arXiv subjects

Mohamad Assaad

Publications and source records attributed to Mohamad Assaad.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Age of Incorrect Information for Pull-Based State Estimation of General Markov Sources

We study pull-based remote state estimation of an arbitrary, multi-state Markov source while accounting for both freshness and correctness attributes of information. To that end, we formulate a discounted optimization problem in terms of the age of incorrect information (AoII), and express it as a joint source-AoII belief Markov decision process (MDP) under maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimation. We then exploit the information structure of the model and prove that every reachable belief is represented by the last successfully observed source state and the number of time slots elapsed since that observation. For numerical computation, we truncate the elapsed no-success duration at a finite level and derive an explicit error bound and a criterion for selecting the truncation parameter. For reliable links, we show that an optimal policy can be represented by a look-up table of waiting times. For unreliable links, we propose a persistent policy and derive computable performance bounds. We also show that the MAP estimate stabilizes after a finite number of time slots. To further reduce memory requirements, we introduce a hybrid estimator with an early stationary switch and derive a computable bound on the resulting difference in performance. Finally, we extend the framework to multiple sources, formulate the scheduling problem as a restless multi-armed bandit, establish a sufficient condition for indexability, and develop an approximate Whittle index policy based on interpolation. Our numerical results illustrate the structure of the optimal single-source policy, evaluate the performance of the multi-source policies, and verify that the proposed heuristic policies closely approach the optimal solution while substantially reducing computational efforts.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2026

Information Bottleneck under Perfect Privacy

In this work, we study the information bottleneck under perfect privacy, with particular emphasis on the active-rate regime, where the representation-rate constraint is binding and directly limits the achievable utility. The goal is to construct a representation that preserves utility-relevant information while remaining statistically independent of a sensitive variable. This exact independence requirement introduces an additional constraint beyond the classical rate-relevance tradeoff and must be explicitly incorporated into the optimization. To this end, we develop an alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM)-based method tailored to the resulting problem structure. Under suitable regularity conditions, we establish global convergence of the generated sequence, characterize its convergence rate through the Kurdyka-Lojasiewicz exponent, and extend the analysis to inexact block updates.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2026

Privacy-Enhanced Zero-Order Federated Learning via xMK-CKKS over Wireless Channels

Homomorphic encryption (HE) enables privacy-preserving aggregation in federated learning (FL) by allowing the server to operate on encrypted data without decryption. Existing HE-over-the-air (OTA) methods mainly rely on single-key HE schemes and require channel estimation or pre-equalization to compensate for wireless fading. However, single-key HE remains vulnerable to honest-but-curious (HBC) clients holding the shared secret key, while multi-key HE provides stronger client-level security by assigning each device its own secret key. We propose a four-phase protocol that enables the aggregation of xMK-CKKS over a shared wireless channel without channel estimation. The protocol retransmits partial public keys and ciphertexts through the same channel realization, so that the dominant large-modulus encryption terms cancel algebraically during decryption. We integrate this protocol with zero-order FL over slowly varying LoS-dominant channels, where each device transmits a single encrypted scalar per round and the communication/encryption overhead is independent of the model dimension. We show that the residual noise induced by encryption and wireless aggregation preserves the standard convergence rate $O(1/\sqrt{K})$ up to a negligible noise floor, where $K$ is the number of communication rounds. The protocol assumes a non-trusted server and is secure against HBC clients, preventing any client from recovering the local updates of other participants. Numerical results on MNIST and CIFAR-10 validate the theoretical analysis.

cs.CR↗

arXiv2026

RIS-assisted Cell-Free MIMO with Dynamic Arrivals and Departures of Users: A Novel Network Stability Approach

Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS) have recently emerged as a hot research topic, being widely advocated as a candidate technology for next generation wireless communications. These surfaces passively alter the behavior of propagation environments enhancing the performance of wireless communication systems. In this paper, we study the use of RIS in cell-free multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) setting where distributed service antennas, called Access Points (APs), simultaneously serve the users in the network. While most existing works focus on the physical layer improvements RIS carry, less attention has been paid to the impact of dynamic arrivals and departures of the users. In such a case, ensuring the stability of the network is the main goal. For that, we propose an optimization framework of the phase shifts, for which we derived a low-complexity solution. We then provide a theoretical analysis of the network stability and show that our framework stabilizes the network whenever it is possible. We also prove that a low complexity solution of our framework stabilizes a guaranteed fraction (higher than 78.5%) of the stability region. We provide also numerical results that corroborate the theoretical claims.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2026

Age of Information Optimization for Status Updates in Integrated Sensing and Communication Systems

In this paper, we study age of information (AoI) optimization for status updating in an integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) system. We consider a discrete-time architecture in which a base station interacts with a physical environment and a remote monitor, and at each time slot can operate in one of three modes: sensing, communication, or joint sensing and communication. Each mode is unreliable and incurs a different operational cost. The objective is to minimize a discounted infinite-horizon cost that combines the AoI at the monitor with action-dependent sensing and communication costs. For the single source scenario, we formulate the problem as a Markov decision process with a two-dimensional AoI state and prove that the optimal stationary policy admits an ordered threshold structure in the AoI state space. Since the AoI evolves over an infinite space, we truncate the state space to reduce complexity and rigorously bound the resulting error. The analysis analytically determines the truncation size needed to keep the error below a given threshold. For the multi-source scenario, we formulate the scheduling problem as a restless multi-armed bandit. We develop both a Whittle index policy and an approximate Whittle index policy for scheduling under two different regimes, one where indexability is guaranteed, and one where it is not. Numerical results illustrate the structure of the optimal policy in the single-source case and show that the proposed approximate Whittle index policy performs comparably to the Whittle index policy in the indexable regime, while remaining effective beyond it.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2026

Remote State Estimation over Unreliable Channels with Unreliable Feedback: Strategies and Limits

In this article, we establish a comprehensive theoretical framework for remote estimation in a networked system composed of a source that is observed by a sensor, a remote monitor that needs to estimate the state of the source in real time, and a communication channel that connects the source to the monitor. The source is a partially observable dynamical process, and the communication channel is a packet-erasure channel with feedback. We consider a novel communication model that captures implicit information. Our main objective is to identify the optimal strategies and the fundamental performance limits of the underlying system in the sense of a causal tradeoff between the packet rate and the mean square error when both forward and backward channels are unreliable. We characterise an optimal coding policy profile consisting of a scheduling policy for an encoder and an estimation policy for a decoder, collocated with the source and the monitor, respectively. We derive the recursive equations that must be solved online by the encoder and the decoder. In addition, we prove that the value function, originally defined over an expanding information set, admits a lower-dimensional representation depending only on two variables. We discuss the structural properties of the optimal policies, and analyse the computational complexity of an algorithm proposed for their computation. We then examine a range of special cases derived from our main theoretical results. We complement the theoretical results with a numerical analysis, and compare the performance of different remote estimation tasks in various operating regimes.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2026

Status Updating via Integrated Sensing and Communication: Freshness Optimisation

In this paper, we study how sensing and communication should be jointly coordinated in integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) systems to maintain timely situational awareness under reliability and resource constraints. We consider an ISAC-enabled base station that supports a remote source by dynamically choosing between sensing new state information and communicating previously acquired information, with the two operations semantically intertwined rather than serving separate targets and users. Both sensing and communication are unreliable and costly. The objective is to optimise a long-term cost that captures information freshness at the source, measured by the age of information (AoI), together with sensing and communication overheads. The resulting sequential decision problem is formulated as an infinite-horizon Markov decision process (MDP) with two-dimensional AoI states that capture information freshness at the source and at the base station. We prove that the optimal stationary policy admits a monotone threshold structure characterised by a nondecreasing switching curve in the AoI state space, and show that, as the base-station information becomes staler, the system increasingly favours sensing over communication. Our numerical analysis corroborates the theoretical findings.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2026

Feedback Control via Integrated Sensing and Communication: Uncertainty Optimisation

This paper studies integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) coordination for feedback control tasks under shared platform constraints. We consider a cyber-physical system in which a remote dynamical process (i.e., remote source) is regulated with the support of an ISAC-enabled base station that alternates between sensing the source state and communicating control-relevant information to the source, with the two operations semantically intertwined rather than serving separate targets and users. For a Gauss-Markov source with Bernoulli-distributed sensing and communication links and a finite-horizon linear-quadratic-Gaussian (LQG) cost, we derive the optimal ISAC and control policies. Under a Bellman-operator condition, we prove that the optimal ISAC policy at the base station follows an order-threshold structure in terms of the source and base-station estimation covariances, while the optimal control policy at the source follows a certainty-equivalent structure in terms of the source state estimate. We show that the threshold region, defined as the set of estimation covariance pairs for which communication is preferred over sensing, expands with increasing source uncertainty and contracts with increasing base-station uncertainty. Our numerical analysis validates the theoretical findings.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2025

Energy-Efficient Quantized Federated Learning for Resource-constrained IoT devices

Federated Learning (FL) has emerged as a promising paradigm for enabling collaborative machine learning while preserving data privacy, making it particularly suitable for Internet of Things (IoT) environments. However, resource-constrained IoT devices face significant challenges due to limited energy,unreliable communication channels, and the impracticality of assuming infinite blocklength transmission. This paper proposes a federated learning framework for IoT networks that integrates finite blocklength transmission, model quantization, and an error-aware aggregation mechanism to enhance energy efficiency and communication reliability. The framework also optimizes uplink transmission power to balance energy savings and model performance. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed approach significantly reduces energy consumption by up to 75\% compared to a standard FL model, while maintaining robust model accuracy, making it a viable solution for FL in real-world IoT scenarios with constrained resources. This work paves the way for efficient and reliable FL implementations in practical IoT deployments. Index Terms: Federated learning, IoT, finite blocklength, quantization, energy efficiency.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2025

Communication-Efficient Zero-Order and First-Order Federated Learning Methods over Wireless Networks

Federated Learning (FL) is an emerging learning framework that enables edge devices to collaboratively train ML models without sharing their local data. FL faces, however, a significant challenge due to the high amount of information that must be exchanged between the devices and the aggregator in the training phase, which can exceed the limited capacity of wireless systems. In this paper, two communication-efficient FL methods are considered where communication overhead is reduced by communicating scalar values instead of long vectors and by allowing high number of users to send information simultaneously. The first approach employs a zero-order optimization technique with two-point gradient estimator, while the second involves a first-order gradient computation strategy. The novelty lies in leveraging channel information in the learning algorithms, eliminating hence the need for additional resources to acquire channel state information (CSI) and to remove its impact, as well as in considering asynchronous devices. We provide a rigorous analytical framework for the two methods, deriving convergence guarantees and establishing appropriate performance bounds.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2025

Large-Scale AI in Telecom: Charting the Roadmap for Innovation, Scalability, and Enhanced Digital Experiences

This white paper discusses the role of large-scale AI in the telecommunications industry, with a specific focus on the potential of generative AI to revolutionize network functions and user experiences, especially in the context of 6G systems. It highlights the development and deployment of Large Telecom Models (LTMs), which are tailored AI models designed to address the complex challenges faced by modern telecom networks. The paper covers a wide range of topics, from the architecture and deployment strategies of LTMs to their applications in network management, resource allocation, and optimization. It also explores the regulatory, ethical, and standardization considerations for LTMs, offering insights into their future integration into telecom infrastructure. The goal is to provide a comprehensive roadmap for the adoption of LTMs to enhance scalability, performance, and user-centric innovation in telecom networks.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2025

Semantics of Instability in Networked Control

This paper addresses a scheduling problem in the context of a cyber-physical system where a sensor and a controller communicate over an unreliable channel. The sensor observes the state of a source at each time, and according to a scheduling policy determines whether to transmit a compressed sampled state, transmit the uncompressed sampled state, or remain idle. Upon receiving the transmitted information, the controller executes a control action aimed at stabilizing the system, such that the effectiveness of stabilization depends on the quality of the received sensory information. Our primary objective is to derive an optimal scheduling policy that optimizes system performance subject to resource constraints, when the performance is measured by a dual-aspect metric penalizing both the frequency of transitioning to unstable states and the continuous duration of remaining in those states. We formulate this problem as a Markov decision process, and derive an optimal multi-threshold scheduling policy.

math.OC↗

arXiv2025

Rendering Wireless Environments Useful for Gradient Estimators: A Zero-Order Stochastic Federated Learning Method

Cross-device federated learning (FL) is a growing machine learning setting whereby multiple edge devices collaborate to train a model without disclosing their raw data. With the great number of mobile devices participating in more FL applications via the wireless environment, the practical implementation of these applications will be hindered due to the limited uplink capacity of devices, causing critical bottlenecks. In this work, we propose a novel doubly communication-efficient zero-order (ZO) method with a one-point gradient estimator that replaces communicating long vectors with scalar values and that harnesses the nature of the wireless communication channel, overcoming the need to know the channel state coefficient. It is the first method that includes the wireless channel in the learning algorithm itself instead of wasting resources to analyze it and remove its impact. We then offer a thorough analysis of the proposed zero-order federated learning (ZOFL) framework and prove that our method converges \textit{almost surely}, which is a novel result in nonconvex ZO optimization. We further prove a convergence rate of $O(\frac{1}{\sqrt[3]{K}})$ in the nonconvex setting. We finally demonstrate the potential of our algorithm with experimental results.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2024

Optimal Denial-of-Service Attacks Against Partially-Observable Real-Time Monitoring Systems

In this paper, we investigate the impact of denial-of-service attacks on the status updating of a cyber-physical system with one or more sensors connected to a remote monitor via unreliable channels. We approach the problem from the perspective of an adversary that can strategically jam a subset of the channels. The sources are modeled as Markov chains, and the performance of status updating is measured based on the age of incorrect information at the monitor. Our objective is to derive jamming policies that strike a balance between the degradation of the system's performance and the conservation of the adversary's energy. For a single-source scenario, we formulate the problem as a partially-observable Markov decision process, and rigorously prove that the optimal jamming policy is of a threshold form. We then extend the problem to a multi-source scenario. We formulate this problem as a restless multi-armed bandit, and provide a jamming policy based on the Whittle's index. Our numerical results highlight the performance of our policies compared to baseline policies.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2024

Inter-RIS Beam Focusing Codebook Design in Cooperative Distributed RIS Systems

This paper explores distributed Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs) by introducing a cooperative dimension that enhances adaptability and performance. It focuses on strategically deploying multiple RISs to improve connectivity with the Base Station (BS) and among RISs, thereby aiding users in areas with weak BS coverage and enhancing spatial multiplexing gains. Each RIS can function as a primary surface to directly support users or as an intermediary surface to reflect signals to another primary surface. This dual functionality enables flexible responses to changing conditions. We implement an inter-RIS signal focusing design for phase shifts, creating a tailored codebook for precise control over signal direction. This design considers the interplay of incidence and reflection angles to maximize reflected signal power, based on the RIS response function and the physical properties of the RIS elements.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2024

Single Point-Based Distributed Zeroth-Order Optimization with a Non-Convex Stochastic Objective Function

Zero-order (ZO) optimization is a powerful tool for dealing with realistic constraints. On the other hand, the gradient-tracking (GT) technique proved to be an efficient method for distributed optimization aiming to achieve consensus. However, it is a first-order (FO) method that requires knowledge of the gradient, which is not always possible in practice. In this work, we introduce a zero-order distributed optimization method based on a one-point estimate of the gradient tracking technique. We prove that this new technique converges with a single noisy function query at a time in the non-convex setting. We then establish a convergence rate of $O(\frac{1}{\sqrt[3]{K}})$ after a number of iterations K, which competes with that of $O(\frac{1}{\sqrt[4]{K}})$ of its centralized counterparts. Finally, a numerical example validates our theoretical results.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2024

Communication and Energy Efficient Federated Learning using Zero-Order Optimization Technique

Federated learning (FL) is a popular machine learning technique that enables multiple users to collaboratively train a model while maintaining the user data privacy. A significant challenge in FL is the communication bottleneck in the upload direction, and thus the corresponding energy consumption of the devices, attributed to the increasing size of the model/gradient. In this paper, we address this issue by proposing a zero-order (ZO) optimization method that requires the upload of a quantized single scalar per iteration by each device instead of the whole gradient vector. We prove its theoretical convergence and find an upper bound on its convergence rate in the non-convex setting, and we discuss its implementation in practical scenarios. Our FL method and the corresponding convergence analysis take into account the impact of quantization and packet dropping due to wireless errors. We show also the superiority of our method, in terms of communication overhead and energy consumption, as compared to standard gradient-based FL methods.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2024

Goal-Oriented Communication for Networked Control Assisted by Reconfigurable Meta-Surfaces

In this paper, we develop a theoretical framework for goal-oriented communication assisted by reconfigurable meta-surfaces in the context of networked control systems. The relation to goal-oriented communication stems from the fact that optimization of the phase shifts of the meta-surfaces is guided by the performance of networked control systems tasks. To that end, we consider a networked control system in which a set of sensors observe the states of a set of physical processes, and communicate this information over an unreliable wireless channel assisted by a reconfigurable intelligent surface with multiple reflecting elements to a set of controllers that correct the behaviors of the physical processes based on the received information. Our objective is to find the optimal control policy for the controllers and the optimal phase policy for the reconfigurable intelligent surface that jointly minimize a regulation cost function associated with the networked control system. We characterize these policies, and also propose an approximate solution based on a semi-definite relaxation technique.

cs.IT↗