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Xu Zhu

Publications and source records attributed to Xu Zhu.

50 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Performance Analysis of OTSM under Hardware Impairments and Imperfect CSI

Orthogonal time sequency multiplexing (OTSM) has been recently proposed as a single-carrier waveform offering similar bit error rate to orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS) and outperforms orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) in doubly-spread channels (DSCs); however, with a much lower complexity making it a potential candidate for 6G wireless networks. In this paper, the performance of OTSM is explored by considering the joint effects of multiple hardware impairments (HWIs) such as in-phase and quadrature imbalance (IQI), direct current offset (DCO), phase noise, power amplifier non-linearity, carrier frequency offset, and synchronization timing offset for the first time in the area. First, the discrete-time baseband signal model is obtained in vector form under all mentioned HWIs. Second, the system input-output relations are derived in time, delay-time, and delay-sequency (DS) domains in which the parameters of all mentioned HWIs are incorporated. Third, analytical expressions are derived for the pairwise and average bit error probability under imperfect channel state information (CSI) as a function of the parameters of all mentioned HWIs. Analytical results demonstrate that under all mentioned HWIs, noise stays additive white Gaussian, effective channel matrix is sparse, DCO appears as a DC signal at the receiver interfering with only the zero sequency, and IQI redounds to self-conjugated sequency interference in the DS domain. Simulation results reveal the fact that by considering the joint effects of all mentioned HWIs and imperfect CSI not only OTSM outperforms OFDM by 29% in terms of energy of bit per noise but it performs same as OTFS in high mobility DSCs.

cs.IT↗

Risk-Aware and Energy-Efficient AoI Optimization for Multi-Connectivity WNCS with Short Packet Transmissions

Age of Information (AoI) has been proposed to quantify the freshness of information for emerging real-time applications such as remote monitoring and control in wireless networked control systems (WNCSs). Minimization of the average AoI and its outage probability can ensure timely and stable transmission. Energy efficiency (EE) also plays an important role in WNCSs, as many devices are featured by low cost and limited battery. Multi-connectivity over multiple links enables a decrease in AoI, at the cost of energy. We tackle the unresolved problem of selecting the optimal number of connections that is both AoI-optimal and energy-efficient, while avoiding risky states. To address this issue, the average AoI and peak AoI (PAoI), as well as PAoI violation probability are formulated as functions of the number of connections. Then the EE-PAoI ratio is introduced to allow a tradeoff between AoI and energy, which is maximized by the proposed risk-aware, AoI-optimal and energy-efficient connectivity scheme. To obtain this, we analyze the property of the formulated EE-PAoI ratio and prove the monotonicity of PAoI violation probability. Interestingly, we reveal that the multi-connectivity scheme is not always preferable, and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) threshold that determines the selection of the multi-connectivity scheme is derived as a function of the coding rate. Also, the optimal number of connections is obtained and shown to be a decreasing function of the transmit power. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme enables more than 15 folds of EE-PAoI gain at the low SNR than the single-connectivity scheme.

cs.IT↗

Goal-Oriented Integration of Sensing, Communication, Computing, and Control for Mission-Critical Internet-of-Things

Driven by the development goal of network paradigm and demand for various functions in the sixth-generation (6G) mission-critical Internet-of-Things (MC-IoT), we foresee a goal-oriented integration of sensing, communication, computing, and control (GIS3C) in this paper. We first provide an overview of the tasks, requirements, and challenges of MC-IoT. Then we introduce an end-to-end GIS3C architecture, in which goal-oriented communication is leveraged to bridge and empower sensing, communication, control, and computing functionalities. By revealing the interplay among multiple subsystems in terms of key performance indicators and parameters, this paper introduces unified metrics, i.e., task completion effectiveness and cost, to facilitate S3C co-design in MC-IoT. The preliminary results demonstrate the benefits of GIS3C in improving task completion effectiveness while reducing costs. We also identify and highlight the gaps and challenges in applying GIS3C in the future 6G networks.

cs.NI↗

Towards Structural Sparse Precoding: Dynamic Time, Frequency, Space, and Power Multistage Resource Programming

In last decades, dynamic resource programming in partial resource domains has been extensively investigated for single time slot optimizations. However, with the emerging real-time media applications in fifth-generation communications, their new quality of service requirements are often measured in temporal dimension. This requires multistage optimization for full resource domain dynamic programming. Taking experience rate as a typical temporal multistage metric, we jointly optimize time, frequency, space and power domains resource for multistage optimization. To strike a good tradeoff between system performance and computational complexity, we first transform the formulated mixed integer non-linear constraints into equivalent convex second order cone constraints, by exploiting the coupling effect among the resources. Leveraging the concept of structural sparsity, the objective of max-min experience rate is given as a weighted 1-norm term associated with the precoding matrix. Finally, a low-complexity iterative algorithm is proposed for full resource domain programming, aided by another simple conic optimization for obtaining its feasible initial result. Simulation verifies that our design significantly outperform the benchmarks while maintaining a fast convergence rate, shedding light on full domain dynamic resource programming of multistage optimizations.

eess.SP↗

A dynamic combustion model for supersonic turbulent combustion

Supersonic combustion plays a vital role in various applications, including scramjets, dual-mode ramjets, and pulse detonation engines. However, the flame characteristics can vary significantly, depending on the application. To model supersonic combustion, large eddy simulation coupled with a partially stirred reactor (PaSR) is commonly used. This method assumes that reactions occur at turbulent fine flame structure in a computational cell, making it less effective for flames governed by not only turbulent mixing but also homogenous autoignition, which is common under supersonic flow. To address this limitation, this study proposes a novel dynamic combustion model to enable more versatile modeling of supersonic flames. The model utilizes a two-delta probability density function, which represents the sub-grid composition variation and models the filtered sub-grid reaction rate. The corresponding weights are dynamically modeled based on the level of cell composition inhomogeneity. The new dynamic model is tested in a supersonic combustion case study with a strut-cavity flame holder. Results demonstrate that the new dynamic model can properly recover the limits of supersonic flames that are primarily governed by homogenous autoignition and turbulent mixing.

physics.flu-dyn↗

DynamicRead: Exploring Robust Gaze Interaction Methods for Reading on Handheld Mobile Devices under Dynamic Conditions

Enabling gaze interaction in real-time on handheld mobile devices has attracted significant attention in recent years. An increasing number of research projects have focused on sophisticated appearance-based deep learning models to enhance the precision of gaze estimation on smartphones. This inspires important research questions, including how the gaze can be used in a real-time application, and what type of gaze interaction methods are preferable under dynamic conditions in terms of both user acceptance and delivering reliable performance. To address these questions, we design four types of gaze scrolling techniques: three explicit technique based on Gaze Gesture, Dwell time, and Pursuit; and one implicit technique based on reading speed to support touch-free, page-scrolling on a reading application. We conduct a 20-participant user study under both sitting and walking settings and our results reveal that Gaze Gesture and Dwell time-based interfaces are more robust while walking and Gaze Gesture has achieved consistently good scores on usability while not causing high cognitive workload.

cs.HC↗

A Hierarchical Hybrid Learning Framework for Multi-agent Trajectory Prediction

Accurate and robust trajectory prediction of neighboring agents is critical for autonomous vehicles traversing in complex scenes. Most methods proposed in recent years are deep learning-based due to their strength in encoding complex interactions. However, unplausible predictions are often generated since they rely heavily on past observations and cannot effectively capture the transient and contingency interactions from sparse samples. In this paper, we propose a hierarchical hybrid framework of deep learning (DL) and reinforcement learning (RL) for multi-agent trajectory prediction, to cope with the challenge of predicting motions shaped by multi-scale interactions. In the DL stage, the traffic scene is divided into multiple intermediate-scale heterogenous graphs based on which Transformer-style GNNs are adopted to encode heterogenous interactions at intermediate and global levels. In the RL stage, we divide the traffic scene into local sub-scenes utilizing the key future points predicted in the DL stage. To emulate the motion planning procedure so as to produce trajectory predictions, a Transformer-based Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) incorporated with a vehicle kinematics model is devised to plan motions under the dominant influence of microscopic interactions. A multi-objective reward is designed to balance between agent-centric accuracy and scene-wise compatibility. Experimental results show that our proposal matches the state-of-the-arts on the Argoverse forecasting benchmark. It's also revealed by the visualized results that the hierarchical learning framework captures the multi-scale interactions and improves the feasibility and compliance of the predicted trajectories.

cs.RO↗

Unresolved excess accumulation of myelin-derived cholesterol contributes to scar formation after spinal cord injury

Background: Spinal cord injury triggers complex pathological cascades, resulting in destructive tissue damage and incomplete tissue repair. Scar formation is generally considered as a barrier for regeneration in central nervous system (CNS), while the intrinsic mechanism of scar-forming after spinal cord injury has not been completed deciphered. Methods: We assessed cholesterol hemostasis in spinal cord lesions and injured peripheral nerves using confocal reflection microscopy and real-time PCR analyses. The involvement of the proteins, which were predicted to promote cholesterol efflux in spinal cord lesions, were assessed with Liver X receptor (LXR) agonist and Apolipoprotein E (APOE) deficiency. The role of reverse cholesterol transport (RCT) in cholesterol clearance was examined in APOE KO mice injured sciatic nerves and myelin-overloaded macrophages in vitro. Finally, we determined the consequence of excess cholesterol accumulation in CNS by transplantation of myelin into neonatal spinal cord lesions. Results: We found that excess cholesterol accumulates in phagocytes and is inefficiently removed in spinal cord lesions in young-adult mice. Interestingly, we observed that excessive cholesterol also accumulates in injured peripheral nerves, but is subsequently removed by RCT. Meanwhile, preventing RCT led to macrophage accumulation and fibrosis in injured peripheral nerves. Furthermore, the neonatal mouse spinal cord lesions are devoid of myelin-derived lipids, and able to heal without excess cholesterol accumulation. We found that transplantation of myelin into neonatal lesions disrupts healing with excessive cholesterol accumulation, persistent macrophage activation and fibrosis, indicating myelin-derived cholesterol plays a critical role in impaired wound healing.

q-bio.TO↗

Horizontal Layer Constrained Attention Neural Network for Semblance Velocity Picking

Semblance velocity analysis is a crucial step in seismic data processing. To avoid the huge time-cost when performed manually, some deep learning methods are proposed for automatic semblance velocity picking. However, the application of existing deep learning methods is still restricted by the shortage of labels in practice. In this letter, we propose an attention neural network combined with a point-to-point regression velocity picking strategy to mitigate this problem. In our method, semblance patch and velocity value are served as network input and output, respectively. In this way, global and local features hidden in semblance patch can be effectively extracted by attention neural network. A down-sampling strategy based on horizontal layer extraction is also designed to improve the picking efficiency in prediction process. Tests on synthetic and field datasets demonstrate that the proposed method can produce reasonable results and maintain global velocity trend consistent with labels. Besides, robustness against random noise is also tested on the field data.

physics.geo-ph↗

Toward UL-DL Rate Balancing: Joint Resource Allocation and Hybrid-Mode Multiple Access for UAV-BS Assisted Communication Systems

In this paper, we investigate unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) assisted communication systems that require quasi-balanced data rates in uplink (UL) and downlink (DL), as well as users' heterogeneous traffic. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work to explicitly investigate joint UL-DL optimization for UAV assisted systems under heterogeneous requirements. A hybrid-mode multiple access (HMMA) scheme is proposed toward heterogeneous traffic, where non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) targets high average data rate, while orthogonal multiple access (OMA) aims to meet users' instantaneous rate demands by compensating for their rates. HMMA enables a higher degree of freedom in multiple access and achieves a superior minimum average rate among users than the UAV assisted NOMA or OMA schemes. Under HMMA, a joint UL-DL resource allocation algorithm is proposed with a closed-form optimal solution for UL/DL power allocation to achieve quasi-balanced average rates for UL and DL. Furthermore, considering the error propagation in successive interference cancellation (SIC) of NOMA, an enhanced-HMMA scheme is proposed, which demonstrates high robustness against SIC error and a higher minimum average rate than the HMMA scheme.

eess.SP↗

A Semi-Blind Multiuser SIMO GFDM System in the Presence of CFOs and IQ Imbalances

In this paper, we investigate an open topic of a multiuser single-input-multiple-output (SIMO) generalized frequency division multiplexing (GFDM) system in the presence of carrier frequency offsets (CFOs) and in-phase/quadrature-phase (IQ) imbalances. A low-complexity semi-blind joint estimation scheme of multiple channels, CFOs and IQ imbalances is proposed. By utilizing the subspace approach, CFOs and channels corresponding to U users are first separated into U groups. For each individual user, CFO is extracted by minimizing the smallest eigenvalue whose corresponding eigenvector is utilized to estimate channel blindly. The IQ imbalance parameters are estimated jointly with channel ambiguities by very few pilots. The proposed scheme is feasible for a wider range of receive antennas number and has no constraints on the assignment scheme of subsymbols and subcarriers, modulation type, cyclic prefix length and the number of subsymbols per GFDM symbol. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme significantly outperforms the existing methods in terms of bit error rate, outage probability, mean-square-errors of CFO estimation, channel and IQ imbalance estimation, while at much higher spectral efficiency and lower computational complexity. The Cramer-Rao lower bound is derived to verify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme, which is shown to be close to simulation results.

eess.SP↗

A Content Driven Resource Allocation Scheme for Video Transmission in Vehicular Networks

With the growing computer vision applications, lots of videos are transmitted for content analysis, the way to allocate resources can affect the performance of video content analysis. For this purpose, the traditional resource allocation schemes for video transmission in vehicular networks, such as qualityof-service (QoS) based or quality-of-experience (QoE) based schemes, are no longer optimal anymore. In this paper, we propose an efficient content driven resource allocation scheme for vehicles equipped with cameras under bandwidth constraints in order to improve the video content analysis performance. The proposed resource allocation scheme is based on maximizing the quality-of-content (QoC), which is related to the content analysis performance. A QoC based assessment model is first proposed. Then, the resource allocation problem is converted to a solvable convex optimization problem. Finally, simulation results show the better performance of our proposed scheme than the existing schemes like QoE based schemes.

cs.NI↗

Stochastic Lipschitz Q-Learning

In an episodic Markov Decision Process (MDP) problem, an online algorithm chooses from a set of actions in a sequence of $H$ trials, where $H$ is the episode length, in order to maximize the total payoff of the chosen actions. Q-learning, as the most popular model-free reinforcement learning (RL) algorithm, directly parameterizes and updates value functions without explicitly modeling the environment. Recently, [Jin et al. 2018] studies the sample complexity of Q-learning with finite states and actions. Their algorithm achieves nearly optimal regret, which shows that Q-learning can be made sample efficient. However, MDPs with large discrete states and actions [Silver et al. 2016] or continuous spaces [Mnih et al. 2013] cannot learn efficiently in this way. Hence, it is critical to develop new algorithms to solve this dilemma with provable guarantee on the sample complexity. With this motivation, we propose a novel algorithm that works for MDPs with a more general setting, which has infinitely many states and actions and assumes that the payoff function and transition kernel are Lipschitz continuous. We also provide corresponding theory justification for our algorithm. It achieves the regret $\tilde{\mathcal{O}}(K^{\frac{d+1}{d+2}}\sqrt{H^3}),$ where $K$ denotes the number of episodes and $d$ denotes the dimension of the joint space. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first analysis in the model-free setting whose established regret matches the lower bound up to a logarithmic factor.

cs.LG↗

Lipschitz Bandit Optimization with Improved Efficiency

We consider the Lipschitz bandit optimization problem with an emphasis on practical efficiency. Although there is rich literature on regret analysis of this type of problem, e.g., [Kleinberg et al. 2008, Bubeck et al. 2011, Slivkins 2014], their proposed algorithms suffer from serious practical problems including extreme time complexity and dependence on oracle implementations. With this motivation, we propose a novel algorithm with an Upper Confidence Bound (UCB) exploration, namely Tree UCB-Hoeffding, using adaptive partitions. Our partitioning scheme is easy to implement and does not require any oracle settings. With a tree-based search strategy, the total computational cost can be improved to $\mathcal{O}(T\log T)$ for the first $T$ iterations. In addition, our algorithm achieves the regret lower bound up to a logarithmic factor.

cs.LG↗