arXiv subjects

Rana Abbas

Publications and source records attributed to Rana Abbas.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

AFFormer: Adaptive Feature Fusion Transformer for V2X Cooperative Perception under Channel Impairments

Accurate 3D object detection is essential for ensuring the safety of autonomous vehicles. Cooperative perception, which leverages vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication to share perceptual data, enhances detection but is vulnerable to channel impairments, such as noise, fading, and interference. To strengthen the reliability of intelligent transportation systems, this work improves the robustness of V2X cooperative perception under communication conditions that reflect common channel impairments. This paper proposes an Adaptive Feature Fusion Transformer (AFFormer), a Transformer-based framework that mitigates the adverse effects of corrupted features by modeling temporal, inter-agent, and spatial correlations. AFFormer introduces three key modules: Multi-Agent and Temporal Aggregation for context-aware fusion across agents and over time, Dual Spatial Attention for efficient modeling of spatial dependencies, and Uncertainty-Guided Fusion for entropy-driven refinement of fused features. A teacher-student knowledge distillation strategy further enhances robustness by aligning fused features with reliable early-collaboration supervision. AFFormer is validated on the V2XSet and DAIR-V2X datasets, where it consistently outperforms existing methods under both ideal and impaired communication conditions, demonstrating improved robustness to communication-induced feature degradation while maintaining a competitive efficiency-accuracy trade-off.

cs.CV↗

arXiv2021

Analysis and Design of Analog Fountain Codes for Short Packet Communications

In this paper, we focus on the design and analysis of the Analog Fountain Code (AFC) for short packet communications. We first propose a density evolution (DE) based framework, which tracks the evolution of the probability density function of the messages exchanged between variable and check nodes of AFC in the belief propagation decoder. Using the proposed DE framework, we formulate an optimisation problem to find the optimal AFC code parameters, including the weight-set, which minimises the bit error rate at a given signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Our results show the superiority of our AFC code design compared to existing designs of AFC in the literature and thus the validity of the proposed DE framework in the asymptotically long block length regime. We then focus on selecting the precoder to improve the performance of AFC at short block lengths. Simulation results show that lower precode rates obtain better realised rates over a wide SNR range for short information block lengths. We also discuss the complexity of the AFC decoder and propose a threshold-based decoder to reduce the complexity.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2021

A comprehensive survey on point cloud registration

Registration is a transformation estimation problem between two point clouds, which has a unique and critical role in numerous computer vision applications. The developments of optimization-based methods and deep learning methods have improved registration robustness and efficiency. Recently, the combinations of optimization-based and deep learning methods have further improved performance. However, the connections between optimization-based and deep learning methods are still unclear. Moreover, with the recent development of 3D sensors and 3D reconstruction techniques, a new research direction emerges to align cross-source point clouds. This survey conducts a comprehensive survey, including both same-source and cross-source registration methods, and summarize the connections between optimization-based and deep learning methods, to provide further research insight. This survey also builds a new benchmark to evaluate the state-of-the-art registration algorithms in solving cross-source challenges. Besides, this survey summarizes the benchmark data sets and discusses point cloud registration applications across various domains. Finally, this survey proposes potential research directions in this rapidly growing field.

cs.CV↗

arXiv2020

Grant-Free Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access: A Key Enabler for 6G-IoT

The proliferating number of devices with short payloads as well as low power budget has already driven researchers away from classical grant-based access schemes that are notorious for their large signalling overhead as well as power-consuming retransmissions. Instead, light-weight random access protocols have been re-investigated and their throughput has been improved in orders of magnitude with sophisticated yet still low-complex transceiver algorithms. In fact, grant-free access has been identified as a key medium access control technique for providing massive connectivity in machine type communications in cellular networks. In this paper, we show that grant-free access combined with non-orthogonal transmission schemes is a promising solution for 6G Internet of Things (IoT). We present novel and promising results for deep learning (DL)-based techniques for joint user detection and decoding. Then, we propose a multi-layered model for GF-NOMA for power-efficient communications. We also discuss resource allocation issues to enable the co-existence of GF-NOMA with other orthogonal or even grant-based schemes. Finally, we conclude with proposed research directions for medium access towards enabling 6G-IoT.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2019

Grant-free Non-orthogonal Multiple Access for IoT: A Survey

Massive machine-type communications (mMTC) is one of the main three focus areas in the 5th generation (5G) of mobile standards to enable connectivity of a massive number of internet of things (IoT) devices with little or no human intervention. In conventional human-type communications (HTC), due to the limited number of available radio resources and orthogonal/non-overlapping nature of existing resource allocation techniques, users need to compete for connectivity through a random access (RA) process, which may turn into a performance bottleneck in mMTC. In this context, non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) has emerged as a potential technology that allows overlapping of multiple users over a radio resource, thereby creating an opportunity to enable more autonomous and grant-free communication, where devices can transmit data whenever they need. The existing literature on NOMA schemes majorly considers centralized scheduling based HTC, where users are already connected, and various system parameters like spreading sequences, interleaving patterns, power control, etc., are predefined. Contrary to HTC, mMTC traffic is different with mostly uplink communication, small data size per device, diverse quality of service, autonomous nature, and massive number of devices. Hence, the signaling overhead and latency of centralized scheduling becomes a potential performance bottleneck. To tackle this, grant-free access is needed, where mMTC devices can autonomously transmit their data over randomly chosen radio resources. This article, in contrast to existing surveys, comprehensively discusses the recent advances in NOMA from a grant-free connectivity perspective. Moreover, related practical challenges and future directions are discussed.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2019

Fast Channel Estimation and Beam Tracking for Millimeter Wave Vehicular Communications

Millimeter wave (mmWave) has been claimed to be the only viable solution for high-bandwidth vehicular communications. However, frequent channel estimation and beamforming required to provide a satisfactory quality of service limits mmWave for vehicular communications. In this paper, we propose a novel channel estimation and beam tracking framework for mmWave communications in a vehicular network setting. For channel estimation, we propose an algorithm termed robust adaptive multi-feedback (RAF) that achieves comparable estimation performance as existing channel estimation algorithms, with a significantly smaller number of feedback bits. We derive upper and lower bounds on the probability of estimation error (PEE) of the RAF algorithm, given a number of channel estimations, whose accuracy is verified through Monte Carlo simulations. For beam tracking, we propose a new practical model for mmWave vehicular communications. In contrast to the prior works, the model is based on position, velocity, and channel coefficient, which allows a significant improvement of the tracking performance. Focused on the new beam tracking model, we re-derive the equations for Jacobian matrices, reducing the complexity for vehicular communications. An extensive number of simulations is conducted to show the superiority of our proposed channel estimation method and beam tracking algorithm in comparison with the existing algorithms and models. Our simulations suggest that the RAF algorithm can achieve the desired PEE, while on average, reducing the feedback overhead by 75.5% and the total channel estimation time by 14%. The beam tracking algorithm is also shown to significantly improve beam tracking performance, allowing more room for data transmission.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2018

Short Block-length Codes for Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communications

This paper reviews the state of the art channel coding techniques for ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC). The stringent requirements of URLLC services, such as ultra-high reliability and low latency, have made it the most challenging feature of the fifth generation (5G) mobile systems. The problem is even more challenging for the services beyond the 5G promise, such as tele-surgery and factory automation, which require latencies less than 1ms and failure rate as low as $10^{-9}$. The very low latency requirements of URLLC do not allow traditional approaches such as re-transmission to be used to increase the reliability. On the other hand, to guarantee the delay requirements, the block length needs to be small, so conventional channel codes, originally designed and optimised for moderate-to-long block-lengths, show notable deficiencies for short blocks. This paper provides an overview on channel coding techniques for short block lengths and compares them in terms of performance and complexity. Several important research directions are identified and discussed in more detail with several possible solutions.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2018

Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Cellular Networks: Use Cases, Challenges and Approaches

The fifth-generation cellular mobile networks are expected to support mission critical ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC) services in addition to the enhanced mobile broadband applications. This article first introduces three emerging mission critical applications of URLLC and identifies their requirements on end-to-end latency and reliability. We then investigate the various sources of end-to-end delay of current wireless networks by taking the 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) as an example. Subsequently, we propose and evaluate several techniques to reduce the end-to-end latency from the perspectives of error control coding, signal processing, and radio resource management. We also briefly discuss other network design approaches with the potential for further latency reduction.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2017

Grant-Free Massive NOMA: Outage Probability and Throughput

In this paper, we consider a massive uncoordinated non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) scheme where devices have strict latency requirements and no retransmission opportunities are available. Each device chooses a pilot sequence from a predetermined set as its signature and transmits its selected pilot and data simultaneously. A collision occurs when two or more devices choose the same pilot sequence. Collisions are treated as interference to the remaining received signals. We consider successive joint decoding (SJD) and successive interference cancellation (SIC) under a Rayleigh fading and path loss channel model. We first derive the expression for the outage probability for the case where devices transmit at the same fixed rate. Then, we derive the expression for the maximum achievable throughput for the case where devices transmit with rateless codes. Thus, their code rate is adaptive to the system conditions, i.e., load, received powers, and interference. Numerical results verify the accuracy of our analytical expressions. For low data rate transmissions, results show that SIC performs close to that of SJD in terms of outage probability for packet arrival rates up to 10 packets per slot. However, SJD can achieve almost double the throughput of SIC and is, thus, far more superior.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2016

Random Multiple Access for M2M Communications with QoS Guarantees

We propose a novel random multiple access (RMA) scheme with quality of service (QoS) guarantees for machine-to-machine (M2M) communications. We consider a slotted uncoordinated data transmission period during which machine type communication (MTC) devices transmit over the same radio channel. Based on the latency requirements, MTC devices are divided into groups of different sizes, and the transmission frame is divided into subframes of different lengths. In each subframe, each group is assigned an access probability based on which an MTC device decides to transmit replicas of its packet or remain silent. The base station (BS) employs successive interference cancellation (SIC) to recover all the superposed packets. We derive the closed form expressions for the average probability of device resolution for each group, and we use these expressions to design the access probabilities. The accuracy of the expressions is validated through Monte Carlo simulations. We show that the designed access probabilities can guarantee the QoS requirements with high reliability and high energy efficiency. Finally, we show that RMA can outperform standard coordinated access schemes as well as some of the recently proposed M2M access schemes for cellular networks.

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