arXiv subjects

Xiaojun Yuan

Publications and source records attributed to Xiaojun Yuan.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources

arXiv2021

CSIT-Free Model Aggregation for Federated Edge Learning via Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface

We study over-the-air model aggregation in federated edge learning (FEEL) systems, where channel state information at the transmitters (CSIT) is assumed to be unavailable. We leverage the reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) technology to align the cascaded channel coefficients for CSIT-free model aggregation. To this end, we jointly optimize the RIS and the receiver by minimizing the aggregation error under the channel alignment constraint. We then develop a difference-of-convex algorithm for the resulting non-convex optimization. Numerical experiments on image classification show that the proposed method is able to achieve a similar learning accuracy as the state-of-the-art CSIT-based solution, demonstrating the efficiency of our approach in combating the lack of CSIT.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2021

Sparse Kronecker-Product Coding for Unsourced Multiple Access

In this paper, a sparse Kronecker-product (SKP) coding scheme is proposed for unsourced multiple access. Specifically, the data of each active user is encoded as the Kronecker product of two component codewords with one being sparse and the other being forward-error-correction (FEC) coded. At the receiver, an iterative decoding algorithm is developed, consisting of matrix factorization for the decomposition of the Kronecker product and soft-in soft-out decoding for the component sparse code and the FEC code. The cyclic redundancy check (CRC) aided interference cancellation technique is further incorporated for performance improvement. Numerical results show that the proposed scheme outperforms the state-of-the-art counterparts, and approaches the random coding bound within a gap of only 0.1 dB at the code length of 30000 when the number of active users is less than 75, and the error rate can be made very small even if the number of active users is relatively large.

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arXiv2021

Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface Enabled Federated Learning: A Unified Communication-Learning Design Approach

To exploit massive amounts of data generated at mobile edge networks, federated learning (FL) has been proposed as an attractive substitute for centralized machine learning (ML). By collaboratively training a shared learning model at edge devices, FL avoids direct data transmission and thus overcomes high communication latency and privacy issues as compared to centralized ML. To improve the communication efficiency in FL model aggregation, over-the-air computation has been introduced to support a large number of simultaneous local model uploading by exploiting the inherent superposition property of wireless channels. However, due to the heterogeneity of communication capacities among edge devices, over-the-air FL suffers from the straggler issue in which the device with the weakest channel acts as a bottleneck of the model aggregation performance. This issue can be alleviated by device selection to some extent, but the latter still suffers from a tradeoff between data exploitation and model communication. In this paper, we leverage the reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) technology to relieve the straggler issue in over-the-air FL. Specifically, we develop a learning analysis framework to quantitatively characterize the impact of device selection and model aggregation error on the convergence of over-the-air FL. Then, we formulate a unified communication-learning optimization problem to jointly optimize device selection, over-the-air transceiver design, and RIS configuration. Numerical experiments show that the proposed design achieves substantial learning accuracy improvement compared with the state-of-the-art approaches, especially when channel conditions vary dramatically across edge devices.

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arXiv2021

Joint Beamforming and Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface Design for Two-Way Relay Networks

In this paper, we consider a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted two-way relay network, in which two users exchange information through the base station (BS) with the help of an RIS. By jointly designing the phase shifts at the RIS and beamforming matrix at the BS, our objective is to maximize the minimum signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the two users, under the transmit power constraint at the BS. We first consider the single-antenna BS case, and propose two algorithms to design the RIS phase shifts and the BS power amplification parameter, namely the SNR-upper-bound-maximization (SUM) method, and genetic-SNR-maximization (GSM) method. When there are multiple antennas at the BS, the optimization problem can be approximately addressed by successively solving two decoupled subproblems, one to optimize the RIS phase shifts, the other to optimize the BS beamforming matrix. The first subproblem can be solved by using SUM or GSM method, while the second subproblem can be solved by using optimized beamforming or maximum-ratio-beamforming method. The proposed algorithms have been verified through numerical results with computational complexity analysis.

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arXiv2021

Hierarchical Passive Beamforming for Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface Aided Communications

In reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) aided communications, the existing passive beamforming (PB) design involves polynomial complexity in the number of reflecting elements, and thus is difficult to implement due to a massive number of reflecting elements. To overcome this difficulty, we propose a reflection-angle-based cascaded channel model by adopting the generalized Snell's law, in which the dimension of the variable space involved in optimization is significantly reduced, resulting in a simplified hierarchical passive beamforming (HPB) design. We develop an efficient two-stage HPB algorithm, which exploits the angular domain property of the channel, to maximize the achievable rate of the target user. Simulation results demonstrate the appealing performance and low complexity of the proposed HPB design.

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arXiv2021

MIMO-OFDM-Based Massive Connectivity With Frequency Selectivity Compensation

In this paper, we study how to efficiently and reliably detect active devices and estimate their channels in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) based grant-free non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) system to enable massive machine-type communications (mMTC). First, by exploiting the correlation of the channel frequency responses in narrow-band mMTC, we propose a block-wise linear channel model. Specifically, the continuous OFDM subcarriers in the narrow-band are divided into several sub-blocks and a linear function with only two variables (mean and slope) is used to approximate the frequency-selective channel in each sub-block. This significantly reduces the number of variables to be determined in channel estimation and the sub-block number can be adjusted to reliably compensate the channel frequency-selectivity. Second, we formulate the joint active device detection and channel estimation in the block-wise linear system as a Bayesian inference problem. By exploiting the block-sparsity of the channel matrix, we develop an efficient turbo message passing (Turbo-MP) algorithm to resolve the Bayesian inference problem with near-linear complexity. We further incorporate machine learning approaches into Turbo-MP to learn unknown prior parameters. Numerical results demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed algorithm over state-of-the-art algorithms.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2021

Temporal-Structure-Assisted Gradient Aggregation for Over-the-Air Federated Edge Learning

In this paper, we investigate over-the-air model aggregation in a federated edge learning (FEEL) system. We introduce a Markovian probability model to characterize the intrinsic temporal structure of the model aggregation series. With this temporal probability model, we formulate the model aggregation problem as to infer the desired aggregated update given all the past observations from a Bayesian perspective. We develop a message passing based algorithm, termed temporal-structure-assisted gradient aggregation (TSA-GA), to fulfil this estimation task with low complexity and near-optimal performance. We further establish the state evolution (SE) analysis to characterize the behaviour of the proposed TSA-GA algorithm, and derive an explicit bound of the expected loss reduction of the FEEL system under certain standard regularity conditions. In addition, we develop an expectation maximization (EM) strategy to learn the unknown parameters in the Markovian model. We show that the proposed TSAGA algorithm significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art, and is able to achieve comparable learning performance as the error-free benchmark in terms of both convergence rate and final test accuracy.

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arXiv2021

Semi-Blind Cascaded Channel Estimation for Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface Aided Massive MIMO

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) is envisioned to be a promising green technology to reduce the energy consumption and improve the coverage and spectral efficiency of massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless networks. In a RIS-aided MIMO system, the acquisition of channel state information (CSI) is important for achieving passive beamforming gains of the RIS, but is also challenging due to the cascaded property of the transmitter-RIS-receiver channel and the lack of signal processing capability of the passive RIS elements. The state-of-the-art approach for CSI acquisition in such a system is a pure training-based strategy that depends on a long sequence of pilot symbols. In this paper, we investigate semi-blind cascaded channel estimation for RIS-aided massive MIMO systems, in which the receiver simultaneously estimates the channel coefficients and the partially unknown transmit signal with a small number of pilot sequences. Specifically, we formulate the semi-blind cascaded channel estimation as a trilinear matrix factorization task. Under the Bayesian inference framework, we develop a computationally efficient iterative algorithm using the approximate message passing principle to resolve the trilinear inference problem. Meanwhile, we present an analytical framework to characterize the theoretical performance bound of the proposed approach in the large-system limit via the replica method developed in statistical physics. Extensive simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed semi-blind cascaded channel estimation algorithm.

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arXiv2021

Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface for Massive Connectivity

With the rapid development of Internet of Things (IoT), massive machine-type communication has become a promising application scenario, where a large number of devices transmit sporadically to a base station (BS). Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) has been recently proposed as an innovative new technology to achieve energy efficiency and coverage enhancement by establishing favorable signal propagation environments, thereby improving data transmission in massive connectivity. Nevertheless, the BS needs to detect active devices and estimate channels to support data transmission in RIS-assisted massive access systems, which yields unique challenges. This paper shall consider an RIS-assisted uplink IoT network and aims to solve the RIS-related activity detection and channel estimation problem, where the BS detects the active devices and estimates the separated channels of the RIS-to-device link and the RIS-to-BS link. Due to limited scattering between the RIS and the BS, we model the RIS-to-BS channel as a sparse channel. As a result, by simultaneously exploiting both the sparsity of sporadic transmission in massive connectivity and the RIS-to-BS channels, we formulate the RIS-related activity detection and channel estimation problem as a sparse matrix factorization problem. Furthermore, we develop an approximate message passing (AMP) based algorithm to solve the problem based on Bayesian inference framework and reduce the computational complexity by approximating the algorithm with the central limit theorem and Taylor series arguments. Finally, extensive numerical experiments are conducted to verify the effectiveness and improvements of the proposed algorithm.

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arXiv2021

Deep-Learned Approximate Message Passing for Asynchronous Massive Connectivity

This paper considers the massive connectivity problem in an asynchronous grant-free random access system, where a huge number of devices sporadically transmit data to a base station (BS) with imperfect synchronization. The goal is to design algorithms for joint user activity detection, delay detection, and channel estimation. By exploiting the sparsity on both user activity and delays, we formulate a hierarchical sparse signal recovery problem in both the single-antenna and the multiple-antenna scenarios. While traditional compressed sensing algorithms can be applied to these problems, they suffer high computational complexity and often require the perfect statistical information of channel and devices. This paper solves these problems by designing the Learned Approximate Message Passing (LAMP) network, which belongs to model-driven deep learning approaches and ensures efficient performance without tremendous training data. Particularly, in the multiple-antenna scenario, we design three different LAMP structures, namely, distributed, centralized and hybrid ones, to balance the performance and complexity. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed LAMP networks can significantly outperform the conventional AMP method thanks to their ability of parameter learning. It is also shown that LAMP has robust performance to the maximal delay spread of the asynchronous users.

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arXiv2020

Denoising-based Turbo Message Passing for Compressed Video Background Subtraction

In this paper, we consider the compressed video background subtraction problem that separates the background and foreground of a video from its compressed measurements. The background of a video usually lies in a low dimensional space and the foreground is usually sparse. More importantly, each video frame is a natural image that has textural patterns. By exploiting these properties, we develop a message passing algorithm termed offline denoising-based turbo message passing (DTMP). We show that these structural properties can be efficiently handled by the existing denoising techniques under the turbo message passing framework. We further extend the DTMP algorithm to the online scenario where the video data is collected in an online manner. The extension is based on the similarity/continuity between adjacent video frames. We adopt the optical flow method to refine the estimation of the foreground. We also adopt the sliding window based background estimation to reduce complexity. By exploiting the Gaussianity of messages, we develop the state evolution to characterize the per-iteration performance of offline and online DTMP. Comparing to the existing algorithms, DTMP can work at much lower compression rates, and can subtract the background successfully with a lower mean squared error and better visual quality for both offline and online compressed video background subtraction.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2020

Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface Aided Constant-Envelope Wireless Power Transfer

By reconfiguring the propagation environment of electromagnetic waves artificially, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) have been regarded as a promising and revolutionary hardware technology to improve the energy and spectrum efficiency of wireless networks. In this paper, we study a RIS aided multiuser multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless power transfer (WPT) system, where the transmitter is equipped with a constant-envelope analog beamformer. First, we maximize the total received power of the users by jointly optimizing the beamformer at transmitter and the phase-shifts at the RIS, and propose two alternating optimization based suboptimal solutions by leveraging the semidefinite relaxation (SDR) and the successive convex approximation (SCA) techniques respectively. Then, considering the user fairness, we formulate another problem to maximize the total received power subject to the users' individual minimum received power constraints. A low complexity iterative algorithm based on both alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) and SCA techniques is proposed to solve this problem. In the case of multiple users, we further analyze the asymptotic performance as the number of RIS elements approaches infinity, and bound the performance loss caused by RIS phase quantization. Numerical results show the correctness of the analysis results and the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.

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arXiv2020

The Age-related Differences in Web Information Search Process

Older adults' need for quality health information has never been more critical as during the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, they are susceptible to the wide-spread misinformation disseminated through search engines and social media. To build a search-related behavioral profile of older adults, this article surveys the empirical research on age-related differences in query formulation, search strategies, information evaluation, and susceptibility to misinformation effects. It also decomposes the mechanisms (i.e., cognitive changes, development goal shift) and moderators (i.e., search task and interface design) of such differences. To inform the design of information systems to improve older adults' information search experience, we discuss opportunities for future research.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2020

Intelligent Reflecting Surface-Assisted Millimeter Wave Communications: Joint Active and Passive Precoding Design

Millimeter wave (MmWave) communications is capable of supporting multi-gigabit wireless access thanks to its abundant spectrum resource. However, the severe path loss and high directivity make it vulnerable to blockage events, which can be frequent in indoor and dense urban environments. To address this issue, in this paper, we introduce intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) as a new technology to provide effective reflected paths to enhance coverage of mmWave signals. In this framework, we study joint active and passive precoding design for IRS-assisted mmWave systems, where multiple IRSs are deployed to assist the data transmission from a base station (BS) to a single-antenna receiver. Our objective is to maximize the received signal power by jointly optimizing the transmit precoding vector at the BS and the phase shift parameters used by IRSs for passive beamforming. Although such an optimization problem is generally non-convex, we show that, by exploiting some important characteristics of mmWave channels, an optimal closed-form solution can be derived for the single IRS case and a near-optimal analytical solution can be obtained for the multi-IRS case. Our analysis reveals that the received signal power increases quadratically with the number of reflecting elements for both the single IRS and multi-IRS cases. Simulation results are included to verify the optimality and near-optimality of our proposed solutions. Results also show that IRSs can help create effective virtual LOS paths and thus substantially improve robustness against blockages in mmWave communications.

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arXiv2020

An Overview on Multiway Relay Communications: Fundamental Issues, Recent Advances, and New Challenges

To address the coverage and capacity challenges in fifth-generation (5G) wireless networks, the relay technique has been considered as a promising solution and recently attracted great attentions from academia. The multiway relay channel (mRC), which serves as a fundamental building block of a relay network, defines the family of all possible information-flow patterns between a relay node and its neighboring nodes. Combined with several new techniques, such as physical-layer network coding (PLNC), signal and interference alignments, multi-input multi-output (MIMO), etc., the mRC exhibits superior capability to assist multiuser information exchange. In this article, we aim to provide a comprehensive overview on the state-of-the-art of the mRC from the perspectives of both information-theoretic and communication-theoretic studies. The key results are summarized and discussed to identify the current research progress of the mRC. Open problems and research challenges are also discussed to spur future research towards the mRC.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2020

Reconfigurable-Intelligent-Surface Empowered Wireless Communications: Challenges and Opportunities

Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) are regarded as a promising emerging hardware technology to improve the spectrum and energy efficiency of wireless networks by artificially reconfiguring the propagation environment of electromagnetic waves. Due to the unique advantages in enhancing wireless channel capacity, RISs have recently become a hot research topic. In this article, we focus on three fundamental physical-layer challenges for the incorporation of RISs into wireless networks, namely, channel state information acquisition, passive information transfer, and low-complexity robust system design. We summarize the state-of-the-art solutions and explore potential research directions. Furthermore, we discuss other promising research directions of RISs, including edge intelligence and physical-layer security.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2020

Matrix-Calibration-Based Cascaded Channel Estimation for Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface Assisted Multiuser MIMO

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) is envisioned to be an essential component of the paradigm for beyond 5G networks as it can potentially provide similar or higher array gains with much lower hardware cost and energy consumption compared with the massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology. In this paper, we focus on one of the fundamental challenges, namely the channel acquisition, in an RIS-assisted multiuser MIMO system. The state-of-the-art channel acquisition approach in such a system with fully passive RIS elements estimates the cascaded transmitter-to-RIS and RIS-to-receiver channels by adopting excessively long training sequences. To estimate the cascaded channels with an affordable training overhead, we formulate the channel estimation problem in the RIS-assisted multiuser MIMO system as a matrix-calibration based matrix factorization task. By exploiting the information on the slow-varying channel components and the hidden channel sparsity, we propose a novel message-passing based algorithm to factorize the cascaded channels. Furthermore, we present an analytical framework to characterize the theoretical performance bound of the proposed estimator in the large-system limit. Finally, we conduct simulations to verify the high accuracy and efficiency of the proposed algorithm.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2020

Joint User Identification, Channel Estimation, and Signal Detection for Grant-Free NOMA

For massive machine-type communications, centralized control may incur a prohibitively high overhead. Grant-free non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) provides possible solutions, yet poses new challenges for efficient receiver design. In this paper, we develop a joint user identification, channel estimation, and signal detection (JUICESD) algorithm. We divide the whole detection scheme into two modules: slot-wise multi-user detection (SMD) and combined signal and channel estimation (CSCE). SMD is designed to decouple the transmissions of different users by leveraging the approximate message passing (AMP) algorithms, and CSCE is designed to deal with the nonlinear coupling of activity state, channel coefficient and transmit signal of each user separately. To address the problem that the exact calculation of the messages exchanged within CSCE and between the two modules is complicated due to phase ambiguity issues, this paper proposes a rotationally invariant Gaussian mixture (RIGM) model, and develops an efficient JUICESD-RIGM algorithm. JUICESD-RIGM achieves a performance close to JUICESD with a much lower complexity. Capitalizing on the feature of RIGM, we further analyze the performance of JUICESD-RIGM with state evolution techniques. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed algorithms achieve a significant performance improvement over the existing alternatives, and the derived state evolution method predicts the system performance accurately.

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