arXiv subjects

Steven D. Blostein

Publications and source records attributed to Steven D. Blostein.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2024

User-Access Point Association for High Density MIMO Wireless LANs

Wireless local area network (WLAN) access points (APs) are being deployed in high density to improve coverage and throughput. The emerging multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) implementation for uplink (UL) transmissions promises high per-user throughput and improved aggregate network throughput. However, the high throughput potential of dense UL-MIMO WLAN is impaired by multiple access channel interference and high contention among densely distributed user stations (STAs). We investigate the problem of actualizing the throughput potential of UL-MIMO in high density WLANs via user-AP association. Since user-AP association influences interference and STA contention, a method to optimally distribute STAs among APs is proposed to maximize aggregate users' throughput utility. This problem is transformed into a graph matching problem with the throughput utility function as the graph edge weights. The graph matching problem is solved as a combinatorial problem using a modified classical Kuhn-Munkres algorithm. A dynamic implementation of the proposed algorithm is used to periodically update user-AP associations when there are changes in the network due to new entrants and/or user mobility. Simulated dense UL-MIMO WLAN scenarios reveal that the proposed scheme achieves an average of $36.9 \%$, $33.5 \%$, $20.4 \%$ and $11.3 \%$ gains over the default strongest signal first (SSF) association scheme used in conventional WLAN, Greedy [14], SmartAssoc [13] and best performance first (BPF) [5] algorithms, respectively.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2021

Joint AP Association and PCS Threshold Selection in Dense Full-duplex Wireless Networks

Joint access point (AP) association and physical carrier sensing (PCS) threshold selection has the potential to improve the performance in high density wireless LANs (WLANs) under high contention, interference and self-interference (SI) limited transmissions. Using tools from stochastic geometry, user and AP locations are independent realizations of spatial point processes. Considering the inherent effects of the channel access protocol, the spatial density of throughput (SDT), which depends on channel access probability and coverage rate, is derived as the performance objective. Leveraging spatial statistics of the network, a throughput-utility maximization problem is formulated to seek AP association and PCS threshold selection policies that jointly maximize SDT. The AP association and the PCS threshold selection policies are derived analytically while an algorithm is proposed for numerical solution. Under simulated scenarios involving full-duplex (FD) nodes, optimizing AP association yields performance gains for low to high node density in large-scale wireless networks. Considering PCS threshold selection optimization jointly with AP association is shown to improve performance by effectively separating concurrent transmissions in space. It is shown that AP association in FD WLANs groups users into minimal contention domains and PCS threshold optimization reduces the interference domain of user groups for additional performance gains.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2017

Sequential Detection of an Abrupt Change in a Random Sequence with Unknown Initial State

The problem of sequentially detecting an abrupt change in a sequence of independent and identically distributed (IID) random variables is addressed. Whereas previous approaches assume a known probability density function (PDF) at the start of the sequence, the problem addressed is the detection of a single change in distribution among a finite number of known 'equal-energy' PDFs, but where the initial and final distributions are not known a priori. A Bayesian multiple hypothesis approach is proposed where (i) unlike previous threshold policies, the minimum cost hypothesis is tracked through time, (ii) under an exponential delay-cost function that satisfies an upper bound determined by the distances between hypotheses, the probability of detecting a change from an incorrect initial distribution asymptotically vanishes with time, (iii) computation is recursive and constant per unit time, and (iv) the unknown initial state gives rise to unavoidable incorrect detections that be made to vanish with a constant test threshold with negligibly small effect on correct detection delay for change times beyond a lower bound. Simulations illustrate the analysis and reveal that average delay approaches that of the optimal CUSUM test after an initial transient period determined by an incorrect detection probability constraint.

math.ST↗

arXiv2017

User Selection and Widely Linear Multiuser Precoding for One-dimensional Signalling

Massive deployment of low data rate Internet of things and ehealth devices prompts us to develop more practical precoding and user selection techniques that comply with these requirements. Moreover, it is known that when the data is real-valued and the observation is complex-valued, widely linear (WL) estimation can be employed in lieu of linear estimation to improve the performance. With these motivations, in this paper, we study the transmit precoding (beamforming) in multiuser multiple-input single-output communications systems assuming the transmit signal is one-dimensionally modulated and widely linear estimation is performed at the receivers. Closed-form solutions for widely linear maximum ratio transmission (MRT), WL zero-forcing (ZF), WL minimum mean square error (MMSE), and WL maximum signal to leakage and noise ratio (MSLNR) precoding are obtained. It is shown that widely linear processing can potentially double the number of simultaneous users compared to the linear processing of one-dimensionally modulated signals. Furthermore, to deal with the increasing number of communications devices a user selection algorithm compatible with widely linear processing of one-dimensionally modulated signals is proposed. The proposed user selection algorithm can double the number of simultaneously selected users compared to conventional user selection methods.

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arXiv2017

Maximum Signal Minus Interference to Noise Ratio Multiuser Receive Beamforming

Motivated by massive deployment of low data rate Internet of things (IoT) and ehealth devices with requirement for highly reliable communications, this paper proposes receive beamforming techniques for the uplink of a single-input multiple-output (SIMO) multiple access channel (MAC), based on a per-user probability of error metric and one-dimensional signalling. Although beamforming by directly minimizing probability of error (MPE) has potential advantages over classical beamforming methods such as zero-forcing and minimum mean square error beamforming, MPE beamforming results in a non-convex and a highly nonlinear optimization problem. In this paper, by adding a set of modulation-based constraints, the MPE beamforming problem is transformed into a convex programming problem. Then, a simplified version of the MPE beamforming is proposed which reduces the exponential number of constraints in the MPE beamforming problem. The simplified problem is also shown to be a convex programming problem. The complexity of the simplified problem is further reduced by minimizing a convex function which serves as an upper bound on the error probability. Minimization of this upper bound results in the introduction of a new metric, which is termed signal minus interference to noise ratio (SMINR). It is shown that maximizing SMINR leads to a closed-form expression for beamforming vectors as well as improved performance over existing beamforming methods.

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arXiv2016

Superimposed Signaling Inspired Channel Estimation in Full-Duplex Systems

Residual self-interference (SI) cancellation in the digital baseband is an important problem in full-duplex (FD) communication systems. In this paper, we propose a new technique for estimating the SI and communication channels in a FD communication system, which is inspired from superimposed signalling. In our proposed technique, we add a constant real number to each constellation point of a conventional modulation constellation to yield asymmetric shifted modulation constellations with respect to the origin. We show mathematically that such constellations can be used for bandwidth efficient channel estimation without ambiguity. We propose an expectation maximization (EM) estimator for use with the asymmetric shifted modulation constellations. We derive a closed-form lower bound for the mean square error (MSE) of the channel estimation error, which allows us to find the minimum shift energy needed for accurate channel estimation in a given FD communication system. The simulation results show that the proposed technique outperforms the data-aided channel estimation method, under the condition that the pilots use the same extra energy as the shift, both in terms of MSE of channel estimation error and bit error rate. The proposed technique is also robust to an increasing power of the SI signal.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2016

Modulation-Specific Multiuser Transmit Precoding and User Selection for BPSK Signalling

Motivated by challenges to existing multiuser transmission methods in a low signal to noise ratio (SNR) regime, and emergence of massive numbers of low data rate ehealth and internet of things (IoT) devices, in this paper we show that it is beneficial to incorporate knowledge of modulation type into multiuser transmit precoder design. Particularly, we propose a transmit precoding (beamforming) specific to BPSK modulation, which has maximum power efficiency and capacity in poor channel conditions. To be more specific, in a multiuser scenario, an objective function is formulated based on the weighted sum of error probabilities of BPSK modulated users. Convex optimization is used to transform and solve this ill-behaved non-convex minimum probability of error (MPE) precoding problem. Numerical results confirm significant performance improvement. We then develop a low-complexity user selection algorithm for MPE precoding. Based on line packing principles in Grassmannian manifolds, the number of supported users is able to exceed the number of transmit antennas, and hence the proposed approach is able to support more simultaneous users compared with existing multiuser transmit precoding methods.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2016

Decentralized AP Selection in Large-Scale Wireless LANs Considering Multi-AP Interference

Densification of access points (APs) in wireless local area networks (WLANs) increases the interference and the contention domains of each AP due to multiple overlapped basic service sets (BSSs). Consequently, high interference from multiple co-channel BSS at the target AP impairs system performance. To improve system performance in the presence of multi-BSSs interference, we propose a decentralized AP selection scheme that takes interference at the candidate APs into account and selects AP that offers best signal-interference-plus noise ratio (SINR). In the proposed algorithm, the AP selection process is distributed at the user stations (STAs) and is based on the estimated SINR in the downlink. Estimating SINR in the downlink helps capture the effect of interference from neighboring BSSs or APs. Based on a simulated large-scale 802.11 network, the proposed scheme outperforms the strongest signal first (SSF) AP selection scheme used in current 802.11 standards as well as the mean probe delay (MPD) AP selection algorithm in [3]; it achieves 99% and 43% gains in aggregate throughput over SSF and MPD, respectively. While increasing STA densification, the proposed scheme is shown to increase aggregate network performance.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2016

On Efficient Decoding and Design of Sparse Random Linear Network Codes

Random linear network coding (RLNC) in theory achieves the max-flow capacity of multicast networks, at the cost of high decoding complexity. To improve the performance-complexity tradeoff, we consider the design of sparse network codes. A generation-based strategy is employed in which source packets are grouped into overlapping subsets called generations. RLNC is performed only amongst packets belonging to the same generation throughout the network so that sparseness can be maintained. In this paper, generation-based network codes with low reception overheads and decoding costs are designed for transmitting of the order of $10^2$-$10^3$ source packets. A low-complexity overhead-optimized decoder is proposed that exploits "overlaps" between generations. The sparseness of the codes is exploited through local processing and multiple rounds of pivoting of the decoding matrix. To demonstrate the efficacy of our approach, codes comprising a binary precode, random overlapping generations, and binary RLNC are designed. The results show that our designs can achieve negligible code overheads at low decoding costs, and outperform existing network codes that use the generation based strategy.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2016

Energy Harvesting Wireless Sensor Networks: Delay Analysis Considering Energy Costs of Sensing and Transmission

Energy harvesting (EH) provides a means of greatly enhancing the lifetime of wireless sensor nodes. However, the randomness inherent in the EH process may cause significant delay for performing sensing operation and transmitting the sensed information to the sink. Unlike most existing studies on the delay performance of EH sensor networks, where only the energy consumption of transmission is considered, we consider the energy costs of both sensing and transmission. Specifically, we consider an EH sensor that monitors some status environmental property and adopts a harvest-then-use protocol to perform sensing and transmission. To comprehensively study the delay performance, we consider two complementary metrics and analytically derive their statistics: (i) update age - measuring the time taken from when information is obtained by the sensor to when the sensed information is successfully transmitted to the sink, i.e., how timely the updated information at the sink is, and (ii) update cycle - measuring the time duration between two consecutive successful transmissions, i.e., how frequently the information at the sink is updated. Our results show that the consideration of sensing energy cost leads to an important tradeoff between the two metrics: more frequent updates result in less timely information available at the sink.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2015

Optimization of Unequal Error Protection Rateless Codes for Multimedia Multicasting

Rateless codes have been shown to be able to provide greater flexibility and efficiency than fixed-rate codes for multicast applications. In the following, we optimize rateless codes for unequal error protection (UEP) for multimedia multicasting to a set of heterogeneous users. The proposed designs have the objectives of providing either guaranteed or best-effort quality of service (QoS). A randomly interleaved rateless encoder is proposed whereby users only need to decode symbols up to their own QoS level. The proposed coder is optimized based on measured transmission properties of standardized raptor codes over wireless channels. It is shown that a guaranteed QoS problem formulation can be transformed into a convex optimization problem, yielding a globally optimal solution. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed optimized random interleaved UEP rateless coder's performance compares favorably with that of other recently proposed UEP rateless codes.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2014

Training-Based Synchronization and Channel Estimation in AF Two-Way Relaying Networks

Two-way relaying networks (TWRNs) allow for more bandwidth efficient use of the available spectrum since they allow for simultaneous information exchange between two users with the assistance of an intermediate relay node. However, due to superposition of signals at the relay node, the received signal at the user terminals is affected by \emph{multiple impairments}, i.e., channel gains, timing offsets, and carrier frequency offsets, that need to be jointly estimated and compensated. This paper presents a training-based system model for amplify-and-forward (AF) TWRNs in the presence of multiple impairments and proposes maximum likelihood and differential evolution based algorithms for joint estimation of these impairments. The Cramer-Rao lower bounds (CRLBs) for the joint estimation of multiple impairments are derived. A minimum mean-square error based receiver is then proposed to compensate the effect of multiple impairments and decode each user's signal. Simulation results show that the performance of the proposed estimators is very close to the derived CRLBs at moderate-to-high signal-to-noise-ratios. It is also shown that the bit-error rate performance of the overall AF TWRN is close to a TWRN that is based on assumption of perfect knowledge of the synchronization parameters.

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