arXiv subjects

Geert Leus

Publications and source records attributed to Geert Leus.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2024

Tracking Network Dynamics using Probabilistic State-Space Models

This paper introduces a probabilistic approach for tracking the dynamics of unweighted and directed graphs using state-space models (SSMs). Unlike conventional topology inference methods that assume static graphs and generate point-wise estimates, our method accounts for dynamic changes in the network structure over time. We model the network at each timestep as the state of the SSM, and use observations to update beliefs that quantify the probability of the network being in a particular state. Then, by considering the dynamics of transition and observation models through the update and prediction steps, respectively, the proposed method can incorporate the information of real-time graph signals into the beliefs. These beliefs provide a probability distribution of the network at each timestep, being able to provide both an estimate for the network and the uncertainty it entails. Our approach is evaluated through experiments with synthetic and real-world networks. The results demonstrate that our method effectively estimates network states and accounts for the uncertainty in the data, outperforming traditional techniques such as recursive least squares.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2024

Line Spectral Estimation with Unlimited Sensing

In the paper, we consider the line spectral estimation problem in an unlimited sensing framework (USF), where a modulo analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is employed to fold the input signal back into a bounded interval before quantization. Such an operation is mathematically equivalent to taking the modulo of the input signal with respect to the interval. To overcome the noise sensitivity of higher-order difference-based methods, we explore the properties of the first-order difference of modulo samples, and develop two line spectral estimation algorithms based on first-order difference, which are robust against noise. Specifically, we show that, with a high probability, the first-order difference of the original samples is equivalent to that of the modulo samples. By utilizing this property, line spectral estimation is solved via a robust sparse signal recovery approach. The second algorithms is built on our finding that, with a sufficiently high sampling rate, the first-order difference of the original samples can be decomposed as a sum of the first-order difference of the modulo samples and a sequence whose elements are confined to be three possible values. This decomposition enables us to formulate the line spectral estimation problem as a mixed integer linear program that can be efficiently solved. Simulation results show that both proposed methods are robust against noise and achieve a significant performance improvement over the higher-order difference-based method.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2024

Joint Ranging and Phase Offset Estimation for Multiple Drones using ADS-B Signatures

A new method for joint ranging and Phase Offset (PO) estimation of multiple drones/aircrafts is proposed in this paper. The proposed method employs the superimposed uncoordinated Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) packets broadcasted by drones/aircrafts for joint range and PO estimation. It jointly estimates range and PO prior to ADS-B packet decoding; thus, it can improve air safety when packet decoding is infeasible due to packet collision. Moreover, it enables coherent detection of ADS-B packets, which can result in more reliable multiple target tracking in aviation systems using cooperative sensors for detect and avoid (DAA). By minimizing the Kullback Leibler Divergence (KLD) statistical distance measure, we show that the received complex baseband signal coming from K uncoordinated drones corrupted by Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) at a single antenna receiver can be approximated by an independent and identically distributed Gaussian Mixture (GM) with 2 power K mixture components in the two dimensional (2D) plane. While direct joint Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) of range and PO from the derived GM Probability Density Function (PDF) leads to an intractable maximization, our proposed method employs the Expectation Maximization (EM) algorithm to estimate the modes of the 2D Gaussian mixture followed by a reordering estimation technique through combinatorial optimization to estimate range and PO. An extension to a multiple antenna receiver is also investigated in this paper. While the proposed estimator can estimate the range of multiple drones with a single receive antenna, a larger number of drones can be supported with higher accuracy by the use of multiple antennas at the receiver. The effectiveness of the proposed estimator is supported by simulation results. We show that the proposed estimator can jointly estimate the range of three drones accurately.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2024

Simplicial Convolutional Filters

We study linear filters for processing signals supported on abstract topological spaces modeled as simplicial complexes, which may be interpreted as generalizations of graphs that account for nodes, edges, triangular faces etc. To process such signals, we develop simplicial convolutional filters defined as matrix polynomials of the lower and upper Hodge Laplacians. First, we study the properties of these filters and show that they are linear and shift-invariant, as well as permutation and orientation equivariant. These filters can also be implemented in a distributed fashion with a low computational complexity, as they involve only (multiple rounds of) simplicial shifting between upper and lower adjacent simplices. Second, focusing on edge-flows, we study the frequency responses of these filters and examine how we can use the Hodge-decomposition to delineate gradient, curl and harmonic frequencies. We discuss how these frequencies correspond to the lower- and the upper-adjacent couplings and the kernel of the Hodge Laplacian, respectively, and can be tuned independently by our filter designs. Third, we study different procedures for designing simplicial convolutional filters and discuss their relative advantages. Finally, we corroborate our simplicial filters in several applications: to extract different frequency components of a simplicial signal, to denoise edge flows, and to analyze financial markets and traffic networks.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2023

A Generalization of the Convolution Theorem and its Connections to Non-Stationarity and the Graph Frequency Domain

In this paper, we present a novel convolution theorem which encompasses the well known convolution theorem in (graph) signal processing as well as the one related to time-varying filters. Specifically, we show how a node-wise convolution for signals supported on a graph can be expressed as another node-wise convolution in a frequency domain graph, different from the original graph. This is achieved through a parameterization of the filter coefficients following a basis expansion model. After showing how the presented theorem is consistent with the already existing body of literature, we discuss its implications in terms of non-stationarity. Finally, we propose a data-driven algorithm based on subspace fitting to learn the frequency domain graph, which is then corroborated by experimental results on synthetic and real data.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2023

Learning graphs and simplicial complexes from data

Graphs are widely used to represent complex information and signal domains with irregular support. Typically, the underlying graph topology is unknown and must be estimated from the available data. Common approaches assume pairwise node interactions and infer the graph topology based on this premise. In contrast, our novel method not only unveils the graph topology but also identifies three-node interactions, referred to in the literature as second-order simplicial complexes (SCs). We model signals using a graph autoregressive Volterra framework, enhancing it with structured graph Volterra kernels to learn SCs. We propose a mathematical formulation for graph and SC inference, solving it through convex optimization involving group norms and mask matrices. Experimental results on synthetic and real-world data showcase a superior performance for our approach compared to existing methods.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2023

Sensor Selection using the Two-Target Cramér-Rao Bound for Angle of Arrival Estimation

Sensor selection is a useful method to help reduce data throughput, as well as computational, power, and hardware requirements, while still maintaining acceptable performance. Although minimizing the Cramér-Rao bound has been adopted previously for sparse sensing, it did not consider multiple targets and unknown source models. We propose to tackle the sensor selection problem for angle of arrival estimation using the worst-case Cramér-Rao bound of two uncorrelated sources. We cast the problem as a convex semi-definite program and retrieve the binary selection by randomized rounding. Through numerical examples related to a linear array, we illustrate the proposed method and show that it leads to the selection of elements at the edges plus the center of the linear array.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2023

Graph Signal Processing: History, Development, Impact, and Outlook

Graph signal processing (GSP) generalizes signal processing (SP) tasks to signals living on non-Euclidean domains whose structure can be captured by a weighted graph. Graphs are versatile, able to model irregular interactions, easy to interpret, and endowed with a corpus of mathematical results, rendering them natural candidates to serve as the basis for a theory of processing signals in more irregular domains. In this article, we provide an overview of the evolution of GSP, from its origins to the challenges ahead. The first half is devoted to reviewing the history of GSP and explaining how it gave rise to an encompassing framework that shares multiple similarities with SP. A key message is that GSP has been critical to develop novel and technically sound tools, theory, and algorithms that, by leveraging analogies with and the insights of digital SP, provide new ways to analyze, process, and learn from graph signals. In the second half, we shift focus to review the impact of GSP on other disciplines. First, we look at the use of GSP in data science problems, including graph learning and graph-based deep learning. Second, we discuss the impact of GSP on applications, including neuroscience and image and video processing. We conclude with a brief discussion of the emerging and future directions of GSP.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2023

Super-Resolution Harmonic Retrieval of Non-Circular Signals

This paper proposes a super-resolution harmonic retrieval method for uncorrelated strictly non-circular signals, whose covariance and pseudo-covariance present Toeplitz and Hankel structures, respectively. Accordingly, the augmented covariance matrix constructed by the covariance and pseudo-covariance matrices is not only low rank but also jointly Toeplitz-Hankel structured. To efficiently exploit such a desired structure for high estimation accuracy, we develop a low-rank Toeplitz-Hankel covariance reconstruction (LRTHCR) solution employed over the augmented covariance matrix. Further, we design a fitting error constraint to flexibly implement the LRTHCR algorithm without knowing the noise statistics. In addition, performance analysis is provided for the proposed LRTHCR in practical settings. Simulation results reveal that the LRTHCR outperforms the benchmark methods in terms of lower estimation errors.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2022

Forecasting Graph Signals with Recursive MIMO Graph Filters

Forecasting time series on graphs is a fundamental problem in graph signal processing. When each entity of the network carries a vector of values for each time stamp instead of a scalar one, existing approaches resort to the use of product graphs to combine this multidimensional information, at the expense of creating a larger graph. In this paper, we show the limitations of such approaches, and propose extensions to tackle them. Then, we propose a recursive multiple-input multiple-output graph filter which encompasses many already existing models in the literature while being more flexible. Numerical simulations on a real world data set show the effectiveness of the proposed models.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2022

Blind Polynomial Regression

Fitting a polynomial to observed data is an ubiquitous task in many signal processing and machine learning tasks, such as interpolation and prediction. In that context, input and output pairs are available and the goal is to find the coefficients of the polynomial. However, in many applications, the input may be partially known or not known at all, rendering conventional regression approaches not applicable. In this paper, we formally state the (potentially partial) blind regression problem, illustrate some of its theoretical properties, and propose algorithmic approaches to solve it. As a case-study, we apply our methods to a jitter-correction problem and corroborate its performance.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2022

Learning Time-Varying Graphs from Online Data

This work proposes an algorithmic framework to learn time-varying graphs from online data. The generality offered by the framework renders it model-independent, i.e., it can be theoretically analyzed in its abstract formulation and then instantiated under a variety of model-dependent graph learning problems. This is possible by phrasing (time-varying) graph learning as a composite optimization problem, where different functions regulate different desiderata, e.g., data fidelity, sparsity or smoothness. Instrumental for the findings is recognizing that the dependence of the majority (if not all) data-driven graph learning algorithms on the data is exerted through the empirical covariance matrix, representing a sufficient statistic for the estimation problem. Its user-defined recursive update enables the framework to work in non-stationary environments, while iterative algorithms building on novel time-varying optimization tools explicitly take into account the temporal dynamics, speeding up convergence and implicitly including a temporal-regularization of the solution. We specialize the framework to three well-known graph learning models, namely, the Gaussian graphical model (GGM), the structural equation model (SEM), and the smoothness-based model (SBM), where we also introduce ad-hoc vectorization schemes for structured matrices (symmetric, hollows, etc.) which are crucial to perform correct gradient computations, other than enabling to work in low-dimensional vector spaces and hence easing storage requirements. After discussing the theoretical guarantees of the proposed framework, we corroborate it with extensive numerical tests in synthetic and real data.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2022

Structured Sensing Matrix Design for In-sector Compressed mmWave Channel Estimation

Fast millimeter wave (mmWave) channel estimation techniques based on compressed sensing (CS) suffer from low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in the channel measurements, due to the use of wide beams. To address this problem, we develop an in-sector CS-based mmWave channel estimation technique that focuses energy on a sector in the angle domain. Specifically, we construct a new class of structured CS matrices to estimate the channel within the sector of interest. To this end, we first determine an optimal sampling pattern when the number of measurements is equal to the sector dimension and then use its subsampled version in the sub-Nyquist regime. Our approach results in low aliasing artifacts in the sector of interest and better channel estimates than benchmark algorithms.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2021

Simplicial Convolutional Neural Networks

Graphs can model networked data by representing them as nodes and their pairwise relationships as edges. Recently, signal processing and neural networks have been extended to process and learn from data on graphs, with achievements in tasks like graph signal reconstruction, graph or node classifications, and link prediction. However, these methods are only suitable for data defined on the nodes of a graph. In this paper, we propose a simplicial convolutional neural network (SCNN) architecture to learn from data defined on simplices, e.g., nodes, edges, triangles, etc. We study the SCNN permutation and orientation equivariance, complexity, and spectral analysis. Finally, we test the SCNN performance for imputing citations on a coauthorship complex.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2021

Aerial Base Station Placement Leveraging Radio Tomographic Maps

Mobile base stations on board unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) promise to deliver connectivity to those areas where the terrestrial infrastructure is overloaded, damaged, or absent. A fundamental problem in this context involves determining a minimal set of locations in 3D space where such aerial base stations (ABSs) must be deployed to provide coverage to a set of users. While nearly all existing approaches rely on average characterizations of the propagation medium, this work develops a scheme where the actual channel information is exploited by means of a radio tomographic map. A convex optimization approach is presented to minimize the number of required ABSs while ensuring that the UAVs do not enter no-fly regions. A simulation study reveals that the proposed algorithm markedly outperforms its competitors.

math.OC↗

arXiv2021

Graphs, Convolutions, and Neural Networks: From Graph Filters to Graph Neural Networks

Network data can be conveniently modeled as a graph signal, where data values are assigned to nodes of a graph that describes the underlying network topology. Successful learning from network data is built upon methods that effectively exploit this graph structure. In this work, we leverage graph signal processing to characterize the representation space of graph neural networks (GNNs). We discuss the role of graph convolutional filters in GNNs and show that any architecture built with such filters has the fundamental properties of permutation equivariance and stability to changes in the topology. These two properties offer insight about the workings of GNNs and help explain their scalability and transferability properties which, coupled with their local and distributed nature, make GNNs powerful tools for learning in physical networks. We also introduce GNN extensions using edge-varying and autoregressive moving average graph filters and discuss their properties. Finally, we study the use of GNNs in recommender systems and learning decentralized controllers for robot swarms.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2021

Self Calibration of Scalar and Vector Sensor Arrays

In this work, we consider the problem of joint calibration and direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation using sensor arrays. This joint estimation problem is referred to as self calibration. Unlike many previous iterative approaches, we propose geometry independent convex optimization algorithms for jointly estimating the sensor gain and phase errors as well as the source DOAs. We derive these algorithms based on both the conventional element-space data model and the covariance data model. We focus on sparse and regular arrays formed using scalar sensors as well as vector sensors. The developed algorithms are obtained by transforming the underlying bilinear calibration model into a linear model, and subsequently by using standard convex relaxation techniques to estimate the unknown parameters. Prior to the algorithm discussion, we also derive identifiability conditions for the existence of a unique solution to the self calibration problem. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed techniques, numerical experiments and comparisons to the state-of-the-art methods are provided. Finally, the results from an experiment that was performed in an anechoic chamber using an acoustic vector sensor array are presented to demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed self calibration techniques.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2021

Finite Impulse Response Filters for Simplicial Complexes

In this paper, we study linear filters to process signals defined on simplicial complexes, i.e., signals defined on nodes, edges, triangles, etc. of a simplicial complex, thereby generalizing filtering operations for graph signals. We propose a finite impulse response filter based on the Hodge Laplacian, and demonstrate how this filter can be designed to amplify or attenuate certain spectral components of simplicial signals. Specifically, we discuss how, unlike in the case of node signals, the Fourier transform in the context of edge signals can be understood in terms of two orthogonal subspaces corresponding to the gradient-flow signals and curl-flow signals arising from the Hodge decomposition. By assigning different filter coefficients to the associated terms of the Hodge Laplacian, we develop a subspace-varying filter which enables more nuanced control over these signal types. Numerical experiments are conducted to show the potential of simplicial filters for sub-component extraction, denoising and model approximation.

cs.SI↗