arXiv subjects

Taejoon Kim

Publications and source records attributed to Taejoon Kim.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

High-Performance Reinforcement-Learned BP Decoding of Quantum LDPC Codes

Belief-propagation (BP) decoding is attractive for quantum low-density parity-check (QLDPC) codes because it uses local message passing on sparse Tanner graphs. However, conventional flooding BP often stalls due to stabilizer degeneracy and short cycles. Reinforcement-learning-based sequential variable-node scheduling (RL-S), which learns the update order offline, has shown that adaptive scheduling can improve BP convergence. In this paper, we extend this idea with a second-order local update decoder, RL-S2LU. The proposed decoder preserves BP locality and low complexity, while numerical results show significant error-correction gains over conventional BP and the considered BP-OSD-10 baseline.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2026

Learning to Decode Quantum LDPC Codes via Cluster-Based Sequential Belief Propagation

Belief-propagation (BP) decoding for quantum low-density parity-check (QLDPC) codes is attractive due to its low complexity, but its performance is often limited by short cycles, degeneracy, and convergence failures. Recently, reinforcement-learning-based sequential variable-node (VN) scheduling (RL-S) was shown to improve BP decoding by learning state-dependent update orders. However, the VN-by-VN nature of that approach offers limited within-iteration parallelism, since only one VN is updated at a time. In this paper, we propose a cluster-based extension of RL-S for QLDPC codes. The VNs are partitioned into fixed clusters, and at each scheduling step the RL agent selects one cluster to update, after which all VNs in that cluster are updated in parallel using the same pre-update incoming messages. To keep the tabular state space practical for large cluster sizes, we introduce a permutation-invariant cluster state based on a normalized histogram of local mismatch weights, followed by quantization. This representation makes the number of cluster states depend on the quantization resolution rather than the cluster size. We also develop the corresponding cluster-level Markov decision process, reward function, and Q-learning update. Numerical results on representative QLDPC codes show that the proposed clustered learned scheduling preserves most of the error-rate benefit of VN-level learned sequential scheduling while substantially reducing the number of scheduling decisions per BP iteration, thereby providing an attractive latency-parallelism tradeoff.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2026

Transmit Coefficients and Receive Combining Vector Design for OTA-FL with Imperfect CSI

Over-the-air (OTA) computation has recently gained significant attentions as an effective approach to enhance the communication efficiency of wireless federated learning (FL). By enabling simultaneous transmission and aggregation of local model updates, OTA-FL can substantially reduce both latency and bandwidth consumption. However, a key challenge lies in the imperfect aggregation of global models caused by channel state information (CSI) uncertainty, which introduces distortion to the final learning performance. To address this issue, we study the long-term mean squared error (MSE) minimization problem for OTA-FL under imperfect CSI conditions. Through convergence analysis, we establish an upper bound for the time-averaged MSE, thereby revealing the effect of aggregation errors accumulated throughout multiple communication rounds on the overall training performances. Based on this analysis, an optimization framework is developed to minimize the long-term MSE via the joint design of (i) transmit coefficients at the local devices and (ii) receive combining vectors at the parameter server (PS). Since this alternating optimization approach requires non-causal CSI, a Lyapunov-based optimization method is further introduced to handle causal CSI scenarios. By incorporating virtual queues to characterize long-term energy consumption, the proposed method effectively decouples temporal dependencies and allows transmit coefficients to be optimized based on the causal CSI of each aggregation round. Comprehensive evaluations on Fashion-MNIST, CIFAR-10 and CIFAR-100 datasets have demonstrated that the proposed algorithms can significantly reduce the degradation of test accuracy caused by imperfect CSI. Comparisons with other benchmark schemes further verify the superiority of our proposed algorithms.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2026

Learning-Based List Sequential Belief Propagation Decoding of Quantum LDPC Codes

Quantum low-density parity-check (QLDPC) codes are strong candidates for fault-tolerant quantum computation, but efficient decoding remains a major challenge due to short cycles, degeneracy, and the poor convergence of standard belief-propagation (BP) decoders. We propose a reinforcement learning-based list sequential (RL-LS) BP decoder for QLDPC codes by extending the reinforcement-learning-based sequential variable-node scheduling (RL-S) framework with list-based search. At each step, the learned policy selects the next variable node to update; the decoder then retains the ordinary RL-S trajectory while also exploring a competing branch obtained by softly biasing the post-update LLR pair toward the second-most likely Pauli symbol, recomputing the incident local BP messages, and setting the visited variable node to that second-best symbol. Candidate trajectories are ranked and pruned using our proposed cumulative path metric. The resulting decoder extends the learned decoder by combining the improved convergence of learned sequential scheduling with list exploration. Numerical results on representative QLDPC benchmark codes over the depolarizing channel show that our proposed method improves the decoding performance of the underlying decoder and compares favorably with existing BP-based decoding methods.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2026

Detecting and Mitigating Backdoor Attacks in OTA-FL Systems: A Two-Stage Robust Aggregation Scheme

Over-the-air federated learning (OTA-FL) improves communication efficiency by exploiting the superposition property of wireless channels, but this same property also creates a critical security vulnerability: the parameter server (PS) cannot access individual local updates, making it difficult to identify and exclude poisoned gradients. The challenge is further exacerbated under non-independent and identically distributed (Non-IID) training data, where benign gradient drift can closely resemble malicious updates. In this paper, we propose a two-stage robust aggregation framework for defending against backdoor attacks in OTA-FL. Under our scheme, each client is first assigned a modality-aware multi-indicator trust score, where the specific indicators are selected according to the data modality (e.g., waveform, text, image) and model architecture to capture the most discriminative footprint of backdoor updates. Based on this score, the PS then performs trust-based multiple access (TBMA) to separate clients into trusted, suspicious, and malicious categories. Suspicious clients are further examined through PS-side layer-wise inspection and a longitudinal reputation mechanism. Experimental results on several datasets demonstrate that the proposed methodology effectively suppresses stealthy backdoor attacks, including bounded-scaling attacks, Euclidean-constrained attacks, Cosine-constrained attacks, and Neurotoxin, while maintaining competitive main-task accuracy.

cs.CR↗

arXiv2026

Helper-Assisted Coding for Gaussian Wiretap Channels: Deep Learning Meets PhySec

Consider the Gaussian wiretap channel, where a transmitter wishes to send a confidential message to a legitimate receiver in the presence of an eavesdropper. It is well known that if the eavesdropper experiences less channel noise than the legitimate receiver, then it is impossible for the transmitter to achieve positive secrecy rates. A known solution to this issue consists in involving a second transmitter, referred to as a helper, to help the first transmitter to achieve security. While such a solution has been studied for the asymptotic blocklength regime and via non-constructive coding schemes, in this paper, for the first time, we design explicit and short blocklength codes using deep learning and cryptographic tools to demonstrate the benefit and practicality of cooperation between two transmitters over the wiretap channel. Specifically, our proposed codes show strict improvement in terms of information leakage compared to existing codes that do not consider a helper. Our code design approach relies on a reliability layer, implemented with an autoencoder architecture based on the successive interference cancellation method, and a security layer implemented with universal hash functions. We also propose an alternative autoencoder architecture that significantly reduces training time by allowing the decoders to independently estimate messages without successively canceling interference by the receiver during training. Additionally, we show that our code design is also applicable to the multiple access wiretap channel with helpers, where two transmitters send confidential messages to the legitimate receiver.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2025

Two-Dimensional XOR-Based Secret Sharing for Layered Multipath Communication

This paper introduces the first two-dimensional XOR-based secret sharing scheme for layered multipath communication networks. We present a construction that guarantees successful message recovery and perfect privacy when an adversary observes and disrupts any single path at each transmission layer. The scheme achieves information-theoretic security using only bitwise XOR operations with linear $O(|S|)$ complexity, where $|S|$ is the message length. We provide mathematical proofs demonstrating that the scheme maintains unconditional security regardless of computational resources available to adversaries. Unlike encryption-based approaches vulnerable to quantum computing advances, our construction offers provable security suitable for resource-constrained military environments where computational assumptions may fail.

cs.CR↗

arXiv2025

Multi-Layer Secret Sharing for Cross-Layer Attack Defense in 5G Networks: a COTS UE Demonstration

This demo presents the first implementation of multi-layer secret sharing on commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) 5G user equipment (UE), operating without infrastructure modifications or pre-shared keys. Our XOR-based approach distributes secret shares across network operators and distributed relays, ensuring perfect recovery and data confidentiality even if one network operator and one relay are simultaneously lost (e.g., under denial of service (DoS) or unanticipated attacks).

cs.CR↗

arXiv2025

Protecting Legacy Wireless Systems Against Interference: Precoding and Codebook Approaches Using Massive MIMO and Region Constraints

The ever-increasing demand for high-speed wireless communication has generated significant interest in utilizing frequency bands that are adjacent to those occupied by legacy wireless systems. Since the legacy wireless systems were designed based on often decades-old assumptions about wireless interference, utilizing these new bands will result in interference with the existing legacy users. Many of these legacy wireless devices are used by critical infrastructure networks upon which society depends. There is an urgent need to develop schemes that can protect legacy users from such interference. For many applications, legacy users are located within geographically-constrained regions. Several studies have proposed mitigating interference through the implementation of exclusion zones near these geographically-constrained regions. In contrast to solutions based on geographic exclusion zones, this paper presents a communication theory-based solution. By leveraging knowledge of these geographically-constrained regions, we aim to reduce the interference impact on legacy users. We achieve this by incorporating received power constraints, termed as region constraints, in our massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system design. We perform a capacity analysis of single-user massive MIMO and a sum-rate analysis of the multi-user massive MIMO system with transmit power and region constraints. We present a precoding design method that allows for the utilization of new frequency bands while protecting legacy users.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2025

Error Analysis for Over-the-Air Federated Learning under Misaligned and Time-Varying Channels

This paper investigates an OFDM-based over-the-air federated learning (OTA-FL) system, where multiple mobile devices, e.g., unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), transmit local machine learning (ML) models to a central parameter server (PS) for global model aggregation. The high mobility of local devices results in imperfect channel estimation, leading to a misalignment problem, i.e., the model parameters transmitted from different local devices do not arrive at the central PS simultaneously. Moreover, the mobility introduces time-varying uploading channels, which further complicates the aggregation process. All these factors collectively cause distortions in the OTA-FL training process which are underexplored. To quantify these effects, we first derive a closed-form expression for a single-round global model update in terms of these channel imperfections. We then extend our analysis to capture multiple rounds of global updates, yielding a bound on the accumulated error in OTA-FL. We validate our theoretical results via extensive numerical simulations, which corroborate our derived analysis.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2025

Stabilization of Perturbed Loss Function: Differential Privacy without Gradient Noise

We propose SPOF (Stabilization of Perturbed Loss Function), a differentially private training mechanism intended for multi-user local differential privacy (LDP). SPOF perturbs a stabilized Taylor expanded polynomial approximation of a model's training loss function, where each user's data is privatized by calibrated noise added to the coefficients of the polynomial. Unlike gradient-based mechanisms such as differentially private stochastic gradient descent (DP-SGD), SPOF does not require injecting noise into the gradients of the loss function, which improves both computational efficiency and stability. This formulation naturally supports simultaneous privacy guarantees across all users. Moreover, SPOF exhibits robustness to environmental noise during training, maintaining stable performance even when user inputs are corrupted. We compare SPOF with a multi-user extension of DP-SGD, evaluating both methods in a wireless body area network (WBAN) scenario involving heterogeneous user data and stochastic channel noise from body sensors. Our results show that SPOF achieves, on average, up to 3.5% higher reconstruction accuracy and reduces mean training time by up to 57.2% compared to DP-SGD, demonstrating superior privacy-utility trade-offs in multi-user environments.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2025

Privacy-Preserving Quantized Federated Learning with Diverse Precision

Federated learning (FL) has emerged as a promising paradigm for distributed machine learning, enabling collaborative training of a global model across multiple local devices without requiring them to share raw data. Despite its advancements, FL is limited by factors such as: (i) privacy risks arising from the unprotected transmission of local model updates to the fusion center (FC) and (ii) decreased learning utility caused by heterogeneity in model quantization resolution across participating devices. Prior work typically addresses only one of these challenges because maintaining learning utility under both privacy risks and quantization heterogeneity is a non-trivial task. In this paper, our aim is therefore to improve the learning utility of a privacy-preserving FL that allows clusters of devices with different quantization resolutions to participate in each FL round. Specifically, we introduce a novel stochastic quantizer (SQ) that is designed to simultaneously achieve differential privacy (DP) and minimum quantization error. Notably, the proposed SQ guarantees bounded distortion, unlike other DP approaches. To address quantization heterogeneity, we introduce a cluster size optimization technique combined with a linear fusion approach to enhance model aggregation accuracy. Numerical simulations validate the benefits of our approach in terms of privacy protection and learning utility compared to the conventional LaplaceSQ-FL algorithm.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2025

Pilot Contamination-Aware Graph Attention Network for Power Control in CFmMIMO

Optimization-based power control algorithms are predominantly iterative with high computational complexity, making them impractical for real-time applications in cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (CFmMIMO) systems. Learning-based methods have emerged as a promising alternative, and among them, graph neural networks (GNNs) have demonstrated their excellent performance in solving power control problems. However, all existing GNN-based approaches assume ideal orthogonality among pilot sequences for user equipments (UEs), which is unrealistic given that the number of UEs exceeds the available orthogonal pilot sequences in CFmMIMO schemes. Moreover, most learning-based methods assume a fixed number of UEs, whereas the number of active UEs varies over time in practice. Additionally, supervised training necessitates costly computational resources for computing the target power control solutions for a large volume of training samples. To address these issues, we propose a graph attention network for downlink power control in CFmMIMO systems that operates in a self-supervised manner while effectively handling pilot contamination and adapting to a dynamic number of UEs. Experimental results show its effectiveness, even in comparison to the optimal accelerated projected gradient method as a baseline.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2025

Sequential Interval Passing for Compressed Sensing

The reconstruction of sparse signals from a limited set of measurements poses a significant challenge as it necessitates a solution to an underdetermined system of linear equations. Compressed sensing (CS) deals with sparse signal reconstruction using techniques such as linear programming (LP) and iterative message passing schemes. The interval passing algorithm (IPA) is an attractive CS approach due to its low complexity when compared to LP. In this paper, we propose a sequential IPA that is inspired by sequential belief propagation decoding of low-density-parity-check (LDPC) codes used for forward error correction in channel coding. In the sequential setting, each check node (CN) in the Tanner graph of an LDPC measurement matrix is scheduled one at a time in every iteration, as opposed to the standard ``flooding'' interval passing approach in which all CNs are scheduled at once per iteration. The sequential scheme offers a significantly lower message passing complexity compared to flooding IPA on average, and for some measurement matrix and signal sparsity, a complexity reduction of 36% is achieved. We show both analytically and numerically that the reconstruction accuracy of the IPA is not compromised by adopting our sequential scheduling approach.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2024

Global dense vector representations for words or items using shared parameter alternating Tweedie model

In this article, we present a model for analyzing the cooccurrence count data derived from practical fields such as user-item or item-item data from online shopping platform, cooccurring word-word pairs in sequences of texts. Such data contain important information for developing recommender systems or studying relevance of items or words from non-numerical sources. Different from traditional regression models, there are no observations for covariates. Additionally, the cooccurrence matrix is typically of so high dimension that it does not fit into a computer's memory for modeling. We extract numerical data by defining windows of cooccurrence using weighted count on the continuous scale. Positive probability mass is allowed for zero observations. We present Shared parameter Alternating Tweedie (SA-Tweedie) model and an algorithm to estimate the parameters. We introduce a learning rate adjustment used along with the Fisher scoring method in the inner loop to help the algorithm stay on track of optimizing direction. Gradient descent with Adam update was also considered as an alternative method for the estimation. Simulation studies and an application showed that our algorithm with Fisher scoring and learning rate adjustment outperforms the other two methods. Pseudo-likelihood approach with alternating parameter update was also studied. Numerical studies showed that the pseudo-likelihood approach is not suitable in our shared parameter alternating regression models with unobserved covariates.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2024

Matrix factorization and prediction for high dimensional co-occurrence count data via shared parameter alternating zero inflated Gamma model

High-dimensional sparse matrix data frequently arise in various applications. A notable example is the weighted word-word co-occurrence count data, which summarizes the weighted frequency of word pairs appearing within the same context window. This type of data typically contains highly skewed non-negative values with an abundance of zeros. Another example is the co-occurrence of item-item or user-item pairs in e-commerce, which also generates high-dimensional data. The objective is to utilize this data to predict the relevance between items or users. In this paper, we assume that items or users can be represented by unknown dense vectors. The model treats the co-occurrence counts as arising from zero-inflated Gamma random variables and employs cosine similarity between the unknown vectors to summarize item-item relevance. The unknown values are estimated using the shared parameter alternating zero-inflated Gamma regression models (SA-ZIG). Both canonical link and log link models are considered. Two parameter updating schemes are proposed, along with an algorithm to estimate the unknown parameters. Convergence analysis is presented analytically. Numerical studies demonstrate that the SA-ZIG using Fisher scoring without learning rate adjustment may fail to fi nd the maximum likelihood estimate. However, the SA-ZIG with learning rate adjustment performs satisfactorily in our simulation studies.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2024

Hybrid quantum-classical approach for combinatorial problems at hadron colliders

In recent years, quantum computing has drawn significant interest within the field of high-energy physics. We explore the potential of quantum algorithms to resolve the combinatorial problems in particle physics experiments. As a concrete example, we consider top quark pair production in the fully hadronic channel at the Large Hadron Collider. We investigate the performance of various quantum algorithms such as the Quantum Approximation Optimization Algorithm (QAOA), a feedback-based algorithm (FALQON) and a variational quantum imaginary time evolution algorithm (VarQITE). We demonstrate that the efficiency for selecting the correct pairing is greatly improved by utilizing quantum algorithms over conventional kinematic methods. Furthermore, we observe that gate-based universal quantum algorithms perform on par with machine learning techniques and either surpass or match the effectiveness of quantum annealers. Our findings reveal that quantum algorithms not only provide a substantial increase in matching efficiency but also exhibit adaptability and the potential for scalability, making them promising candidates for a variety of high-energy physics applications, as quantum hardware technology matures. Moreover, quantum algorithms eliminate the extensive training processes needed by classical machine learning methods, enabling real-time adjustments based on individual event data.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2024

No Analog Combiner TTD-based Hybrid Precoding for Multi-User Sub-THz Communications

We address the design and optimization of real-world-suitable hybrid precoders for multi-user wideband sub-terahertz (sub-THz) communications. We note that the conventional fully connected true-time delay (TTD)-based architecture is impractical because there is no room for the required large number of analog signal combiners in the circuit board. Additionally, analog signal combiners incur significant signal power loss. These limitations are often overlooked in sub-THz research. To overcome these issues, we study a non-overlapping subarray architecture that eliminates the need for analog combiners. We extend the conventional single-user assumption by formulating an optimization problem to maximize the minimum data rate for simultaneously served users. This complex optimization problem is divided into two sub-problems. The first sub-problem aims to ensure a fair subarray allocation for all users and is solved via a continuous domain relaxation technique. The second sub-problem deals with practical TTD device constraints on range and resolution to maximize the subarray gain and is resolved by shifting to the phase domain. Our simulation results highlight significant performance gain for our real-world-ready TTD-based hybrid precoders.

eess.SP↗