arXiv subjects

Osvaldo Simeone

Publications and source records attributed to Osvaldo Simeone.

At least 325 records · Page 18Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

Coded Multicast Fronthauling and Edge Caching for Multi-Connectivity Transmission in Fog Radio Access Networks

This work studies the advantages of coded multicasting for the downlink of a Fog Radio Access Network (F-RAN) system equipped with a multicast fronthaul link. In this system, a control unit (CU) in the baseband processing unit (BBU) pool is connected to distributed edge nodes (ENs) through a multicast fronthaul link of finite capacity, and the ENs have baseband processing and caching capabilities. Each user equipment (UE) requests a file in a content library which is available at the CU, and the requested files are served by the closest ENs based on the cached contents and on the information received on the multicast fronthaul link. The performance of coded multicast fronthauling is investigated in terms of the delivery latency of the requested contents under the assumption of pipelined transmission on the fronthaul and edge links and of single-user encoding and decoding strategies based on the hard transfer of files on the fronthaul links. Extensive numerical results are provided to validate the advantages of the coded multicasting scheme compared to uncoded unicast and multicast strategies.

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arXiv2017

Fronthaul Quantization as Artificial Noise for Enhanced Secret Communication in C-RAN

This work considers the downlink of a cloud radio access network (C-RAN), in which a control unit (CU) encodes confidential messages, each of which is intended for a user equipment (UE) and is to be kept secret from all the other UEs. As per the C-RAN architecture, the encoded baseband signals are quantized and compressed prior to the transfer to distributed radio units (RUs) that are connected to the CU via finite-capacity fronthaul links. This work argues that the quantization noise introduced by fronthaul quantization can be leveraged to act as "artificial" noise in order to enhance the rates achievable under secrecy constraints. To this end, it is proposed to control the statistics of the quantization noise by applying multivariate, or joint, fronthaul quantization/compression at the CU across all outgoing fronthaul links. Assuming wiretap coding, the problem of jointly optimizing the precoding and multivariate compression strategies, along with the covariance matrices of artificial noise signals generated by RUs, is formulated with the goal of maximizing the weighted sum of achievable secrecy rates while satisfying per-RU fronthaul capacity and power constraints. After showing that the artificial noise covariance matrices can be set to zero without loss of optimaliy, an iterative optimization algorithm is derived based on the concave convex procedure (CCCP), and some numerical results are provided to highlight the advantages of leveraging quantization noise as artificial noise.

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arXiv2017

On the Trade-Off between Computational Load and Reliability for Network Function Virtualization

Network Function Virtualization (NFV) enables the "softwarization" of network functions, which are implemented on virtual machines hosted on Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) servers. Both the composition of the virtual network functions (VNFs) into a forwarding graph (FG) at the logical layer and the embedding of the FG on the servers need to take into account the less-than-carrier-grade reliability of COTS components. This work investigates the trade-off between end-to-end reliability and computational load per server via the joint design of VNF chain composition (CC) and FG embedding (FGE) under the assumption of a bipartite FG that consists of controller and regular VNFs. Evaluating the reliability criterion within a probabilistic model, analytical insights are first provided for a simplified disconnected FG. Then, a block coordinate descent method based on mixed-integer linear programming is proposed to tackle the joint optimization of CC and FGE. Via simulation results, it is observed that a joint design of CC and FGE leads to substantial performance gains compared to separate optimization approaches.

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arXiv2017

Delivery Latency Trade-Offs of Heterogeneous Contents in Fog Radio Access Networks

A Fog Radio Access Network (F-RAN) is a cellular wireless system that enables content delivery via the caching of popular content at edge nodes (ENs) and cloud processing. The existing information-theoretic analyses of F-RAN systems, and special cases thereof, make the assumption that all requests should be guaranteed the same delivery latency, which results in identical latency for all files in the content library. In practice, however, contents may have heterogeneous timeliness requirements depending on the applications that operate on them. Given per-EN cache capacity constraint, there exists a fundamental trade-off among the delivery latencies of different users' requests, since contents that are allocated more cache space generally enjoy lower delivery latencies. For the case with two ENs and two users, the optimal latency trade-off is characterized in the high-SNR regime in terms of the Normalized Delivery Time (NDT) metric. The main results are illustrated by numerical examples.

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arXiv2017

Joint Design of Digital and Analog Processing for Downlink C-RAN with Large-Scale Antenna Arrays

In millimeter-wave communication systems with large-scale antenna arrays, conventional digital beamforming may not be cost-effective. A promising solution is the implementation of hybrid beamforming techniques, which consist of low-dimensional digital beamforming followed by analog radio frequency (RF) beamforming. This work studies the optimization of hybrid beamforming in the context of a cloud radio access network (C-RAN) architecture. In a C-RAN system, digital baseband signal processing functionalities are migrated from remote radio heads (RRHs) to a baseband processing unit (BBU) in the "cloud" by means of finite-capacity fronthaul links. Specifically, this work tackles the problem of jointly optimizing digital beamforming and fronthaul quantization strategies at the BBU, as well as RF beamforming at the RRHs, with the goal of maximizing the weighted downlink sum-rate. Fronthaul capacity and per-RRH power constraints are enforced along with constant modulus constraints on the RF beamforming matrices. An iterative algorithm is proposed that is based on successive convex approximation and on the relaxation of the constant modulus constraint. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is validated by numerical simulation results.

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arXiv2017

Energy-Efficient Resource Allocation for Mobile Edge Computing-Based Augmented Reality Applications

Mobile edge computing is a provisioning solution to enable Augmented Reality (AR) applications on mobile devices. AR mobile applications have inherent collaborative properties in terms of data collection in the uplink, computing at the edge, and data delivery in the downlink. In this letter, these features are leveraged to propose a novel resource allocation approach over both communication and computation resources. The approach, implemented via Successive Convex Approximation (SCA), is seen to yield considerable gains in mobile energy consumption as compared to conventional independent offloading across users.

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arXiv2017

Joint Uplink/Downlink Optimization for Backhaul-Limited Mobile Cloud Computing with User Scheduling

Mobile cloud computing enables the offloading of computationally heavy applications, such as for gaming, object recognition or video processing, from mobile users (MUs) to cloudlet or cloud servers, which are connected to wireless access points, either directly or through finite-capacity backhaul links. In this paper, the design of a mobile cloud computing system is investigated by proposing the joint optimization of computing and communication resources with the aim of minimizing the energy required for offloading across all MUs under latency constraints at the application layer. The proposed design accounts for multiantenna uplink and downlink interfering transmissions, with or without cooperation on the downlink, along with the allocation of backhaul and computational resources and user selection. The resulting design optimization problems are nonconvex, and stationary solutions are computed by means of successive convex approximation (SCA) techniques. Numerical results illustrate the advantages in terms of energy-latency trade-off of the joint optimization of computing and communication resources, as well as the impact of system parameters, such as backhaul capacity, and of the network architecture.

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arXiv2016

Coded Network Function Virtualization: Fault Tolerance via In-Network Coding

Network Function Virtualization (NFV) prescribes the instantiation of network functions on general-purpose network devices, such as servers and switches. While yielding a more flexible and cost-effective network architecture, NFV is potentially limited by the fact that commercial off-the-shelf hardware is less reliable than the dedicated network elements used in conventional cellular deployments. The typical solution for this problem is to duplicate network functions across geographically distributed hardware in order to ensure diversity. In contrast, this letter proposes to leverage channel coding in order to enhance the robustness on NFV to hardware failure. The proposed approach targets the network function of uplink channel decoding, and builds on the algebraic structure of the encoded data frames in order to perform in-network coding on the signals to be processed at different servers. The key principles underlying the proposed coded NFV approach are presented for a simple embodiment and extensions are discussed. Numerical results demonstrate the potential gains obtained with the proposed scheme as compared to the conventional diversity-based fault-tolerant scheme in terms of error probability.

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arXiv2016

Uplink HARQ for Distributed and Cloud RAN via Separation of Control and Data Planes

The implementation of uplink HARQ in a Cloud- Radio Access Network RAN (C-RAN) architecture is constrained by the two-way latency on the fronthaul links connecting the Remote Radio Heads (RRHs) with the Baseband Units (BBUs) that perform decoding. To overcome this limitation, this work considers an architecture based on the separation of control and data planes, in which retransmission control decisions are made at the edge of the network, that is, by the RRHs or User Equipments (UEs), while data decoding is carried out remotely at the BBUs. This solution enables low-latency local retransmission decisions to be made at the RRHs or UEs, which are not subject to the fronthaul latency constraints, while at the same time leveraging the decoding capability of the BBUs. A system with BBU Hoteling system is considered first in which each RRH has a dedicated BBU in the cloud. For this system, the control-data separation leverages low-latency local feedback from an RRH to drive the HARQ process of a given UE. Throughput and probability of error of this solution are analyzed for the three standard HARQ modes of Type-I, Chase Combining and Incremental Redundancy over a general fading MIMO link. Then, novel user-centric low-latency feedback strategies are proposed and analyzed for the C-RAN architecture, with a single centralized BBU, based on limited "hard" or "soft" local feedback from the RRHs to the UE and on retransmission decisions taken at the UE. The analysis presented in this work allows the optimization of the considered schemes, as well as the investigation of the impact of system parameters such as HARQ protocol type, blocklength and number of antennas on the performance of low-latency local HARQ decisions in BBU Hoteling and C-RAN architectures.

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arXiv2016

Random Access in C-RAN for User Activity Detection with Limited-Capacity Fronthaul

Cloud-Radio Access Network (C-RAN) is characterized by a hierarchical structure in which the baseband processing functionalities of remote radio heads (RRHs) are implemented by means of cloud computing at a Central Unit (CU). A key limitation of C-RANs is given by the capacity constraints of the fronthaul links connecting RRHs to the CU. In this letter, the impact of this architectural constraint is investigated for the fundamental functions of random access and active User Equipment (UE) identification in the presence of a potentially massive number of UEs. In particular, the standard C-RAN approach based on quantize-and-forward and centralized detection is compared to a scheme based on an alternative CU-RRH functional split that enables local detection. Both techniques leverage Bayesian sparse detection. Numerical results illustrate the relative merits of the two schemes as a function of the system parameters.

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arXiv2016

Cloud Radio Access Networks: Uplink Channel Estimation and Downlink Precoding

The gains afforded by cloud radio access network (C-RAN) in terms of savings in capital and operating expenses, flexibility, interference management and network densification rely on the presence of high-capacity low-latency fronthaul connectivity between remote radio heads (RRHs) and baseband unit (BBU). In light of the non-uniform and limited availability of fiber optics cables, the bandwidth constraints on the fronthaul network call, on the one hand, for the development of advanced baseband compression strategies and, on the other hand, for a closer investigation of the optimal functional split between RRHs and BBU. In this chapter, after a brief introduction to signal processing challenges in C-RAN, this optimal function split is studied at the physical (PHY) layer as it pertains to two key baseband signal processing steps, namely channel estimation in the uplink and channel encoding/ linear precoding in the downlink. Joint optimization of baseband fronthaul compression and of baseband signal processing is tackled under different PHY functional splits, whereby uplink channel estimation and downlink channel encoding/ linear precoding are carried out either at the RRHs or at the BBU. The analysis, based on information-theoretical arguments, and numerical results yields insight into the configurations of network architecture and fronthaul capacities in which different functional splits are advantageous. The treatment also emphasizes the versatility of deterministic and stochastic successive convex approximation strategies for the optimization of C-RANs.

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arXiv2016

Time-Asynchronous Robust Cooperative Transmission for the Downlink of C-RAN

This work studies the robust design of downlink precoding for cloud radio access network (C-RAN) in the presence of asynchronism among remote radio heads (RRHs). Specifically, a C-RAN downlink system is considered in which non-ideal fronthaul links connecting two RRHs to a Baseband Unit (BBU) may cause a time offset, as well as a phase offset, between the transmissions of the two RRHs. The offsets are a priori not known to the BBU. With the aim of counteracting the unknown time offset, a robust precoding scheme is considered that is based on the idea of correlating the signal transmitted by one RRH with a number of delayed versions of the signal transmitted by the other RRH. For this transmission strategy, the problem of maximizing the worst-case minimum rate is tackled while satisfying per-RRH transmit power constraints. Numerical results are reported that verify the advantages of the proposed robust scheme as compared to conventional non-robust design criteria as well as non-cooperative transmission.

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arXiv2016

Multivariate Fronthaul Quantization for Downlink C-RAN

The Cloud-Radio Access Network (C-RAN) cellular architecture relies on the transfer of complex baseband signals to and from a central unit (CU) over digital fronthaul links to enable the virtualization of the baseband processing functionalities of distributed radio units (RUs). The standard design of digital fronthauling is based on either scalar quantization or on more sophisticated point to-point compression techniques operating on baseband signals. Motivated by network-information theoretic results, techniques for fronthaul quantization and compression that improve over point-to-point solutions by allowing for joint processing across multiple fronthaul links at the CU have been recently proposed for both the uplink and the downlink. For the downlink, a form of joint compression, known in network information theory as multivariate compression, was shown to be advantageous under a non-constructive asymptotic information-theoretic framework. In this paper, instead, the design of a practical symbol-by-symbol fronthaul quantization algorithm that implements the idea of multivariate compression is investigated for the C-RAN downlink. As compared to current standards, the proposed multivariate quantization (MQ) only requires changes in the CU processing while no modification is needed at the RUs. The algorithm is extended to enable the joint optimization of downlink precoding and quantization, reduced-complexity MQ via successive block quantization, and variable-length compression. Numerical results, which include performance evaluations over standard cellular models, demonstrate the advantages of MQ and the merits of a joint optimization with precoding.

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arXiv2016

Topology Discovery for Linear Wireless Networks with Application to Train Backbone Inauguration

A train backbone network consists of a sequence of nodes arranged in a linear topology. A key step that enables communication in such a network is that of topology discovery, or train inauguration, whereby nodes learn in a distributed fashion the physical topology of the backbone network. While the current standard for train inauguration assumes wired links between adjacent backbone nodes, this work investigates the more challenging scenario in which the nodes communicate wirelessly. The key motivations for this desired switch from wired topology discovery to wireless one are the flexibility and capability for expansion and upgrading of a wireless backbone. The implementation of topology discovery over wireless channels is made difficult by the broadcast nature of the wireless medium, and by fading and interference. A novel topology discovery protocol is proposed that overcomes these issues and requires relatively minor changes to the wired standard. The protocol is shown via analysis and numerical results to be robust to the impairments caused by the wireless channel including interference from other trains.

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arXiv2016

Modulation Classification for MIMO-OFDM Signals via Approximate Bayesian Inference

The problem of modulation classification for a multiple-antenna (MIMO) system employing orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is investigated under the assumption of unknown frequency-selective fading channels and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The classification problem is formulated as a Bayesian inference task, and solutions are proposed based on Gibbs sampling and mean field variational inference. The proposed methods rely on a selection of the prior distributions that adopts a latent Dirichlet model for the modulation type and on the Bayesian network formalism. The Gibbs sampling method converges to the optimal Bayesian solution and, using numerical results, its accuracy is seen to improve for small sample sizes when switching to the mean field variational inference technique after a number of iterations. The speed of convergence is shown to improve via annealing and random restarts. While most of the literature on modulation classification assume that the channels are flat fading, that the number of receive antennas is no less than that of transmit antennas, and that a large number of observed data symbols are available, the proposed methods perform well under more general conditions. Finally, the proposed Bayesian methods are demonstrated to improve over existing non-Bayesian approaches based on independent component analysis and on prior Bayesian methods based on the `superconstellation' method.

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arXiv2016

Ultra-Reliable Cloud Mobile Computing with Service Composition and Superposition Coding

An emerging requirement for 5G systems is the ability to provide wireless ultra-reliable communication (URC) services with close-to-full availability for cloud-based applications. Among such applications, a prominent role is expected to be played by mobile cloud computing (MCC), that is, by the offloading of computationally intensive tasks from mobile devices to the cloud. MCC allows battery-limited devices to run sophisticated applications, such as for gaming or for the "tactile" internet. This paper proposes to apply the framework of reliable service composition to the problem of optimal task offloading in MCC over fading channels, with the aim of providing layered, or composable, services at differentiated reliability levels. Inter-layer optimization problems, encompassing offloading decisions and communication resources, are formulated and addressed by means of successive convex approximation methods. The numerical results demonstrate the energy savings that can be obtained by a joint allocation of computing and communication resources, as well as the advantages of layered coding at the physical layer and the impact of channel conditions on the offloading decisions.

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arXiv2016

Multistatic Cloud Radar Systems: Joint Sensing and Communication Design

In a multistatic cloud radar system, receive sensors measure signals sent by a transmit element and reflected from a target and possibly clutter, in the presence of interference and noise. The receive sensors communicate over non-ideal backhaul links with a fusion center, or cloud processor, where the presence or absence of the target is determined. The backhaul architecture can be characterized either by an orthogonal-access channel or by a non-orthogonal multiple-access channel. Two backhaul transmission strategies are considered, namely compress-and-forward (CF), which is well suited for the orthogonal-access backhaul, and amplify-and-forward (AF), which leverages the superposition property of the non-orthogonal multiple-access channel. In this paper, the joint optimization of the sensing and backhaul communication functions of the cloud radar system is studied. Specifically, the transmitted waveform is jointly optimized with backhaul quantization in the case of CF backhaul transmission and with the amplifying gains of the sensors for the AF backhaul strategy. In both cases, the information-theoretic criterion of the Bhattacharyya distance is adopted as a metric for the detection performance. Algorithmic solutions based on successive convex approximation are developed under different assumptions on the available channel state information (CSI). Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed schemes outperform conventional solutions that perform separate optimizations of the waveform and backhaul operation, as well as the standard distributed detection approach.

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arXiv2016

Joint Optimization of Cloud and Edge Processing for Fog Radio Access Networks

This work studies the joint design of cloud and edge processing for the downlink of a fog radio access network (F-RAN). In an F-RAN, as in cloud-RAN (C-RAN), a baseband processing unit (BBU) can perform joint baseband processing on behalf of the remote radio heads (RRHs) that are connected to the BBU by means of the fronthaul links. In addition to the minimal functionalities of conventional RRHs in C-RAN, the RRHs in an F-RAN may be equipped with local caches, in which frequently requested contents can be stored, as well as with baseband processing capabilities. They are hence referred to as enhanced RRH (eRRH). This work focuses on the design of the delivery phase for an arbitrary pre-fetching strategy used to populate the caches of the eRRHs. Two fronthauling modes are considered, namely a hard-transfer mode, whereby non-cached files are communicated over the fronthaul links to a subset of eRRHs, and a soft-transfer mode, whereby the fronthaul links are used to convey quantized baseband signals as in a C-RAN. Unlike the hard-transfer mode in which baseband processing is traditionally carried out only at the eRRHs, the soft-transfer mode enables both centralized precoding at the BBU and local precoding at the eRRHs based on the cached contents, by means of a novel superposition coding approach. To attain the advantages of both approaches, a hybrid design of soft- and hard-transfer modes is also proposed. The problem of maximizing the delivery rate is tackled under fronthaul capacity and per-eRRH power constraints. Numerical results are provided to compare the performance of hard- and soft-transfer fronthauling modes, as well as of the hybrid scheme, for different baseline pre-fetching strategies.

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