAS configuration, multiple passive antenna elements and radio units are integrated into a single box. This paper considers precoded downlink transmission over a single-cell MU-MIMO system. We study optimized linear precoding for AAS with a limited-capacity fronthaul, which requires the precoding matrix to be quantized. We propose a new precoding design that is aware of the fronthaul quantization and minimizes the mean-squared error at the receiver side. We compute the precoding matrix using a sphere decoding (SD) approach. We also propose a heuristic low-complexity approach to quantized precoding. This heuristic is computationally efficient enough for massive MIMO systems. The numerical results show that our proposed precoding significantly outperforms quantization-unaware precoding and other previous approaches in terms of the sum rate. The performance loss for our heuristic method compared to quantization-aware precoding is insignificant considering the complexity reduction, which makes the heuristic method feasible for real-time applications. We consider both perfect and imperfect channel state information.

Wireless links use adaptive modulation and coding (AMC) to optimize data transmission over a dynamic channel. Traditional AMC schemes rely on simple heuristics to track the instantaneous channel state. While attractive for their low implementation and operational complexity, these schemes are known to be suboptimal in a large range of operating environments. Further, several such schemes require careful parameter tuning, which can be both expensive and error-prone. In this paper, we propose latent Thompson sampling (LTS) for AMC, which efficiently tracks the wireless channel by modeling a latent, low-dimensional, channel state. LTS features both a low computational complexity and fast learning dynamics, and requires minimal tuning effort. We evaluate LTS in stationary as well as fading wireless channels, where LTS improves the link throughput by up to 100% compared to state-of-the-art schemes.

The weighted minimum mean square error (WMMSE) algorithm was proposed to provide a locally optimum solution to the otherwise NP-hard weighted sum rate maximization beamforming problem, but it can still be prohibitively complex for real-time implementation. With the success of deep unfolding in trading off complexity and performance, we propose to apply deep unfolding to the WMMSE algorithm. With respect to traditional end-to-end learning, deep unfolding incorporates expert knowledge, with the benefits of immediate and well-grounded architecture selection, fewer trainable parameters, and better explainability. However, the classical formulation of the WMMSE algorithm given by Shi et al. is not amenable for deep unfolding due to matrix inversions, eigendecompositions, and bisection searches. Therefore, we present an alternative formulation that circumvents these operations. By means of simulations, we show that the deep unfolded WMMSE algorithm performs on par with the original WMMSE algorithm, at a lower computational load.

Spectrum monitoring and interference detection are crucial for the satellite service performance and the revenue of SatCom operators. Interference is one of the major causes of service degradation and deficient operational efficiency. Moreover, the satellite spectrum is becoming more crowded, as more satellites are being launched for different applications. This increases the risk of interference, which causes anomalies in the received signal, and mandates the adoption of techniques that can enable the automatic and realtime detection of such anomalies as a first step toward interference mitigation and suppression. In this chapter, we present a machine learning (ML)-based approach which is able to guarantee a real-time and automatic detection of both short-term and long-term interference in the spectrum of the received signal at the base station. The proposed approach can localize the interference both in time and in frequency and is universally applicable across a discrete set of different signal spectra. We present experimental results obtained by applying our method to real spectrum data from the Swedish Space Corporation. We also compare our ML-based approach to a model-based approach applied to the same spectrum data and used as a realistic baseline. Experimental results show that our method is a more reliable interference detector.

In this paper we consider a distributed convex optimization problem over time-varying undirected networks. We propose a dual method, primarily averaged network dual ascent (PANDA), that is proven to converge R-linearly to the optimal point given that the agents objective functions are strongly convex and have Lipschitz continuous gradients. Like dual decomposition, PANDA requires half the amount of variable exchanges per iterate of methods based on DIGing, and can provide with practical improved performance as empirically demonstrated., Submitted to Transactions on Automatic Control

The role of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) on the spread of SARS-CoV-2 has drawn significant attention, both scientific and political. Particularly, an article by the Imperial College COVID-19 Response Team (ICCRT), published online in Nature on June 8, 2020, evaluates the efficiency of 5 NPIs. Based on mortality data up to early May, it concludes that only one of the interventions, lockdown, has been efficient in 10 out of 11 studied European countries.We show, via simulations using the ICCRT model code, that conclusions regarding the effectiveness of individual NPIs are not justified. Our analysis focuses on the 11th country, Sweden, an outlier in that no lockdown was effectuated. The new simulations show that estimated NPI efficiencies across all 11 countries change drastically unless the model is adapted to give the Swedish data special treatment. While stated otherwise in the Nature article, such adaptation has been done in the model code reproducing its results: An ungrounded country-specific parameter said to have been introduced in all 11 countries, is in the code only activated for Sweden. This parameter de facto provides a new NPI category, only present in Sweden, and with an impact comparable to that of a lockdown.While the considered NPIs have unarguably contributed to reduce virus spread, our analysis reveals that their individual efficiency cannot be reliably quantified by the ICCRT model, provided mortality data up to early May.

IntroductionA series of modelling reports that quantify the effect of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) on the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus have been made available prior to external scientific peer-review. The aim of this study was to investigate the method used by the Imperial College COVID-19 Research Team (ICCRT) for estimation of NPI effects from the system theoretical viewpoint of model identifiability.MethodsAn input-sensitivity analysis was performed by running the original software code of the systems model that was devised to estimate the impact of NPIs on the reproduction number of the SARS-CoV-2 infection and presented online by ICCRT in Report 13 on March 30 2020. An empirical investigation was complemented by an analysis of practical parameter identifiability, using an estimation theoretical framework.ResultsDespite being simplistic with few free parameters, the system model was found to suffer from severe input sensitivities. Our analysis indicated that the model lacks practical parameter identifiability from data. The analysis also showed that this limitation is fundamental, and not something readily resolved should the model be driven with data of higher reliability.DiscussionReports based on system models have been instrumental to policymaking during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. With much at stake during all phases of a pandemic, we conclude that it is crucial to thoroughly scrutinise any SARS-CoV-2 effect analysis or prediction model prior to considering its use as decision support in policymaking. The enclosed example illustrates what such a review might reveal.

The optimal modulation and coding scheme (MCS) for wireless transmission depends on the dynamic wireless channel state. Hence, wireless link adaptation relies on periodically reported channel quality index (CQI) values to select the optimal MCS for each transmission instance. However, to optimize link performance for a given wireless environment, current link adaptation techniques rely on tuning parameters such as a block error rate (BLER) target and algorithm adjustments that are difficult to optimize heuristically. Here, we propose BayesLA, a Bayesian link adaptation scheme that does not require careful parameter tuning for optimal link performance in diverse wireless environments. BayesLA, which is inspired by the Thompson Sampling approach widely used for online learning, efficiently learns the MCS success probabilities conditioned on the reported CQI values. Through numerical simulations for a Rayleigh fading wireless channel and a typical cellular link configuration, we demonstrate that BayesLA outperforms state-of-the-art outer loop link adaptation (OLLA) approach in terms of the realized link throughput for a given BLER target. QC 20210401 European Research Council project AGNOSTIC (742648)

Link adaptation provides high spectral efficiency in wireless communications by selecting appropriate transmission parameters, e.g., the modulation and coding scheme (MCS), based on the instantaneous wireless channel. However, link adaptation suffers from impairments due to channel state information (CSI) feedback delay. In this paper, we extend the data-driven MCS selection scheme in our previous work to the case ofoutdated CSI, by assuming that CSI history is available to the system. We present two approaches that leverage the CSI history to optimally select the MCS for the current channel, i.e., i) an end-to-end (E2E) machine learning approach and ii) a hybrid data-driven and model-based approach. The E2E method uses the CSI history as input to a neural network for MCS selection. Conversely, the hybrid method uses a lower-dimensionality sufficient statistic for the instantaneous CSI, computed from the CSI history, as input to a neural network for MCS selection. We demonstrate that replacing the CSI history with the sufficient statistic comes without loss of generality. Moreover, by means of numerical experiments, we show that both approaches effectively compensate for the feedback delay. However, we advocate the hybrid approach as it comes with the additional benefits of i) a smaller neural network, which in turn requires a lower amount of data and training time, ii) improved explainability, and iii) better insights into optimization choices. The work was partially supported by the European Research Council project AGNOSTIC (742648) and by Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program (WASP).QC 20200604

Wireless links adapt the data transmission parameters to the dynamic channel state -- this is called link adaptation. Classical link adaptation relies on tuning parameters that are challenging to configure for optimal link performance. Recently, reinforcement learning has been proposed to automate link adaptation, where the transmission parameters are modeled as discrete arms of a multi-armed bandit. In this context, we propose a latent learning model for link adaptation that exploits the correlation between data transmission parameters. Further, motivated by the recent success of Thompson sampling for multi-armed bandit problems, we propose a latent Thompson sampling (LTS) algorithm that quickly learns the optimal parameters for a given channel state. We extend LTS to fading wireless channels through a tuning-free mechanism that automatically tracks the channel dynamics. In numerical evaluations with fading wireless channels, LTS improves the link throughout by up to 100% compared to the state-of-the-art link adaptation algorithms., Comment: 30 pages, 4 figures

Cellular base stations (BS) and remote radio heads can be mounted on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for flexible, traffic-aware deployment. These UAV base station networks (UAVBSN) promise an unprecendented degree of freedom that can be exploited for spectral efficiency gains as well as optimal network utilization. However, the current literature lacks realistic radio and traffic models for UAVBSN deployment planning and for performance evaluation. In this paper, we propose flow-level models (FLM) for realistically characterizing the UAVBSN performance in terms of a broad range of flow- and system-level metrics. Further, we propose a deep reinforcement learning (DRL) approach that relies on the UAVBSN FLM for learning the optimal traffic-aware UAV trajectories. For a given user traffic density and starting UAV locations, our RL approach learns the optimal UAV trajectories offline that maximizes a cumulative performance metric. We then execute the learned UAV trajectories in a discrete event simulator to evaluate online UAVBSN performance. For ${M}\pmb {=}$ 9 UAVs deployed in a simulated Downtown San Francisco model, where the UAV trajectories are defined by ${N}\pmb {=}$ 20 discrete actions, our approach achieves approximately a three-fold increase in the average user throughput compared to the initial UAV placement, while simultaneously balancing traffic loads across the BSs.

In this paper, we analyze the two-node joint clock synchronization and ranging problem. We focus on the case of nodes that employ time-to-digital converters to determine the range between them precisely. This specific design choice leads to a sawtooth model for the captured signal, which has not been studied before from an estimation theoretic standpoint. In the study of this model, we recover the basic conclusion of a well-known article by Freris, Graham, and Kumar in clock synchronization. More importantly, we discover a surprising identifiability result on the sawtooth signal model: noise improves the theoretical condition of the estimation of the phase and offset parameters. To complete our study, we provide performance references for joint clock synchronization and ranging using the sawtooth signal model by presenting an exhaustive simulation study on basic estimation strategies under different realistic conditions. With our contributions in this paper, we enable further research in the estimation of sawtooth signal models and pave the path towards their industrial use for clock synchronization and ranging., Comment: 13 pages, 12 figures

Cellular networks dynamically adjust the transmission parameters for a wireless link in response to its time-varying channel state. This is known as link adaptation, where the typical goal is to maximize the link throughput. State-of-the-art outer loop link adaptation (OLLA) selects the optimal transmission parameters based on an approximate, offline, model of the wireless link. Further, OLLA refines the offline model by dynamically compensating any deviations from the observed link performance. However, in practice, OLLA suffers from slow convergence and a sub-optimal link throughput. In this paper, we propose a link adaptation approach that overcomes the shortcomings of OLLA through a novel learning scheme. Our approach relies on contextual multi-armed bandits (MAB), where the context vector is composed of the instantaneous wireless channel state along with side information about the link. For a given context, our approach learns the success probability for each of the available transmission parameters, which is then exploited to select the throughput-maximizing parameters. Through numerical experiments, we show that our approach converges faster than OLLA and achieves a higher steady-state link throughput. For frequent and infrequent channel reports respectively, our scheme outperforms OLLA by 15% and 25% in terms of the steady-state link throughpu. QC 20191028

In this paper, we have developed tools to analyze prokaryotic cells growing in monolayers in a microfluidic device. Individual bacterial cells are identified using a novel curvature based approach and tracked over time for several generations. The resulting tracks are thereafter assessed and filtered based on track quality for subsequent analysis of bacterial growth rates. The proposed method performs comparable to the state-of-the-art methods for segmenting phase contrast and fluorescent images, and we show a 10-fold increase in analysis speed.

In this paper, we present a new interpretation of non-negatively constrained convolutional coding problems as blind deconvolution problems with spatially variant point spread function. In this light, we propose an optimization framework that generalizes our previous work on non-negative group sparsity for convolutional models. We then link these concepts to source localization problems that arise in scientific imaging and provide a visual example on an image derived from data captured by the Hubble telescope., 5 pages, 2018 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP), 15-20 April 2018, Calgary, AB, Canada

The expectation-maximization algorithm is a commonly employed tool for system identification. However, for a large set of state-space models, the maximization step cannot be solved analytically. In these situations, a natural remedy is to make use of the expectation-maximization gradient algorithm, i.e., to replace the maximization step by a single iteration of Newton's method. We propose alternative expectation-maximization algorithms that replace the maximization step with a single iteration of some other well-known optimization method. These algorithms parallel the expectation-maximization gradient algorithm while relaxing the assumption of a concave objective function. The benefit of the proposed expectation-maximization algorithms is demonstrated with examples based on standard observation models in tracking and localization.

Electric power distribution systems will encounter fluctuations in supply due to the introduction of renewable sources with high variability in generation capacity. It is therefore necessary to provide algorithms that are capable of dynamically finding approximate solutions. We propose two semi-distributed algorithms based on ADMM and discuss their advantages and disadvantages. One of the algorithms computes a feasible approximate of the optimal power allocation at each instance. We require coordination between the nodes to guarantee feasibility of each of the iterates. We bound the distance from the approximate solutions to the optimal solution as a function of the variation in optimal power allocation. Finally, we verify our results via experiments., Submitted to IEEE SPAWC 2018

This paper describes an Arduino Due based platform for digital signal processing (DSP) education. The platform consists of an in-house developed shield for robust interfacing with analog audio signals and user inputs, and an off-the-shelf Arduino Due that executes the students' DSP code. This combination enables direct use of the Arduino integrated development environment (IDE), with its low barrier to entry for students, its low maintenance need and cross platform interoperability, and its large user base. Relevant hardware and software features of the platform are discussed throughout, as are design choices made in relation to learning objectives, and the planned use of the platform in our own DSP course.

Cell detection and counting in the image-based ELISPOT and Fluorospot immunoassays is considered a bottleneck. The task has remained hard to automatize, and biomedical researchers often have to rely on results that are not accurate. Previously proposed solutions are heuristic, and data-based solutions are subject to a lack of objective ground truth data. In this paper, we analyze a partial differential equations model for ELISPOT, Fluorospot, and assays of similar design. This leads us to a mathematical observation model for the images generated by these assays. We use this model to motivate a methodology for cell detection. Finally, we provide a real-data example that suggests that this cell detection methodology and a human expert perform comparably., Comment: 5 pages, 2018 IEEE 15th International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI 2018), Washington, DC, USA, April 4-7, 2018

Solving optimization problems in multi-agent networks where each agent only has partial knowledge of the problem has become an increasingly important problem. In this paper we consider the problem of minimizing the sum of $n$ convex functions. We assume that each function is only known by one agent. We show that Generalized Distributed ADMM converges Q-linearly to the solution of the mentioned optimization problem if the over all objective function is strongly convex but the functions known by each agent are allowed to be only convex. Establishing Q-linear convergence allows for tracking statements that can not be made if only R-linear convergence is guaranteed. Further, we establish the equivalence between Generalized Distributed ADMM and P-EXTRA for a sub-set of mixing matrices. This equivalence yields insights in the convergence of P-EXTRA when overshooting to accelerate convergence., Comment: Submitted to IEEE Transactions on Signal and Information Processing over Networks

For spatial modulation (SM) systems that utilize multiple transmit antennas/patterns with a single radio front-end, we propose a learning approach to predict the average symbol error rate (SER) conditioned on the instantaneous channel state. We show that the predicted SER can he used to lower the average SER over Rayleigh fading channels by selecting the optimal codebook in each transmission instance. Further by exploiting that feedforward artificial neural networks (ANNs) trained with a mean squared error (MSE) criterion estimate the conditional a posteriori probabilities, we maximize the expected rate for each transmission instance and thereby improve the link spectral efficiency. QC 20190603

In this paper we consider a distributed convex optimization problem over time-varying networks. We propose a dual method that converges R-linearly to the optimal point given that the agents' objective functions are strongly convex and have Lipschitz continuous gradients. The proposed method requires half the amount of variable exchanges per iterate than methods based on DIGing, and yields improved practical performance as empirically demonstrated., Submitted to the 57th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC) 2018

We consider an interference network with independent links, whose multi-antenna transmitters have access to an imperfect analog estimate of their local channels. Assuming that the receivers treat the interference as noise, we define the outage rate region as the set of rate-tuples that are achievable with a given probability and we characterize the boundary of the region for transmit beamforming. Our study shows that the Pareto-optimal beamforming vectors judiciously balance the desired signal power and the interference power based on the quality of the estimated channel state. Our analysis further reveals that, in contrast to the well-known results by Jorswieck , for the perfect channel side-information case, transmission at full power is not necessarily Pareto-optimal.

We present a combined report on the results of three editions of the Cell Tracking Challenge, an ongoing initiative aimed at promoting the development and objective evaluation of cell segmentation and tracking algorithms. With 21 participating algorithms and a data repository consisting of 13 data sets from various microscopy modalities, the challenge displays today's state-of-the-art methodology in the field. We analyzed the challenge results using performance measures for segmentation and tracking that rank all participating methods. We also analyzed the performance of all of the algorithms in terms of biological measures and practical usability. Although some methods scored high in all technical aspects, none obtained fully correct solutions. We found that methods that either take prior information into account using learning strategies or analyze cells in a global spatiotemporal video context performed better than other methods under the segmentation and tracking scenarios included in the challenge.

In this two-part paper, we present a novel framework and methodology to analyze data from certain image-based biochemical assays, e.g., ELISPOT and Fluorospot assays. In this second part, we focus on our algorithmic contributions. We provide an algorithm for functional inverse diffusion that solves the variational problem we posed in Part I. As part of the derivation of this algorithm, we present the proximal operator for the non-negative group-sparsity regularizer, which is a novel result that is of interest in itself, also in comparison to previous results on the proximal operator of a sum of functions. We then present a discretized approximated implementation of our algorithm and evaluate it both in terms of operational cell-detection metrics and in terms of distributional optimal-transport metrics., published, 16 pages

We present a maximum likelihood estimator for estimating the positions of accelerometers in an inertial sensor array. This method simultaneously estimates the positions of the accelerometers and the motion dynamics of the inertial sensor array and, therefore, does not require a predefined motion sequence nor any external equipment. Using an iterative block coordinate descent optimization strategy, the calibration problem can be solved with a complexity that is linear in the number of time samples. The proposed method is evaluated by Monte-Carlo simulations of an inertial sensor array built out of 32 inertial measurement units. The simulation results show that, if the array experiences sufficient dynamics, the position error is inversely proportional to the number of time samples used in the calibration sequence. Further, results show that for the considered array geometry and motion dynamics in the order of 2000° /s and 2000° /s2, the positions of the accelerometers can be estimated with an accuracy in the order of 10−® m using only 1000 time samples. This enables fast on-the-fly calibration of the geometric errors in an inertial sensor array by simply twisting it by hand for a few seconds.

Motivation: Automatic tracking of cells in multidimensional time-lapse fluorescence microscopy is an important task in many biomedical applications. A novel framework for objective evaluation of cell tracking algorithms has been established under the auspices of the IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging 2013 Cell Tracking Challenge. In this article, we present the logistics, datasets, methods and results of the challenge and lay down the principles for future uses of this benchmark. Results: The main contributions of the challenge include the creation of a comprehensive video dataset repository and the definition of objective measures for comparison and ranking of the algorithms. With this benchmark, six algorithms covering a variety of segmentation and tracking paradigms have been compared and ranked based on their performance on both synthetic and real datasets. Given the diversity of the datasets, we do not declare a single winner of the challenge. Instead, we present and discuss the results for each individual dataset separately. Availability and implementation: The challenge Web site (http://www.codesolorzano.com/celltrackingchallenge) provides access to the training and competition datasets, along with the ground truth of the training videos. It also provides access to Windows and Linux executable files of the evaluation software and most of the algorithms that competed in the challenge. Contact: codesolorzano@unav.es Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Discrete-rate spectrum balancing in interference-limited multi-user and multi-carrier digital subscriber lines (DSL) is a large-scale, non-convex and combinatorial problem. Previously proposed algorithms for its (dual) optimal solution are only applicable for networks with few users, while the suboptimality of less complex bit-loading algorithms has not been adequately studied so far. We deploy constrained optimization techniques as well as problem-specific branch-and-bound and search-space reduction methods, which for the first time give a low-complexity guarantee of optimality in certain multi-user DSL networks of practical size. Simulation results precisely quantify the suboptimality of multi-user bit-loading schemes in a thousand ADSL2 scenarios under measured channel data.

This paper shows the capability of the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) to track, in a distributed manner, the optimal down-link beam-forming solution in a multiple-input single-output multicell network given a dynamic channel. Each time the channel changes, ADMM is allowed to perform one algorithm iteration. In order to implement the proposed scheme, the base stations are not required to exchange channel state information. They will, however, be required to exchange interference values once. We show ADMM's tracking ability in terms of the algorithm's Lyapunov function. This is shown given that the primal and dual solutions to the convex optimization problem at hand can be understood as a continuous mapping from the problem's parameters. We show that this holds true even considering that the problem loses strong convexity when it is made distributed. We then show that these requirements hold for the down-link, and consequently the up-link, beam-forming case. Numerical examples corroborating the theoretical findings are also provided.

We consider a decentralized hypothesis testing problem in which several peripheral energy harvesting sensors are arranged in parallel. Each sensor makes a noisy observation of a time varying phenomenon, and sends a message about the present hypothesis towards a fusion center at each time instance t. The fusion center, using the aggregate of the received messages during the time instance t, makes a decision about the state of the present hypothesis. We assume that each sensor is an energy harvesting device and is capable of harvesting all the energy it needs to communicate from its environment. Our contribution is to formulate and analyze the decentralized detection problem when the energy harvesting sensors are allowed to form a long term energy usage policy. Our analysis is based on a queuing-theoretic model for the battery. Then, by using numerical simulations, we show how the resulting performance differs from the energy-unconstrained case.

We consider the problem of decentralized hypothesis testing in a network of energy harvesting sensors, where sensors make noisy observations of a phenomenon and send quantized information about the phenomenon towards a fusion center. The fusion center makes a decision about the present hypothesis using the aggregate received data during a time interval. We explicitly consider a scenario under which the messages are sent through parallel access channels towards the fusion center. To avoid limited lifetime issues, we assume each sensor is capable of harvesting all the energy it needs for the communication from the environment. Each sensor has an energy buffer (battery) to save its harvested energy for use in other time intervals. Our key contribution is to formulate the problem of decentralized detection in a sensor network with energy harvesting devices. Our analysis is based on a queuing-theoretic model for the battery and we propose a sensor decision design method by considering long term energy management at the sensors. We show how the performance of the system changes for different battery capacities. We then numerically show how our findings can be used in the design of sensor networks with energy harvesting sensors., Comment: IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing

We consider a constrained multi-carrier power allocation problem in interference-limited multi-user systems with a finite set of transmission rates. The Lagrange relaxation is a common technique for decomposing such problems into independently solvable per-subcarrier problems. Deviating from this approach our main contribution is the proposal of a novel spectrum management framework based on a Nonlinear Dantzig-Wolfe problem decomposition. It allows for suboptimal initialization and suboptimal power allocation methods with low complexity. While we show that the combinatorial per-subcarrier problems have polynomial complexity in the number of users, we find that such suboptimal methods are indispensable in large systems. Thus we give an overview of various basic dual heuristics and provide simulation results on a set of thousand digital subscriber line (DSL) networks which show the superior performance of our framework compared to previous power control algorithms.

We provide a comprehensive performance comparison of soft-output and hard-output demodulators in the context of non-iterative multiple-input multiple-output bit-interleaved coded modulation (MIMO-BICM). Coded bit error rate (BER), widely used in literature for demodulator comparison, has the drawback of depending strongly on the error correcting code being used. This motivates us to propose the mutual information of the equivalent modulation channel (comprising modulator, wireless channel, and demodulator) as a code-independent performance measure. We present extensive numerical results for spatially independent identically distributed (i.i.d.) ergodic and quasi-static fading channels under perfect and imperfect channel state information. These results reveal that the performance ranking of MIMO demodulators is rate-dependent and provide new insights regarding MIMO-BICM system design, i.e., the choice of antenna configuration, symbol constellation, and demodulator for a given target rate.

The problem of finding the least squares solution s to a system of equations Hs = y is considered, when s is a vector of binary variables and the coefficient matrix H is unknown but of bounded uncertainty. Similar to previous approaches to robust binary least squares, we explore the potential of a min-max design with the aim to provide solutions that are less sensitive to the uncertainty in H. We concentrate on the important case of ellipsoidal uncertainty, i.e., the matrix H is assumed to be a deterministic unknown quantity which lies in a given uncertainty ellipsoid. The resulting problem is NP-hard, yet amenable to convex approximation techniques: Starting from a convenient reformulation of the original problem, we propose an approximation algorithm based on semidefinite relaxation that explicitly accounts for the ellipsoidal uncertainty in the coefficient matrix. Next, we show that it is possible to construct a tighter relaxation by suitably changing the description of the feasible region of the problem, and formulate an approximation algorithm that performs better in practice. Interestingly, both relaxations are derived as Lagrange bidual problems corresponding to the two equivalent problem reformulations. The strength of the proposed tightened relaxation is demonstrated by pertinent simulations.

We analyze the (computational) complexity distribution of sphere decoding (SD) for random infinite lattices. In particular, we show that under fairly general assumptions on the statistics of the lattice basis matrix, the tail behavior of the SD complexity distribution is fully determined by the inverse volume of the fundamental regions of the underlying lattice. Particularizing this result to N x M, N ≥ M, i.i.d. circularly symmetric complex Gaussian lattice basis matrices, we find that the corresponding complexity distribution is of Pareto-type with tail exponent given by N-M+1. A more refined analysis reveals that the corresponding average complexity of SD is infinite for N = M and finite for N >; M. Finally, for i.i.d. circularly symmetric complex Gaussian lattice basis matrices, we analyze SD preprocessing techniques based on lattice-reduction (such as the LLL algorithm or layer-sorting according to the V-BLAST algorithm) and regularization. In particular, we show that lattice-reduction does not improve the tail exponent of the complexity distribution while regularization results in a SD complexity distribution with tails that decrease faster than polynomial.

QC 20110517

We consider the downlink of a multiuser system with multiple antennas at the base station. Vector perturbation (VP) precoding is a promising variant of transmit-side channel inversion allowing the users to detect their data in a simple, noncooperative manner. VP precoding has so far been developed and analyzed under the assumptions that the transmitter has perfect channel state information (CSI) and that the receivers know perfectly a channel-dependent transmit power normalization factor and have infinite dynamic range. We demonstrate that the violation of any of these idealizing assumptions degrades the performance of VP significantly and almost always results in an error floor. Motivated by this observation, we propose a novel scheme which we term transmit outage precoding (TOP). With TOP, the transmitter uses a prearranged power scaling known by the receivers and refrains from transmitting when channel conditions are poor. We further show how to augment TOP and conventional VP to deal with a finite dynamic range at the receiver. The performance of the proposed schemes under various levels of transmit CSI is studied in terms of a theoretical diversity analysis and illustrated by numerical results.

In this letter, the linear predictability of discrete-time stationary stochastic processes with 1/|f|α-shaped power spectral density (PSD) is considered. In particular, the spectral flatness measure (SFM)-which yields a lower bound for the normalized mean-squared-error (NMSE) of any linear one-step-ahead (OSA) predictor-is obtained analytically as a function of α ∈ [0, 1]. By comparing the SFM bound to the NMSE of the p -tap linear minimum-mean-square error (LMMSE) predictor, it is shown that close to optimal NMSE performance may be achieved for relatively moderate values of p. The performance of the LMMSE predictor for the discrete-time fractional Gaussian noise (DFGN), which may be viewed as the conventional discrete-time counterpart of continuous-time processes with 1/|f|α-shaped PSD, shows that the DFGN is more easily predicted than the discrete-time processes considered herein.

Presents the mission and work of the Signal Processing for Communications and Networking Technical Committee (SPCOM-TC). Also reports on major areas of research, key events and meetings, and future areas of research and development.

In multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) spatial multiplexing systems, maximum-likelihood (ML) detection achieves maximum diversity at the cost of high computational complexity. In contrast, low-complexity alternatives like zero-forcing (ZF) detection suffer from a significant diversity loss. In this paper, we present a novel detection scheme that allows a continuous tradeoff between diversity order and complexity reduction. The proposed detector consists of two stages: the first stage is a linear pre-equalizer that partially eliminates MIMO interference and improves the channel condition number; the second stage is a mismatched ML detector on the residual channel that ignores the correlation introduced by the equalization stage. This second stage is implemented using a variant of the sphere decoder. ML and ZF detection are extreme special cases of our novel scheme. We give insights into the main effects that determine performance and we provide an explicit expression for the diversity order achieved with the proposed detector. Simulation results confirm that our scheme allows to trade diversity for complexity savings in a continuous manner.

The fixed-complexity sphere decoder (FSD) has been previously proposed for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) detection in order to overcome the two main drawbacks of the sphere decoder (SD), namely its variable complexity and its sequential structure. Although the FSD has shown remarkable quasi-maximum-likelihood (ML) performance and has resulted in a highly optimized real-time implementation, no analytical study of its performance existed for an arbitrary MIMO system. Herein, the error probability of the FSD is analyzed, proving that it achieves the same diversity as the maximum-likelihood detector (MLD) independent of the constellation used. In addition, it can also asymptotically yield ML performance in the high-signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regime. Those two results, together with its fixed complexity, make the FSD a very promising algorithm for uncoded MIMO detection.