arXiv subjects

Rick S. Blum

Publications and source records attributed to Rick S. Blum.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

Robust Clock Skew and Offset Estimation for IEEE 1588 in the Presence of Unexpected Deterministic Path Delay Asymmetries

IEEE 1588, built on the classical two-way message exchange scheme, is a popular clock synchronization protocol for packet-switched networks. Due to the presence of random queuing delays in a packet-switched network, the joint recovery of the clock skew and offset from the timestamps of the exchanged synchronization packets can be treated as a statistical estimation problem. In this paper, we address the problem of clock skew and offset estimation for IEEE 1588 in the presence of possible unknown asymmetries between the {\color{black} deterministic path delays} of the forward master-to-slave path and reverse slave-to-master path, which can result from incorrect modeling or cyber-attacks. First, we develop lower bounds on the mean square estimation error for a clock skew and offset estimation scheme for IEEE 1588 assuming the availability of multiple master-slave communication paths and complete knowledge of the probability density functions (pdf) describing the random queuing delays. Approximating the pdf of the random queuing delays by a mixture of Gaussian random variables, we then present a robust iterative clock skew and offset estimation scheme that employs the space alternating generalized expectation-maximization (SAGE) algorithm for learning all the unknown parameters. Numerical results indicate that the developed robust scheme exhibits a mean square estimation error close to the lower bounds.

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arXiv2019

Multi-snapshot Newtonized Orthogonal Matching Pursuit for Line Spectrum Estimation with Multiple Measurement Vectors

In this paper, multi-snapshot Newtonized orthogonal matching pursuit (MNOMP) algorithm is proposed to deal with the line spectrum estimation with multiple measurement vectors (MMVs). MNOMP has the low computation complexity and state-of-the-art performance advantage of NOMP, and also includes two key steps: Detecting a new sinusoid on an oversampled discrete Fourier transform (DFT) grid and refining the parameters of already detected sinusoids to avoid the problem of basis mismatch. We provide a stopping criterion based on the overestimating probability of the model order. In addition, the convergence of the proposed algorithm is also proved. Finally, numerical results are conducted to show that the performance of MNOMP benefits from MMVs, and the effectiveness of MNOMP when compared against the state-of-the-art algorithms in terms of frequency estimation accuracy and computation complexity.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2019

Testing the Structure of a Gaussian Graphical Model with Reduced Transmissions in a Distributed Setting

Testing a covariance matrix following a Gaussian graphical model (GGM) is considered in this paper based on observations made at a set of distributed sensors grouped into clusters. Ordered transmissions are proposed to achieve the same Bayes risk as the optimum centralized energy unconstrained approach but with fewer transmissions and a completely distributed approach. In this approach, we represent the Bayes optimum test statistic as a sum of local test statistics which can be calculated by only utilizing the observations available at one cluster. We select one sensor to be the cluster head (CH) to collect and summarize the observed data in each cluster and intercluster communications are assumed to be inexpensive. The CHs with more informative observations transmit their data to the fusion center (FC) first. By halting before all transmissions have taken place, transmissions can be saved without performance loss. It is shown that this ordering approach can guarantee a lower bound on the average number of transmissions saved for any given GGM and the lower bound can approach approximately half the number of clusters when the minimum eigenvalue of the covariance matrix under the alternative hypothesis in each cluster becomes sufficiently large.

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arXiv2019

Sensor Placement for Outage Identifiability in Power Distribution Networks

Accurate topology information is critical for effective operation of power distribution networks. Line outages change the operational topology of a distribution network. Hence, outage detection is an important task. Power distribution networks are operated as radial trees and are recently adopting the integration of advanced sensors to monitor the network in real time. In this paper, a dynamic-programming-based minimum cost sensor placement solution is proposed for outage identifiability. We propose a novel formulation of the sensor placement as a cost optimization problem involving binary placement decisions, and then provide an algorithm based on dynamic programming to solve it in polynomial time. The advantage of the proposed placement strategy is that it incorporates various types of sensors, is independent of time varying load statistics, has a polynomial execution time and is cost effective. Numerical results illustrating the proposed sensor placement solution are presented for multiple feeder models including standard IEEE test feeders.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2018

Minimax Optimum Clock Skew and Offset Estimators for IEEE 1588

This paper addresses the problem of clock skew and offset estimation for the IEEE 1588 precision time protocol. Built on the classical two-way message exchange scheme, IEEE 1588 is a prominent synchronization protocol for packet switched networks. It is employed in various applications including cellular base station synchronization in 4G long-term evaluation backhaul networks, substation synchronization in electrical grid networks and industrial control. Due to the presence of random queuing delays in a packet switched network, the recovery of clock skew and offset from the received packet timestamps can be viewed as a statistical estimation problem. Recently, assuming perfect clock skew information, minimax optimum clock offset estimators were developed for IEEE 1588. Building on this work, we develop minimax optimum clock skew and offset estimators for IEEE 1588 in this paper. Simulation results indicate the proposed minimax estimators exhibit a lower mean square estimation error than the estimators available in the literature for various network scenarios.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2018

On the Impact of Unknown Signals in Passive Radar with Direct Path and Reflected Path Observations

We derive the closed form Cramer-Rao bound (CRB) expressions for joint estimation of time delay and Doppler shift with unknown signals with possibly known structure. The results are especially useful for passive radar where direct path and reflected path signals are present. Time delay and Doppler shift estimation is an important fundamental tool in signal processing which has received extensive study for cases with known transmitted signals, but little study for unknown transmitted signals. The presented results generalize previous results for known transmitted signals and show how many looks from the direct path and the reflected path we need to derive an accurate joint estimation of time delay and Doppler shift. After analysis under a simple common signal-to-clutter-plus-noise ratio (SCNR) model with separated direct and reflected path signals, white clutter-plus-noise and line of sight propagation, extensions to cases with different direct and reflected path SCNRs, correlated clutter-plus-noise, nonseparated direct and reflected path signals and multipath propagation are discussed to support the utility of the CRB with unknown signals.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2018

Improved Detection Performance of Passive Radars Exploiting Known Communication Signal Form

In this paper, we address the problem of target detection in passive multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) radar networks. A generalized likelihood ratio test is derived, assuming prior knowledge of the signal format used in the non-cooperative transmit stations. We consider scenarios in which the unknown transmitted signal uses either a linear digital modulation scheme or the Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) modulation scheme. These digital modulation schemes are used in popular standards including Code-Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Digital Video Broadcasting-Terrestrial (DVB-T) and Long Term Evaluation (LTE). The performance of the generalized likelihood ratio test in the known signal format case is often significantly more favorable when compared to the case that does not exploit this information. Further, the performance improves with increasing number of samples per symbol and, for a sufficiently large number of samples per symbol, the performance closely approximates that of an active radar with a known transmitted signal.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2018

Signal Amplitude Estimation and Detection from Unlabeled Binary Quantized Samples

Signal amplitude estimation and detection from unlabeled quantized binary samples are studied, assuming that the order of the time indexes is completely unknown. First, maximum likelihood (ML) estimators are utilized to estimate both the permutation matrix and unknown signal amplitude under arbitrary, but known signal shape and quantizer thresholds. Sufficient conditions are provided under which an ML estimator can be found in polynomial time and an alternating maximization algorithm is proposed to solve the general problem via good initial estimates. In addition, the statistical identifiability of the model is studied. Furthermore, the generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT) detector is adopted to detect the presence of signal. In addition, an accurate approximation to the probability of successful permutation matrix recovery is derived, and explicit expressions are provided to reveal the relationship between the number of signal samples and the number of quantizers. Finally, numerical simulations are performed to verify the theoretical results.

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arXiv2017

Attack Detection in Sensor Network Target Localization Systems with Quantized Data

We consider a sensor network focused on target localization, where sensors measure the signal strength emitted from the target. Each measurement is quantized to one bit and sent to the fusion center. A general attack is considered at some sensors that attempts to cause the fusion center to produce an inaccurate estimation of the target location with a large mean-square-error. The attack is a combination of man-in-the-middle, hacking, and spoofing attacks that can effectively change both signals going into and coming out of the sensor nodes in a realistic manner. We show that the essential effect of attacks is to alter the estimated distance between the target and each attacked sensor to a different extent, giving rise to a geometric inconsistency among the attacked and unattacked sensors. Hence, with the help of two secure sensors, a class of detectors are proposed to detect the attacked sensors by scrutinizing the existence of the geometric inconsistency. We show that the false alarm and miss probabilities of the proposed detectors decrease exponentially as the number of measurement samples increases, which implies that for sufficiently large number of samples, the proposed detectors can identify the attacked and unattacked sensors with any required accuracy.

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arXiv2017

Sparse Representation based Multi-sensor Image Fusion: A Review

As a result of several successful applications in computer vision and image processing, sparse representation (SR) has attracted significant attention in multi-sensor image fusion. Unlike the traditional multiscale transforms (MSTs) that presume the basis functions, SR learns an over-complete dictionary from a set of training images for image fusion, and it achieves more stable and meaningful representations of the source images. By doing so, the SR-based fusion methods generally outperform the traditional MST-based image fusion methods in both subjective and objective tests. In addition, they are less susceptible to mis-registration among the source images, thus facilitating the practical applications. This survey paper proposes a systematic review of the SR-based multi-sensor image fusion literature, highlighting the pros and cons of each category of approaches. Specifically, we start by performing a theoretical investigation of the entire system from three key algorithmic aspects, (1) sparse representation models; (2) dictionary learning methods; and (3) activity levels and fusion rules. Subsequently, we show how the existing works address these scientific problems and design the appropriate fusion rules for each application, such as multi-focus image fusion and multi-modality (e.g., infrared and visible) image fusion. At last, we carry out some experiments to evaluate the impact of these three algorithmic components on the fusion performance when dealing with different applications. This article is expected to serve as a tutorial and source of reference for researchers preparing to enter the field or who desire to employ the sparse representation theory in other fields.

cs.CV↗

arXiv2017

Suboptimum Low Complexity Joint Multi-target Detection and Localization for Noncoherent MIMO Radar with Widely Separated Antennas

In this paper, the problems of simultaneously detecting and localizing multiple targets are considered for noncoherent multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar with widely separated antennas. By assuming a prior knowledge of target number, an optimal solution to this problem is presented first. It is essentially a maximum-likelihood (ML) estimator searching parameters of interest in a high dimensional space. However, the complexity of this method increases exponentially with the number G of targets.Besides, without the prior information of the number of targets, a multi-hypothesis testing strategy to determine the number of targets is required, which further complicates this method. Therefore, we split the joint maximization into G disjoint optimization problems by clearing the interference from previously declared targets. In this way, we derive two fast and robust suboptimal solutions which allow trading performance for a much lower implementation complexity which is almost independent of the number of targets. In addition, the multi-hypothesis testing is no longer required when target number is unknown. Simulation results show the proposed algorithms can correctly detect and accurately localize multiple targets even when targets share common range bins in some paths.

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arXiv2016

Estimation Theory Based Robust Phase Offset Estimation in the Presence of Delay Attacks

This paper addresses the problem of robust clock phase offset estimation for the IEEE 1588 precision time protocol (PTP) in the presence of delay attacks. Delay attacks are one of the most effective cyber attacks in PTP, as they cannot be mitigated using typical security measures. In this paper, we consider the case where the slave node can exchange synchronization messages with multiple master nodes synchronized to the same clock. We first provide lower bounds on the best achievable performance for any phase offset estimation scheme in the presence of delay attacks. We then present a novel phase offset estimation scheme that employs the Expectation-Maximization algorithm for detecting which of the master-slave communication links have been subject to delay attacks. After discarding information from the links identified as attacked, which we show to be optimal, the optimal vector location parameter estimator is employed to estimate the phase offset of the slave node. Simulation results are presented to show that the proposed phase offset estimation scheme exhibits performance close to the lower bounds in a wide variety of scenarios.

stat.AP↗

arXiv2016

Low-Rank Tensor Decomposition-Aided Channel Estimation for Millimeter Wave MIMO-OFDM Systems

We consider the problem of downlink channel estimation for millimeter wave (mmWave) MIMO-OFDM systems, where both the base station (BS) and the mobile station (MS) employ large antenna arrays for directional precoding/beamforming. Hybrid analog and digital beamforming structures are employed in order to offer a compromise between hardware complexity and system performance. Different from most existing studies that are concerned with narrowband channels, we consider estimation of wideband mmWave channels with frequency selectivity, which is more appropriate for mmWave MIMO-OFDM systems. By exploiting the sparse scattering nature of mmWave channels, we propose a CANDECOMP/PARAFAC (CP) decomposition-based method for channel parameter estimation (including angles of arrival/departure, time delays, and fading coefficients). In our proposed method, the received signal at the BS is expressed as a third-order tensor. We show that the tensor has the form of a low-rank CP decomposition, and the channel parameters can be estimated from the associated factor matrices. Our analysis reveals that the uniqueness of the CP decomposition can be guaranteed even when the size of the tensor is small. Hence the proposed method has the potential to achieve substantial training overhead reduction. We also develop Cramer-Rao bound (CRB) results for channel parameters, and compare our proposed method with a compressed sensing-based method. Simulation results show that the proposed method attains mean square errors that are very close to their associated CRBs, and presents a clear advantage over the compressed sensing-based method in terms of both estimation accuracy and computational complexity.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2016

Performance Analysis of Target Parameters Estimation Using Multiple Widely Separated Antenna Arrays

Target parameter estimation performance is investigated for a radar employing a set of widely separated transmitting and receiving antenna arrays. Cases with multiple extended targets are considered under two signal model assumptions: stochastic and deterministic. The general expressions for the corresponding Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) and the asymptotic properties of the maximum-likelihood (ML) estimator are derived for a radar with $M_t$ arrays of $L_t$ transmitting elements and $M_r$ arrays of $L_r$ receiving elements for both types of signal models. It is shown that for an infinitely large product $M_tM_r$, and a finite $L_r$, the ML estimator is consistent and efficient under the stochastic model, while the deterministic model requires $M_tM_r$ to be finite and $L_r$ to be infinitely large in order to guarantee consistency and efficiency. Monte Carlo simulations further investigate the estimation performance of the proposed radar configuration in practical scenarios with finite $M_tM_r$ and $L_r$, and a fixed total number of available receiving antenna elements, $M_r L_r$. The numerical results demonstrate that grouping receiving elements into properly sized arrays reduces the mean squared error (MSE) and decreases the threshold SNR. In the numerical examples considered, the preferred configurations employ $M_t M_r > 1$. In fact, when $M_t M_r$ becomes too small, due to the loss of the geometric gain, the estimation performance becomes strongly dependent on the particular scenario and can degrade significantly, while the CRLB may become a poor prediction of the MSE even for high SNR. This suggests it may be advantageous to employ approaches where neither $M_tM_r$ nor $L_r$ are too small.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2016

Functional Forms of Optimum Spoofing Attacks for Vector Parameter Estimation in Quantized Sensor Networks

Estimation of an unknown deterministic vector from quantized sensor data is considered in the presence of spoofing attacks which alter the data presented to several sensors. Contrary to previous work, a generalized attack model is employed which manipulates the data using transformations with arbitrary functional forms determined by some attack parameters whose values are unknown to the attacked system. For the first time, necessary and sufficient conditions are provided under which the transformations provide a guaranteed attack performance in terms of Cramer-Rao Bound (CRB) regardless of the processing the estimation system employs, thus defining a highly desirable attack. Interestingly, these conditions imply that, for any such attack when the attacked sensors can be perfectly identified by the estimation system, either the Fisher Information Matrix (FIM) for jointly estimating the desired and attack parameters is singular or that the attacked system is unable to improve the CRB for the desired vector parameter through this joint estimation even though the joint FIM is nonsingular. It is shown that it is always possible to construct such a highly desirable attack by properly employing a sufficiently large dimension attack vector parameter relative to the number of quantization levels employed, which was not observed previously. To illustrate the theory in a concrete way, we also provide some numerical results which corroborate that under the highly desirable attack, attacked data is not useful in reducing the CRB.

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arXiv2016

A Fundamental Limitation on Maximum Parameter Dimension for Accurate Estimation with Quantized Data

It is revealed that there is a link between the quantization approach employed and the dimension of the vector parameter which can be accurately estimated by a quantized estimation system. A critical quantity called inestimable dimension for quantized data (IDQD) is introduced, which doesn't depend on the quantization regions and the statistical models of the observations but instead depends only on the number of sensors and on the precision of the vector quantizers employed by the system. It is shown that the IDQD describes a quantization induced fundamental limitation on the estimation capabilities of the system. To be specific, if the dimension of the desired vector parameter is larger than the IDQD of the quantized estimation system, then the Fisher information matrix for estimating the desired vector parameter is singular, and moreover, there exist infinitely many nonidentifiable vector parameter points in the vector parameter space. Furthermore, it is shown that under some common assumptions on the statistical models of the observations and the quantization system, a smaller IDQD can be obtained, which can specify an even more limiting quantization induced fundamental limitation on the estimation capabilities of the system.

math.ST↗

arXiv2016

Wireless-Powered Cooperative Communications: Power-Splitting Relaying with Energy Accumulation

A harvest-use-store power splitting (PS) relaying strategy with distributed beamforming is proposed for wirelesspowered multi-relay cooperative networks in this paper. Different from the conventional battery-free PS relaying strategy, harvested energy is prioritized to power information relaying while the remainder is accumulated and stored for future usage with the help of a battery in the proposed strategy, which supports an efficient utilization of harvested energy. However, PS affects throughput at subsequent time slots due to the battery operations including the charging and discharging. To this end, PS and battery operations are coupled with distributed beamforming. A throughput optimization problem to incorporate these coupled operations is formulated though it is intractable. To address the intractability of the optimization,a layered optimization method is proposed to achieve the optimal joint PS and battery operation design with non-causal channel state information (CSI), in which the PS and the battery operation can be analyzed in a decomposed manner. Then, a general case with causal CSI is considered, where the proposed layered optimization method is extended by utilizing the statistical properties of CSI. To reach a better tradeoff between performance and complexity, a greedy method that requires no information about subsequent time slots is proposed. Simulation results reveal the upper and lower bound on performance of the proposed strategy, which are reached by the layered optimization method with non-causal CSI and the greedy method, respectively. Moreover, the proposed strategy outperforms the conventional PS-based relaying without energy accumulation and time switching-based relaying strategy.

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arXiv2015

Generalized Cramer-Rao Bound for Joint Estimation of Target Position and Velocity for Active and Passive Radar Networks

In this paper, we derive the Cramer-Rao bound (CRB) for joint target position and velocity estimation using an active or passive distributed radar network under more general, and practically occurring, conditions than assumed in previous work. In particular, the presented results allow nonorthogonal signals, spatially dependent Gaussian reflection coefficients, and spatially dependent Gaussian clutter-plus-noise. These bounds allow designers to compare the performance of their developed approaches, which are deemed to be of acceptable complexity, to the best achievable performance. If their developed approaches lead to performance close to the bounds, these developed approaches can be deemed "good enough". A particular recent study where algorithms have been developed for a practical radar application which must involve nonorthogonal signals, for which the best performance is unknown, is a great example. The presented results in our paper do not make any assumptions about the approximate location of the target being known from previous target detection signal processing. In addition, for situations in which we do not know some parameters accurately, we also derive the mismatched CRB. Numerical investigations of the mean squared error of the maximum likelihood estimation are employed to support the validity of the CRBs. In order to demonstrate the utility of the provided results to a topic of great current interest, the numerical results focus on a passive radar system using the Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) cellar system.

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