arXiv subjects

John S. Baras

Publications and source records attributed to John S. Baras.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2023

Learning Agent Interactions from Density Evolution in 3D Regions With Obstacles

In this work, we study the inverse problem of identifying complex flocking dynamics in a domain cluttered with obstacles. We get inspiration from animal flocks moving in complex ways with capabilities far beyond what current robots can do. Owing to the difficulty of observing and recovering the trajectories of the agents, we focus on the dynamics of their probability densities, which are governed by partial differential equations (PDEs), namely compressible Euler equations subject to non-local forces. We formulate the inverse problem of learning interactions as a PDE-constrained optimization problem of minimizing the squared Hellinger distance between the histogram of the flock and the distribution associated to our PDEs. The numerical methods used to efficiently solve the PDE-constrained optimization problem are described. Realistic flocking data are simulated using the Boids model of flocking agents, which differs in nature from the reconstruction models used in our PDEs. Our analysis and simulated experiments show that the behavior of cohesive flocks can be recovered accurately with approximate PDE solutions.

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arXiv2023

Mobile Network Slicing under Demand Uncertainty: A Stochastic Programming Approach

Network slicing enables the deployment of multiple dedicated virtual sub-networks, i.e. slices on a shared physical infrastructure. Unlike traditional one-size-fits-all resource provisioning schemes, each network slice (NS) in 5G is tailored to the specific service requirements of a group of customers. An end-to-end (E2E) mobile NS orchestration requires the simultaneous provisioning of computing, storage, and networking resources across the core network (CN) and the radio access network (RAN). Constant temporospatial changes in mobile user demand profiles further complicate the E2E NSs resource provisioning beyond the limits of the existing best-effort schemes that are only effective under accurate demand forecasts for all slices. This paper proposes a practical two-time-scale resource provisioning framework for E2E network slicing under demand uncertainty. At each macro-scale instance, we assume that only the spatial probability distribution of the NS demands is available. We formulate the NSs resource allocation problem as a stochastic mixed integer program (SMIP) with the objective of minimizing the total resource cost at the CN and the RAN. At each microscale instance, utilizing the exact slice demand profiles, a linear program is solved to jointly minimize the unsupported traffic and the resource cost at the RAN. We verify the effectiveness of our resource allocation scheme through numerical experiments.

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arXiv2023

SLAS: Speed and Lane Advisory System for Highway Navigation

This paper proposes a hierarchical autonomous vehicle navigation architecture, composed of a high-level speed and lane advisory system (SLAS) coupled with low-level trajectory generation and trajectory following modules. Specifically, we target a multi-lane highway driving scenario where an autonomous ego vehicle navigates in traffic. We propose a novel receding horizon mixed-integer optimization based method for SLAS with the objective to minimize travel time while accounting for passenger comfort. We further incorporate various modifications in the proposed approach to improve the overall computational efficiency and achieve real-time performance. We demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed approach in contrast to the existing methods, when applied in conjunction with state-of-the-art trajectory generation and trajectory following frameworks, in a CARLA simulation environment.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2023

Capacitated Beam Placement for Multi-beam Non-Geostationary Satellite Systems

Non-geostationary (NGSO) satellite communications systems have attracted a lot of attention both from industry and academia, over the past several years. Beam placement is among the major resource allocation problems in multi-beam NGSO systems. In this paper, we formulate the beam placement problem as a Euclidean disk cover optimization model. We aim at minimizing the number of placed beams while satisfying the total downlink traffic demand of targeted ground terminals without exceeding the capacity of the placed beams. We present a low-complexity deterministic annealing (DA)-based algorithm to solve the NP-hard optimization model for near-optimal solutions. We further propose an extended variant of the previous model to ensure the traffic assigned to the beams is balanced. We verify the effectiveness of our proposed methods by means of numerical experiments and show that our scheme is superior to the state-of-the-art methods in that it covers the ground users by fewer number of beams on average.

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arXiv2022

Actuator Scheduling for Linear Systems: A Convex Relaxation Approach

In this letter, we investigate the problem of actuator scheduling for networked control systems. Given a stochastic linear system with a number of actuators, we consider the case that one actuator is activated at each time. This problem is combinatorial in nature and NP hard to solve. We propose a convex relaxation to the actuator scheduling problem, and use its solution as a reference to design an algorithm for solving the original scheduling problem. Using dynamic programming arguments, we provide a suboptimality bound of our proposed algorithm. Furthermore, we show that our framework can be extended to incorporate multiple actuators scheduling at each time and actuation costs. A simulation example is provided, which shows that our proposed method outperforms a random selection approach and a greedy selection approach.

math.OC↗

arXiv2022

Value of Information in Feedback Control: Global Optimality

The rate-regulation tradeoff, defined between two objective functions, one penalizing the packet rate and one the regulation cost, can express the fundamental performance bound of networked control systems. However, the characterization of the set of globally optimal solutions in this tradeoff for multi-dimensional Gauss-Markov processes has been an open problem. In the present article, we characterize a policy profile that belongs to this set without imposing any restrictions on the information structure or the policy structure. We prove that such a policy profile consists of a symmetric threshold triggering policy based on the value of information and a certainty-equivalent control policy based on a non-Gaussian linear estimator. These policies are deterministic and can be designed separately. Besides, we provide a global optimality analysis for the value of information $\text{VoI}_k$, a semantic metric that emerges from the rate-regulation tradeoff as the difference between the benefit and the cost of a data packet. We prove that it is globally optimal that a data packet containing sensory information at time $k$ be transmitted to the controller only if $\text{VoI}_k$ becomes nonnegative. These results have important implications in the areas of communication and control.

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arXiv2022

Value of Information in Feedback Control: Quantification

Although transmission of a data packet containing sensory information in a networked control system improves the quality of regulation, it has indeed a price from the communication perspective. It is, therefore, rational that such a data packet be transmitted only if it is valuable in the sense of a cost-benefit analysis. Yet, the fact is that little is known so far about this valuation of information and its connection with traditional event-triggered communication. In the present article, we study this intrinsic property of networked control systems by formulating a rate-regulation tradeoff between the packet rate and the regulation cost with an event trigger and a controller as two distributed decision makers, and show that the valuation of information is conceivable and quantifiable grounded on this tradeoff. In particular, we characterize an equilibrium in the rate-regulation tradeoff, and quantify the value of information $\text{VoI}_k$ there as the variation in a so-called value function with respect to a piece of sensory information that can be communicated to the controller at each time $k$. We prove that, for a multi-dimensional Gauss-Markov process, $\text{VoI}_k$ is a symmetric function of the discrepancy between the state estimates at the event trigger and the controller, and that a data packet containing sensory information at time $k$ should be transmitted to the controller only if $\text{VoI}_k$ is nonnegative. Moreover, we discuss that $\text{VoI}_k$ can be computed with arbitrary accuracy, and that it can be approximated by a closed-form quadratic function with a performance guarantee.

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arXiv2022

GAMEOPT: Optimal Real-time Multi-Agent Planning and Control for Dynamic Intersections

We propose GameOpt: a novel hybrid approach to cooperative intersection control for dynamic, multi-lane, unsignalized intersections. Safely navigating these complex and accident prone intersections requires simultaneous trajectory planning and negotiation among drivers. GameOpt is a hybrid formulation that first uses an auction mechanism to generate a priority entrance sequence for every agent, followed by an optimization-based trajectory planner that computes velocity controls that satisfy the priority sequence. This coupling operates at real-time speeds of less than 10 milliseconds in high density traffic of more than 10,000 vehicles/hr, 100 times faster than other fully optimization-based methods, while providing guarantees in terms of fairness, safety, and efficiency. Tested on the SUMO simulator, our algorithm improves throughput by at least 25%, time taken to reach the goal by 75%, and fuel consumption by 33% compared to auction-based approaches and signaled approaches using traffic-lights and stop signs.

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arXiv2022

Multi-user Beam Alignment in Presence of Multi-path

To overcome the high path-loss and the intense shadowing in millimeter-wave (mmWave) communications, effective beamforming schemes are required which incorporate narrow beams with high beamforming gains. The mmWave channel consists of a few spatial clusters each associated with an angle of departure (AoD). The narrow beams must be aligned with the channel AoDs to increase the beamforming gain. This is achieved through a procedure called beam alignment (BA). Most of the BA schemes in the literature consider channels with a single dominant path while in practice the channel has a few resolvable paths with different AoDs, hence, such BA schemes may not work correctly in the presence of multi-path or at the least do not exploit such multipath to achieve diversity or increase robustness. In this paper, we propose an efficient BA scheme in presence of multi-path. The proposed BA scheme transmits probing packets using a set of scanning beams and receives feedback for all the scanning beams at the end of the probing phase from each user. We formulate the BA scheme as minimizing the expected value of the average transmission beamwidth under different policies. The policy is defined as a function from the set of received feedback to the set of transmission beams (TB). In order to maximize the number of possible feedback sequences, we prove that the set of scanning beams (SB) has a special form, namely, Tulip Design. Consequently, we rewrite the minimization problem with a set of linear constraints and a reduced number of variables which is solved by using an efficient greedy algorithm.

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arXiv2022

Codebook Design for Composite Beamforming in Next-generation mmWave Systems

In pursuance of the unused spectrum in higher frequencies, millimeter wave (mmWave) bands have a pivotal role. However, the high path-loss and poor scattering associated with mmWave communications highlight the necessity of employing effective beamforming techniques. In order to efficiently search for the beam to serve a user and to jointly serve multiple users it is often required to use a composite beam which consists of multiple disjoint lobes. A composite beam covers multiple desired angular coverage intervals (ACIs) and ideally has maximum and uniform gain (smoothness) within each desired ACI, negligible gain (leakage) outside the desired ACIs, and sharp edges. We propose an algorithm for designing such ideal composite codebook by providing an analytical closed-form solution with low computational complexity. There is a fundamental trade-off between the gain, leakage and smoothness of the beams. Our design allows to achieve different values in such trade-off based on changing the design parameters. We highlight the shortcomings of the uniform linear arrays (ULAs) in building arbitrary composite beams. Consequently, we use a recently introduced twin-ULA (TULA) antenna structure to effectively resolve these inefficiencies. Numerical results are used to validate the theoretical findings.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2021

Value of information in networked control systems subject to delay

In this paper, we study the trade-off between the transmission cost and the control performance of the multi-loop networked control system subject to network-induced delay. Within the linear-quadratic-Gaussian (LQG) framework, the joint design of control policy and networking strategy is decomposed into separation optimization problems. Based on the trade-off analysis, a scalable, delay-dependent Value-of-Information (VoI) based scheduling policy is constructed to quantify the value of transmitting the data packet, and enables the decision-makers embedded in subsystems to determine the transmission policy. The proposed scalable VoI inherits the task criticality of the previous VoI metric meanwhile is sensitive to the system parameters such as information freshness and network delays. The VoI-based scheduling policy is proved to outperform the periodical triggering policy and existing Age-of-Information (AoI) based policy for network control system under transmission delay. The effectiveness of the constructed VoI with arbitrary network delay is validated through numerical simulations.

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arXiv2021

A Robust Mean-field Game of Boltzmann-Vlasov-like Traffic Flow

Historically, traffic modelling approaches have taken either a particle-like (microscopic) approach, or a gas-like (meso- or macroscopic) approach. Until recently with the introduction of mean-field games to the controls community, there has not been a rigorous framework to facilitate passage between controls for the microscopic models and the macroscopic models. We begin this work with a particle-based model of autonomous vehicles subject to drag and unknown disturbances, noise, and a speed limit in addition to the control. We formulate a robust stochastic differential game on the particles. We pass formally to the infinite-particle limit to obtain a robust mean-field game PDE system. We solve the mean-field game PDE system numerically and discuss the results. In particular, we obtain an optimal control which increases the bulk velocity of the traffic flow while reducing congestion.

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arXiv2021

Sensor Scheduling for Linear Systems: A Covariance Tracking Approach

We consider the classical sensor scheduling problem for linear systems where only one sensor is activated at each time. We show that the sensor scheduling problem has a close relation to the sensor design problem and the solution of a sensor schedule problem can be extracted from an equivalent sensor design problem. We propose a convex relaxation to the sensor design problem and a reference covariance trajectory is obtained from solving the relaxed sensor design problem. Afterwards, a covariance tracking algorithm is designed to obtain an approximate solution to the sensor scheduling problem using the reference covariance trajectory obtained from the sensor design problem. While the sensor scheduling problem is NP-hard, the proposed framework circumvents this computational complexity by decomposing this problem into a convex sensor design problem and a covariance tracking problem. We provide theoretical justification and a sub-optimality bound for the proposed method using dynamic programming. The proposed method is validated over several experiments portraying the efficacy of the framework.

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arXiv2021

Controller Placement in SDN-enabled 5G Satellite-Terrestrial Networks

SDN-enabled Integrated satellite-terrestrial networks (ISTNs), can provide several advantages including global seamless coverage, high reliability, low latency, etc. and can be a key enabler towards next generation networks. To deal with the complexity of the control and management of the integrated network, leveraging the concept of software-defined networking (SDN) will be helpful. In this regard, the SDN controller placement problem in SDN-enabled ISTNs becomes of paramount importance. In this paper, we formulate an optimization problem for the SDN controller placement with the objective of minimizing the average failure probability of SDN control paths to ensure the SDN switches receive the instructions in the most reliable fashion. Simultaneously, we aim at deploying the SDN controllers close to the satellite gateways to ensure the connection between the two layers occurs with the lowest latency. We first model the problem as a mixed integer linear program (MILP). To reduce the time complexity of the MILP model, we use submodular optimization techniques to generate near-optimal solutions in a time-efficient manner. Finally, we verify the effectiveness of our approach by means of simulation, showing that the approximation method results in a reasonable optimality gap with respect to the exact MILP solution.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2021

On the Importance of Trust in Next-Generation Networked CPS Systems: An AI Perspective

With the increasing scale, complexity, and heterogeneity of the next generation networked systems, seamless control, management, and security of such systems becomes increasingly challenging. Many diverse applications have driven interest in networked systems, including large-scale distributed learning, multi-agent optimization, 5G service provisioning, and network slicing, etc. In this paper, we propose trust as a measure to evaluate the status of network agents and improve the decision-making process. We interpret trust as a relation among entities that participate in various protocols. Trust relations are based on evidence created by the interactions of entities within a protocol and may be a composite of multiple metrics such as availability, reliability, resilience, etc. depending on application context. We first elaborate on the importance of trust as a metric and then present a mathematical framework for trust computation and aggregation within a network. Then we show in practice, how trust can be integrated into network decision-making processes by presenting two examples. In the first example, we show how utilizing the trust evidence can improve the performance and the security of Federated Learning. Second, we show how a 5G network resource provisioning framework can be improved when augmented with a trust-aware decision-making scheme. We verify the validity of our trust-based approach through simulations. Finally, we explain the challenges associated with aggregating the trust evidence and briefly explain our ideas to tackle them.

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arXiv2021

Joint Satellite Gateway Deployment & Controller Placement in Software-Defined 5G-Satellite Integrated Networks

Several challenging optimization problems arise while considering the deployment of the space-air-ground integrated networks (SAGINs), among which the optimal satellite gateway deployment problem is of significant importance. Moreover, with the increasing interest in the software-defined integration of 5G networks and satellites, the existence of an effective scheme for optimal placement of SDN controllers is essential. In this paper, we discuss the interrelation between the two problems above and propose suitable methods to solve them under various network design criteria. We first provide a MILP model for solving the joint problem, and then motivate the decomposition of the model into two disjoint MILPs. We then show that the resulting problems can be modeled as the optimization of submodular set functions and can be solved efficiently with provable optimality gaps.

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arXiv2021

Semi-linear Poisson-mediated Flocking in a Cucker-Smale Model

We propose a family of compactly supported parametric interaction functions in the general Cucker-Smale flocking dynamics such that the mean-field macroscopic system of mass and momentum balance equations with non-local damping terms can be converted from a system of partial integro-differential equations to an augmented system of partial differential equations in a compact set. We treat the interaction functions as Green's functions for an operator corresponding to a semi-linear Poisson equation and compute the density and momentum in a translating reference frame, i.e. one that is taken in reference to the flock's centroid. This allows us to consider the dynamics in a fixed, flock-centered compact set without loss of generality. We approach the computation of the non-local damping using the standard finite difference treatment of the chosen differential operator, resulting in a tridiagonal system which can be solved quickly.

cs.CE↗

arXiv2020

Event-triggered Feedback Control for Signal Temporal Logic Tasks

A framework for the event-triggered control synthesis under signal temporal logic (STL) tasks is proposed. In our previous work, a continuous-time feedback control law was designed, using the prescribed performance control technique, to satisfy STL tasks. We replace this continuous-time feedback control law by an event-triggered controller. The event-triggering mechanism is based on a maximum triggering interval and on a norm bound on the difference between the value of the current state and the value of the state at the last triggering instance. Simulations of a multi-agent system quantitatively show the efficacy of using an event-triggered controller to reduce communication and computation efforts.

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