arXiv subjects

Yin Sun

Publications and source records attributed to Yin Sun.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2024

Learning and Communications Co-Design for Remote Inference Systems: Feature Length Selection and Transmission Scheduling

In this paper, we consider a remote inference system, where a neural network is used to infer a time-varying target (e.g., robot movement), based on features (e.g., video clips) that are progressively received from a sensing node (e.g., a camera). Each feature is a temporal sequence of sensory data. The inference error is determined by (i) the timeliness and (ii) the sequence length of the feature, where we use Age of Information (AoI) as a metric for timeliness. While a longer feature can typically provide better inference performance, it often requires more channel resources for sending the feature. To minimize the time-averaged inference error, we study a learning and communication co-design problem that jointly optimizes feature length selection and transmission scheduling. When there is a single sensor-predictor pair and a single channel, we develop low-complexity optimal co-designs for both the cases of time-invariant and time-variant feature length. When there are multiple sensor-predictor pairs and multiple channels, the co-design problem becomes a restless multi-arm multi-action bandit problem that is PSPACE-hard. For this setting, we design a low-complexity algorithm to solve the problem. Trace-driven evaluations demonstrate the potential of these co-designs to reduce inference error by up to 10000 times.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2024

Timely Communications for Remote Inference

In this paper, we analyze the impact of data freshness on remote inference systems, where a pre-trained neural network blue infers a time-varying target (e.g., the locations of vehicles and pedestrians) based on features (e.g., video frames) observed at a sensing node (e.g., a camera). One might expect that the performance of a remote inference system degrades monotonically as the feature becomes stale. Using an information-theoretic analysis, we show that this is true if the feature and target data sequence can be closely approximated as a Markov chain, whereas it is not true if the data sequence is far from being Markovian. Hence, the inference error is a function of Age of Information (AoI), where the function could be non-monotonic. To minimize the inference error in real-time, we propose a new "selection-from-buffer" model for sending the features, which is more general than the "generate-at-will" model used in earlier studies. In addition, we design low-complexity scheduling policies to improve inference performance. For single-source, single-channel systems, we provide an optimal scheduling policy. In multi-source, multi-channel systems, the scheduling problem becomes a multi-action restless multi-armed bandit problem. For this setting, we design a new scheduling policy by integrating Whittle index-based source selection and duality-based feature selection-from-buffer algorithms. This new scheduling policy is proven to be asymptotically optimal. These scheduling results hold for minimizing general AoI functions (monotonic or non-monotonic). Data-driven evaluations demonstrate the significant advantages of our proposed scheduling policies.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2024

Model-Free Change Point Detection for Mixing Processes

This paper considers the change point detection problem under dependent samples. In particular, we provide performance guarantees for the MMD-CUSUM test under exponentially $α$, $β$, and fast $ϕ$-mixing processes, which significantly expands its utility beyond the i.i.d. and Markovian cases used in previous studies. We obtain lower bounds for average-run-length (ARL) and upper bounds for average-detection-delay (ADD) in terms of the threshold parameter. We show that the MMD-CUSUM test enjoys the same level of performance as the i.i.d. case under fast $ϕ$-mixing processes. The MMD-CUSUM test also achieves strong performance under exponentially $α$/$β$-mixing processes, which are significantly more relaxed than existing results. The MMD-CUSUM test statistic adapts to different settings without modifications, rendering it a completely data-driven, dependence-agnostic change point detection scheme. Numerical simulations are provided at the end to evaluate our findings.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2024

Remote Estimation of Gauss-Markov Processes over Multiple Channels: A Whittle Index Policy

We study a sampling and transmission scheduling problem for multi-source remote estimation, where a scheduler determines when to take samples from multiple continuous-time Gauss-Markov processes and send the samples over multiple channels to remote estimators. The sample transmission times are i.i.d. across samples and channels. The objective of the scheduler is to minimize the weighted sum of the time-average expected estimation errors of these Gauss-Markov sources. This problem is a continuous-time Restless Multi-armed Bandit (RMAB) problem with a continuous state space. We prove that the bandits are indexable and derive an exact expression of the Whittle index. To the extent of our knowledge, this is the first Whittle index policy for multi-source signal-aware remote estimation of Gauss-Markov processes. Our results unite two theoretical frameworks that were used for remote estimation and AoI minimization: threshold-based sampling and Whittle index-based scheduling. In the single-source, single-channel scenario, we demonstrate that the optimal solution to the sampling and scheduling problem can be equivalently expressed as both a threshold-based sampling strategy and a Whittle index-based scheduling policy. Notably, the Whittle index is equal to zero if and only if two conditions are satisfied: (i) the channel is idle, and (ii) the estimation error is precisely equal to the threshold in the threshold-based sampling strategy. Moreover, the methodology employed to derive threshold-based sampling strategies in the single-source, single-channel scenario plays a crucial role in establishing indexability and evaluating the Whittle index in the more intricate multi-source, multi-channel scenario. Our numerical results show that the proposed policy achieves high-performance gain over the existing policies when some of the Gauss-Markov processes are highly unstable.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2024

On the Monotonicity of Information Aging

In this paper, we analyze the monotonicity of information aging in a remote estimation system, where historical observations of a Gaussian autoregressive AR(p) process are used to predict its future values. We consider two widely used loss functions in estimation: (i) logarithmic loss function for maximum likelihood estimation and (ii) quadratic loss function for MMSE estimation. The estimation error of the AR(p) process is written as a generalized conditional entropy which has closed-form expressions. By using a new information-theoretic tool called $ε$-Markov chain, we can evaluate the divergence of the AR(p) process from being a Markov chain. When the divergence $ε$ is large, the estimation error of the AR(p) process can be far from a non-decreasing function of the Age of Information (AoI). Conversely, for small divergence $ε$, the inference error is close to a non-decreasing AoI function. Each observation is a short sequence taken from the AR(p) process. As the observation sequence length increases, the parameter $ε$ progressively reduces to zero, and hence the estimation error becomes a non-decreasing AoI function. These results underscore a connection between the monotonicity of information aging and the divergence of from being a Markov chain.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2023

Closed-Form Solutions for Grid-Forming Converters: A Design-Oriented Study

This paper derives closed-form solutions for grid-forming converters with power synchronization control (PSC) by subtly simplifying and factorizing the complex closed-loop models. The solutions can offer clear analytical insights into control-loop interactions, enabling guidelines for robust controller design. It is proved that 1) the proportional gains of PSC and alternating voltage control (AVC) can introduce negative resistance, which aggravates synchronous resonance (SR) of power control, 2) the integral gain of AVC is the cause of sub-synchronous resonance (SSR) in stiff-grid interconnections, albeit the proportional gain of AVC can help dampen the SSR, and 3) surprisingly, the current controller that dampens SR actually exacerbates SSR. Controller design guidelines are given based on analytical insights. The findings are verified by simulations and experimental results.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2023

Sampling for Remote Estimation of the Wiener Process over an Unreliable Channel

In this paper, we study a sampling problem where a source takes samples from a Wiener process and transmits them through a wireless channel to a remote estimator. Due to channel fading, interference, and potential collisions, the packet transmissions are unreliable and could take random time durations. Our objective is to devise an optimal causal sampling policy that minimizes the long-term average mean square estimation error. This optimal sampling problem is a recursive optimal stopping problem, which is generally quite difficult to solve. However, we prove that the optimal sampling strategy is, in fact, a simple threshold policy where a new sample is taken whenever the instantaneous estimation error exceeds a threshold. This threshold remains a constant value that does not vary over time. By exploring the structure properties of the recursive optimal stopping problem, a low-complexity iterative algorithm is developed to compute the optimal threshold. This work generalizes previous research by incorporating both transmission errors and random transmission times into remote estimation. Numerical simulations are provided to compare our optimal policy with the zero-wait and age-optimal policies.

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arXiv2023

Context-aware Status Updating: Wireless Scheduling for Maximizing Situational Awareness in Safety-critical Systems

In this study, we investigate a context-aware status updating system consisting of multiple sensor-estimator pairs. A centralized monitor pulls status updates from multiple sensors that are monitoring several safety-critical situations (e.g., carbon monoxide density in forest fire detection, machine safety in industrial automation, and road safety). Based on the received sensor updates, multiple estimators determine the current safety-critical situations. Due to transmission errors and limited communication resources, the sensor updates may not be timely, resulting in the possibility of misunderstanding the current situation. In particular, if a dangerous situation is misinterpreted as safe, the safety risk is high. In this paper, we introduce a novel framework that quantifies the penalty due to the unawareness of a potentially dangerous situation. This situation-unaware penalty function depends on two key factors: the Age of Information (AoI) and the observed signal value. For optimal estimators, we provide an information-theoretic bound of the penalty function that evaluates the fundamental performance limit of the system. To minimize the penalty, we study a pull-based multi-sensor, multi-channel transmission scheduling problem. Our analysis reveals that for optimal estimators, it is always beneficial to keep the channels busy. Due to communication resource constraints, the scheduling problem can be modelled as a Restless Multi-armed Bandit (RMAB) problem. By utilizing relaxation and Lagrangian decomposition of the RMAB, we provide a low-complexity scheduling algorithm which is asymptotically optimal. Our results hold for both reliable and unreliable channels. Numerical evidence shows that our scheduling policy can achieve up to 100 times performance gain over periodic updating and up to 10 times over randomized policy.

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arXiv2023

Hoeffding's Inequality for Markov Chains under Generalized Concentrability Condition

This paper studies Hoeffding's inequality for Markov chains under the generalized concentrability condition defined via integral probability metric (IPM). The generalized concentrability condition establishes a framework that interpolates and extends the existing hypotheses of Markov chain Hoeffding-type inequalities. The flexibility of our framework allows Hoeffding's inequality to be applied beyond the ergodic Markov chains in the traditional sense. We demonstrate the utility by applying our framework to several non-asymptotic analyses arising from the field of machine learning, including (i) a generalization bound for empirical risk minimization with Markovian samples, (ii) a finite sample guarantee for Ployak-Ruppert averaging of SGD, and (iii) a new regret bound for rested Markovian bandits with general state space.

stat.ML↗

arXiv2023

Age-Optimal Multi-Flow Status Updating with Errors: A Sample-Path Approach

In this paper, we study an age of information minimization problem in continuous-time and discrete-time status updating systems that involve multiple packet flows, multiple servers, and transmission errors. Four scheduling policies are proposed. We develop a unifying sample-path approach and use it to show that, when the packet generation and arrival times are synchronized across the flows, the proposed policies are (near) optimal for minimizing any time-dependent, symmetric, and non-decreasing penalty function of the ages of the flows over time in a stochastic ordering sense.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2023

Near Delay-Optimal Scheduling of Batch Jobs in Multi-Server Systems

We study a class of scheduling problems, where each job is divided into a batch of unit-size tasks and these tasks can be executed in parallel on multiple servers with New-Better-than-Used (NBU) service time distributions. While many delay optimality results are available for single-server queueing systems, generalizing these results to the multi-server case has been challenging. This motivated us to investigate near delay-optimal scheduling of batch jobs in multi-server queueing systems. We consider three lowcomplexity scheduling policies: the Fewest Unassigned Tasks first (FUT) policy, the Earliest Due Date first (EDD) policy, and the First-Come, First-Served (FCFS) policy. We prove that for arbitrary number, batch sizes, arrival times, and due times of the jobs, these scheduling policies are near delay-optimal in stochastic ordering for minimizing three classes of delay metrics among all causal and non-preemptive policies. In particular, the FUT policy is within a constant additive delay gap from the optimum for minimizing the mean average delay, and the FCFS policy within twice of the optimum for minimizing the mean maximum delay and the mean p-norm of delay. The key proof tools are several novel samplepath orderings, which can be used to compare the sample-path delay of different policies in a near-optimal sense.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2022

Sampling of the Wiener Process for Remote Estimation over a Channel with Unknown Delay Statistics

In this paper, we study an online sampling problem of the Wiener process. The goal is to minimize the mean squared error (MSE) of the remote estimator under a sampling frequency constraint when the transmission delay distribution is unknown. The sampling problem is reformulated into an optional stopping problem, and we propose an online sampling algorithm that can adaptively learn the optimal stopping threshold through stochastic approximation. We prove that the cumulative MSE regret grows with rate $\mathcal{O}(\ln k)$, where $k$ is the number of samples. Through Le Cam's two point method, we show that the worst-case cumulative MSE regret of any online sampling algorithm is lower bounded by $Ω(\ln k)$. Hence, the proposed online sampling algorithm is minimax order-optimal. Finally, we validate the performance of the proposed algorithm via numerical simulations.

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arXiv2022

How Does Data Freshness Affect Real-time Supervised Learning?

In this paper, we analyze the impact of data freshness on real-time supervised learning, where a neural network is trained to infer a time-varying target (e.g., the position of the vehicle in front) based on features (e.g., video frames) observed at a sensing node (e.g., camera or lidar). One might expect that the performance of real-time supervised learning degrades monotonically as the feature becomes stale. Using an information-theoretic analysis, we show that this is true if the feature and target data sequence can be closely approximated as a Markov chain; it is not true if the data sequence is far from Markovian. Hence, the prediction error of real-time supervised learning is a function of the Age of Information (AoI), where the function could be non-monotonic. Several experiments are conducted to illustrate the monotonic and non-monotonic behaviors of the prediction error. To minimize the inference error in real-time, we propose a new "selection-from-buffer" model for sending the features, which is more general than the "generate-at-will" model used in earlier studies. By using Gittins and Whittle indices, low-complexity scheduling strategies are developed to minimize the inference error, where a new connection between the Gittins index theory and Age of Information (AoI) minimization is discovered. These scheduling results hold (i) for minimizing general AoI functions (monotonic or non-monotonic) and (ii) for general feature transmission time distributions. Data-driven evaluations are presented to illustrate the benefits of the proposed scheduling algorithms.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2022

Optimal Sampling for Data Freshness: Unreliable Transmissions with Random Two-way Delay

In this paper, we aim to design an optimal sampler for a system in which fresh samples of a signal (source) are sent through an unreliable channel to a remote estimator, and acknowledgments are sent back over a feedback channel. Both the forward and feedback channels could have random transmission times due to time varying channel conditions. Motivated by distributed sensing, the estimator can estimate the real-time value of the source signal by combining the signal samples received through the channel and the noisy signal observations collected from a local sensor. We prove that the estimation error is a non-decreasing function of the Age of Information (AoI) for the received signal samples and design an optimal sampling strategy that minimizes the long-term average estimation error subject to a sampling rate constraint. The sampling strategy is also optimal for minimizing the long-term average of general non-decreasing functions of the AoI. The optimal sampler design follows a randomized threshold strategy: If the last transmission was successful, the source waits until the expected estimation error upon delivery exceeds a threshold and then sends out a new sample. If the last transmission fails, the source immediately sends out a new sample without waiting. The threshold is the root of a fixed-point equation and can be solved with low complexity (e.g., by bisection search). The optimal sampling strategy holds for general transmission time distributions of the forward and feedback channels. Numerical simulations are provided to compare different sampling policies.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2022

Performance Bounds for Sampling and Remote Estimation of Gauss-Markov Processes over a Noisy Channel with Random Delay

In this study, we generalize a problem of sampling a scalar Gauss Markov Process, namely, the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck (OU) process, where the samples are sent to a remote estimator and the estimator makes a causal estimate of the observed realtime signal. In recent years, the problem is solved for stable OU processes. We present solutions for the optimal sampling policy that exhibits a smaller estimation error for both stable and unstable cases of the OU process along with a special case when the OU process turns to a Wiener process. The obtained optimal sampling policy is a threshold policy. However, the thresholds are different for all three cases. Later, we consider additional noise with the sample when the sampling decision is made beforehand. The estimator utilizes noisy samples to make an estimate of the current signal value. The mean-square error (mse) is changed from previous due to noise and the additional term in the mse is solved which provides performance upper bound and room for a pursuing further investigation on this problem to find an optimal sampling strategy that minimizes the estimation error when the observed samples are noisy. Numerical results show performance degradation caused by the additive noise.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2022

A Local Geometric Interpretation of Feature Extraction in Deep Feedforward Neural Networks

In this paper, we present a local geometric analysis to interpret how deep feedforward neural networks extract low-dimensional features from high-dimensional data. Our study shows that, in a local geometric region, the optimal weight in one layer of the neural network and the optimal feature generated by the previous layer comprise a low-rank approximation of a matrix that is determined by the Bayes action of this layer. This result holds (i) for analyzing both the output layer and the hidden layers of the neural network, and (ii) for neuron activation functions with non-vanishing gradients. We use two supervised learning problems to illustrate our results: neural network based maximum likelihood classification (i.e., softmax regression) and neural network based minimum mean square estimation. Experimental validation of these theoretical results will be conducted in our future work.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2021

Age-optimal Scheduling over Hybrid Channels

We consider the problem of minimizing the age of information when a source can transmit status updates over two heterogeneous channels. Our work is motivated by recent developments in 5G mmWave technology, where transmissions may occur over an unreliable but fast (e.g., mmWave) channel or a slow reliable (e.g., sub-6GHz) channel. The unreliable channel is modeled as a time-correlated Gilbert-Elliot channel at a high rate when the channel is in the 'ON' state. The reliable channel provides a deterministic but lower data rate. The scheduling strategy determines the channel to be used for transmission in each time slot, aiming to minimize the time-average age of information (AoI). The optimal scheduling problem is formulated as a Markov Decision Process (MDP), which is challenging to solve because super-modularity does not hold in a part of the state space. We address this challenge and show that a multi-dimensional threshold-type scheduling policy is optimal for minimizing the age. By exploiting the structure of the MDP and analyzing the discrete-time Markov chains (DTMCs) of the threshold-type policy, we devise a low-complexity bisection algorithm to compute the optimal thresholds. We compare different scheduling policies using numerical simulations.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2021

Sampling and Remote Estimation for the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck Process through Queues: Age of Information and Beyond

The age of information, as a metric for evaluating information freshness, has received a lot of attention. Recently, an interesting connection between the age of information and remote estimation error was found in a sampling problem of Wiener processes: If the sampler has no knowledge of the signal being sampled, the optimal sampling strategy is to minimize the age of information; however, by exploiting causal knowledge of the signal values, it is possible to achieve a smaller estimation error. In this paper, we extend a previous study by investigating a problem of sampling a stationary Gauss-Markov process, namely the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck (OU) process. The optimal sampling problem is formulated as a constrained continuous-time Markov decision process (MDP) with an uncountable state space. We provide an exact solution to this MDP: The optimal sampling policy is a threshold policy on instantaneous estimation error and the threshold is found. Further, if the sampler has no knowledge of the OU process, the optimal sampling problem reduces to an MDP for minimizing a nonlinear age of information metric. The age-optimal sampling policy is a threshold policy on expected estimation error and the threshold is found. These results hold for (i) general service time distributions of the queueing server and (ii) sampling problems both with and without a sampling rate constraint. Numerical results are provided to compare different sampling policies.

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