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Zhi Ding

Publications and source records attributed to Zhi Ding.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Diff-GO$^\text{n}$: Enhancing Diffusion Models for Goal-Oriented Communications

The rapid expansion of edge devices and Internet-of-Things (IoT) continues to heighten the demand for data transport under limited spectrum resources. The goal-oriented communications (GO-COM), unlike traditional communication systems designed for bit-level accuracy, prioritizes more critical information for specific application goals at the receiver. To improve the efficiency of generative learning models for GO-COM, this work introduces a novel noise-restricted diffusion-based GO-COM (Diff-GO$^\text{n}$) framework for reducing bandwidth overhead while preserving the media quality at the receiver. Specifically, we propose an innovative Noise-Restricted Forward Diffusion (NR-FD) framework to accelerate model training and reduce the computation burden for diffusion-based GO-COMs by leveraging a pre-sampled pseudo-random noise bank (NB). Moreover, we design an early stopping criterion for improving computational efficiency and convergence speed, allowing high-quality generation in fewer training steps. Our experimental results demonstrate superior perceptual quality of data transmission at a reduced bandwidth usage and lower computation, making Diff-GO$^\text{n}$ well-suited for real-time communications and downstream applications.

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Fast Adaptation for Deep Learning-based Wireless Communications

The integration with artificial intelligence (AI) is recognized as one of the six usage scenarios in next-generation wireless communications. However, several critical challenges hinder the widespread application of deep learning (DL) techniques in wireless communications. In particular, existing DL-based wireless communications struggle to adapt to the rapidly changing wireless environments. In this paper, we discuss fast adaptation for DL-based wireless communications by using few-shot learning (FSL) techniques. We first identify the differences between fast adaptation in wireless communications and traditional AI tasks by highlighting two distinct FSL design requirements for wireless communications. To establish a wide perspective, we present a comprehensive review of the existing FSL techniques in wireless communications that satisfy these two design requirements. In particular, we emphasize the importance of applying domain knowledge in achieving fast adaptation. We specifically focus on multiuser multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) precoding as an examples to demonstrate the advantages of the FSL to achieve fast adaptation in wireless communications. Finally, we highlight several open research issues for achieving broadscope future deployment of fast adaptive DL in wireless communication applications.

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Convergence Acceleration in Wireless Federated Learning: A Stackelberg Game Approach

This paper studies issues that arise with respect to the joint optimization for convergence time in federated learning over wireless networks (FLOWN). We consider the criterion and protocol for selection of participating devices in FLOWN under the energy constraint and derive its impact on device selection. In order to improve the training efficiency, age-of-information (AoI) enables FLOWN to assess the freshness of gradient updates among participants. Aiming to speed up convergence, we jointly investigate global loss minimization and latency minimization in a Stackelberg game based framework. Specifically, we formulate global loss minimization as a leader-level problem for reducing the number of required rounds, and latency minimization as a follower-level problem to reduce time consumption of each round. By decoupling the follower-level problem into two sub-problems, including resource allocation and sub-channel assignment, we achieve an optimal strategy of the follower through monotonic optimization and matching theory. At the leader-level, we derive an upper bound of convergence rate and subsequently reformulate the global loss minimization problem and propose a new age-of-update (AoU) based device selection algorithm. Simulation results indicate the superior performance of the proposed AoU based device selection scheme in terms of the convergence rate, as well as efficient utilization of available sub-channels.

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Plug-in UL-CSI-Assisted Precoder Upsampling Approach in Cellular FDD Systems

Acquiring downlink channel state information (CSI) is crucial for optimizing performance in massive Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) systems operating under Frequency-Division Duplexing (FDD). Most cellular wireless communication systems employ codebook-based precoder designs, which offer advantages such as simpler, more efficient feedback mechanisms and reduced feedback overhead. Common codebook-based approaches include Type II and eType II precoding methods defined in the 3GPP standards. Feedback in these systems is typically standardized per subband (SB), allowing user equipment (UE) to select the optimal precoder from the codebook for each SB, thereby reducing feedback overhead. However, this subband-level feedback resolution may not suffice for frequency-selective channels. This paper addresses this issue by introducing an uplink CSI-assisted precoder upsampling module deployed at the gNodeB. This module upsamples SB-level precoders to resource block (RB)-level precoders, acting as a plug-in compatible with existing gNodeB or base stations.

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Exploring Age-of-Information Weighting in Federated Learning under Data Heterogeneity

This paper investigates federated learning in a wireless communication system, where random device selection is employed with non-independent and identically distributed (non-IID) data. The analysis indicates that while training deep learning networks using federated stochastic gradient descent (FedSGD) on non-IID datasets, device selection can generate gradient errors that accumulate, leading to potential weight divergence. To mitigate training divergence, we design an age-weighted FedSGD to scale local gradients according to the previous state of devices. To further improve learning performance by increasing device participation under the maximum time consumption constraint, we formulate an energy consumption minimization problem by including resource allocation and sub-channel assignment. By transforming the resource allocation problem into convex and utilizing KKT conditions, we derived the optimal resource allocation solution. Moreover, this paper develops a matching based algorithm to generate the enhanced sub-channel assignment. Simulation results indicate that i) age-weighted FedSGD is able to outperform conventional FedSGD in terms of convergence rate and achievable accuracy, and ii) the proposed resource allocation and sub-channel assignment strategies can significantly reduce energy consumption and improve learning performance by increasing the number of selected devices.

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Approximate Message Passing-Enhanced Graph Neural Network for OTFS Data Detection

Orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS) modulation has emerged as a promising solution to support high-mobility wireless communications, for which, cost-effective data detectors are critical. Although graph neural network (GNN)-based data detectors can achieve decent detection accuracy at reasonable computational cost, they fail to best harness prior information of transmitted data. To further minimize the data detection error of OTFS systems, this letter develops an AMP-GNN-based detector, leveraging the approximate message passing (AMP) algorithm to iteratively improve the symbol estimates of a GNN. Given the inter-Doppler interference (IDI) symbols incur substantial computational overhead to the constructed GNN, learning-based IDI approximation is implemented to sustain low detection complexity. Simulation results demonstrate a remarkable bit error rate (BER) performance achieved by the proposed AMP-GNN-based detector compared to existing baselines. Meanwhile, the proposed IDI approximation scheme avoids a large amount of computations with negligible BER degradation.

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Physics-Inspired Deep Learning Anti-Aliasing Framework in Efficient Channel State Feedback

Acquiring downlink channel state information (CSI) at the base station is vital for optimizing performance in massive Multiple input multiple output (MIMO) Frequency-Division Duplexing (FDD) systems. While deep learning architectures have been successful in facilitating UE-side CSI feedback and gNB-side recovery, the undersampling issue prior to CSI feedback is often overlooked. This issue, which arises from low density pilot placement in current standards, results in significant aliasing effects in outdoor channels and consequently limits CSI recovery performance. To this end, this work introduces a new CSI upsampling framework at the gNB as a post-processing solution to address the gaps caused by undersampling. Leveraging the physical principles of discrete Fourier transform shifting theorem and multipath reciprocity, our framework effectively uses uplink CSI to mitigate aliasing effects. We further develop a learning-based method that integrates the proposed algorithm with the Iterative Shrinkage-Thresholding Algorithm Net (ISTA-Net) architecture, enhancing our approach for non-uniform sampling recovery. Our numerical results show that both our rule-based and deep learning methods significantly outperform traditional interpolation techniques and current state-of-the-art approaches in terms of performance.

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Diff-GO: Diffusion Goal-Oriented Communications to Achieve Ultra-High Spectrum Efficiency

The latest advances in artificial intelligence (AI) present many unprecedented opportunities to achieve much improved bandwidth saving in communications. Unlike conventional communication systems focusing on packet transport, rich datasets and AI makes it possible to efficiently transfer only the information most critical to the goals of message recipients. One of the most exciting advances in generative AI known as diffusion model presents a unique opportunity for designing ultra-fast communication systems well beyond language-based messages. This work presents an ultra-efficient communication design by utilizing generative AI-based on diffusion models as a specific example of the general goal-oriented communication framework. To better control the regenerated message at the receiver output, our diffusion system design includes a local regeneration module with finite dimensional noise latent. The critical significance of noise latent control and sharing residing on our Diff-GO is the ability to introduce the concept of "local generative feedback" (Local-GF), which enables the transmitter to monitor the quality and gauge the quality or accuracy of the message recovery at the semantic system receiver. To this end, we propose a new low-dimensional noise space for the training of diffusion models, which significantly reduces the communication overhead and achieves satisfactory message recovery performance. Our experimental results demonstrate that the proposed noise space and the diffusion-based generative model achieve ultra-high spectrum efficiency and accurate recovery of transmitted image signals. By trading off computation for bandwidth efficiency (C4BE), this new framework provides an important avenue to achieve exceptional computation-bandwidth tradeoff.

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Deep Learning for Efficient CSI Feedback in Massive MIMO: Adapting to New Environments and Small Datasets

Deep learning (DL)-based channel state information (CSI) feedback has shown promising potential to improve spectrum efficiency in massive MIMO systems. However, practical DL approaches require a sizeable CSI dataset for each scenario, and require large storage or updating bandwidth for multiple learned models. To overcome this costly barrier, we develop a solution for efficient training and deployment enhancement of DL-based CSI feedback by exploiting a lightweight translation model to cope with new CSI environments and by proposing novel dataset augmentation based on domain knowledge. Specifically, we first develop a deep unfolding CSI feedback network, SPTM2-ISTANet+, which employs spherical normalization to address the challenge of path loss variation. We also introduce an integration of a trainable measurement matrix and residual CSI recovery blocks within SPTM2-ISTANet+ to improve efficiency and accuracy. Using SPTM2-ISTANet+ as the anchor feedback model, we propose an efficient scenario-adaptive CSI feedback architecture. This new CSI-TransNet exploits a plug-in module for CSI translation consisting of a sparsity aligning function and lightweight DL module to reuse pretrained models in unseen environments. To work with small datasets, we propose a lightweight and general augmentation strategy based on domain knowledge. Test results demonstrate the efficacy and efficiency of the proposed solution for accurate CSI feedback given limited measurements for unseen CSI environments.

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A Principled Hierarchical Deep Learning Approach to Joint Image Compression and Classification

Among applications of deep learning (DL) involving low cost sensors, remote image classification involves a physical channel that separates edge sensors and cloud classifiers. Traditional DL models must be divided between an encoder for the sensor and the decoder + classifier at the edge server. An important challenge is to effectively train such distributed models when the connecting channels have limited rate/capacity. Our goal is to optimize DL models such that the encoder latent requires low channel bandwidth while still delivers feature information for high classification accuracy. This work proposes a three-step joint learning strategy to guide encoders to extract features that are compact, discriminative, and amenable to common augmentations/transformations. We optimize latent dimension through an initial screening phase before end-to-end (E2E) training. To obtain an adjustable bit rate via a single pre-deployed encoder, we apply entropy-based quantization and/or manual truncation on the latent representations. Tests show that our proposed method achieves accuracy improvement of up to 1.5% on CIFAR-10 and 3% on CIFAR-100 over conventional E2E cross-entropy training.

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Reinforcement Learning for Robust Header Compression under Model Uncertainty

Robust header compression (ROHC), critically positioned between the network and the MAC layers, plays an important role in modern wireless communication systems for improving data efficiency. This work investigates bi-directional ROHC (BD-ROHC) integrated with a novel architecture of reinforcement learning (RL). We formulate a partially observable \emph{Markov} decision process (POMDP), in which agent is the compressor, and the environment consists of the decompressor, channel and header source. Our work adopts the well-known deep Q-network (DQN), which takes the history of actions and observations as inputs, and outputs the Q-values of corresponding actions. Compared with the ideal dynamic programming (DP) proposed in the existing works, our method is scalable to the state, action and observation spaces. In contrast, DP often suffers from formidable computational complexity when the number of states becomes large due to long decompressor feedback delay and complex channel models. In addition, our method does not require prior knowledge of the transition dynamics and accurate observation dependency of the model, which are often not available in many practical applications.

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Jamming Suppression Via Resource Hopping in High-Mobility OTFS-SCMA Systems

This letter studies the mechanism of uplink multiple access and jamming suppression in an OTFS system. Specifically, we propose a novel resource hopping mechanism for orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS) systems with delay or Doppler partitioned sparse code multiple access (SCMA) to mitigate the effect of jamming in controlled multiuser uplink. We analyze the non-uniform impact of classic jamming signals such as narrowband interference (NBI) and periodic impulse noise (PIN) in delay-Doppler (DD) domain on OTFS systems. Leveraging turbo equalization, our proposed hopping method demonstrates consistent BER performance improvement under jamming over conventional OTFS-SCMA systems compared to static resource allocation schemes.

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PFL-GAN: When Client Heterogeneity Meets Generative Models in Personalized Federated Learning

Recent advances of generative learning models are accompanied by the growing interest in federated learning (FL) based on generative adversarial network (GAN) models. In the context of FL, GAN can capture the underlying client data structure, and regenerate samples resembling the original data distribution without compromising the private raw data. Although most existing GAN-based FL works focus on training a global model, Personalized FL (PFL) sometimes can be more effective in view of client data heterogeneity in terms of distinct data sample distributions, feature spaces, and labels. To cope with client heterogeneity in GAN-based FL, we propose a novel GAN sharing and aggregation strategy for PFL. The proposed PFL-GAN addresses the client heterogeneity in different scenarios. More specially, we first learn the similarity among clients and then develop an weighted collaborative data aggregation. The empirical results through the rigorous experimentation on several well-known datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of PFL-GAN.

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End-to-End Optimization of JPEG-Based Deep Learning Process for Image Classification

Among major deep learning (DL) applications, distributed learning involving image classification require effective image compression codecs deployed on low-cost sensing devices for efficient transmission and storage. Traditional codecs such as JPEG designed for perceptual quality are not configured for DL tasks. This work introduces an integrative end-to-end trainable model for image compression and classification consisting of a JPEG image codec and a DL-based classifier. We demonstrate how this model can optimize the widely deployed JPEG codec settings to improve classification accuracy in consideration of bandwidth constraint. Our tests on CIFAR-100 and ImageNet also demonstrate improved validation accuracy over preset JPEG configuration.

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UFed-GAN: A Secure Federated Learning Framework with Constrained Computation and Unlabeled Data

To satisfy the broad applications and insatiable hunger for deploying low latency multimedia data classification and data privacy in a cloud-based setting, federated learning (FL) has emerged as an important learning paradigm. For the practical cases involving limited computational power and only unlabeled data in many wireless communications applications, this work investigates FL paradigm in a resource-constrained and label-missing environment. Specifically, we propose a novel framework of UFed-GAN: Unsupervised Federated Generative Adversarial Network, which can capture user-side data distribution without local classification training. We also analyze the convergence and privacy of the proposed UFed-GAN. Our experimental results demonstrate the strong potential of UFed-GAN in addressing limited computational resources and unlabeled data while preserving privacy.

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Radiomap Inpainting for Restricted Areas based on Propagation Priority and Depth Map

Providing rich and useful information regarding spectrum activities and propagation channels, radiomaps characterize the detailed distribution of power spectral density (PSD) and are important tools for network planning in modern wireless systems. Generally, radiomaps are constructed from radio strength measurements by deployed sensors and user devices. However, not all areas are accessible for radio measurements due to physical constraints and security consideration, leading to non-uniformly spaced measurements and blanks on a radiomap. In this work, we explore distribution of radio spectrum strengths in view of surrounding environments, and propose two radiomap inpainting approaches for the reconstruction of radiomaps that cover missing areas. Specifically, we first define a propagation-based priority and integrate exemplar-based inpainting with radio propagation model for fine-resolution small-size missing area reconstruction on a radiomap. Then, we introduce a novel radio depth map and propose a two-step template-perturbation approach for large-size restricted region inpainting. Our experimental results demonstrate the power of the proposed propagation priority and radio depth map in capturing the PSD distribution, as well as the efficacy of the proposed methods for radiomap reconstruction.

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PS-FedGAN: An Efficient Federated Learning Framework Based on Partially Shared Generative Adversarial Networks For Data Privacy

Federated Learning (FL) has emerged as an effective learning paradigm for distributed computation owing to its strong potential in capturing underlying data statistics while preserving data privacy. However, in cases of practical data heterogeneity among FL clients, existing FL frameworks still exhibit deficiency in capturing the overall feature properties of local client data that exhibit disparate distributions. In response, generative adversarial networks (GANs) have recently been exploited in FL to address data heterogeneity since GANs can be integrated for data regeneration without exposing original raw data. Despite some successes, existing GAN-related FL frameworks often incur heavy communication cost and also elicit other privacy concerns, which limit their applications in real scenarios. To this end, this work proposes a novel FL framework that requires only partial GAN model sharing. Named as PS-FedGAN, this new framework enhances the GAN releasing and training mechanism to address heterogeneous data distributions across clients and to strengthen privacy preservation at reduced communication cost, especially over wireless networks. Our analysis demonstrates the convergence and privacy benefits of the proposed PS-FEdGAN framework. Through experimental results based on several well-known benchmark datasets, our proposed PS-FedGAN shows great promise to tackle FL under non-IID client data distributions, while securing data privacy and lowering communication overhead.

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Over-the-Air Federated Learning in MIMO Cloud-RAN Systems

To address the limitations of traditional over-the-air federated learning (OA-FL) such as limited server coverage and low resource utilization, we propose an OA-FL in MIMO cloud radio access network (MIMO Cloud-RAN) framework, where edge devices upload (or download) model parameters to the cloud server (CS) through access points (APs). Specifically, in every training round, there are three stages: edge aggregation; global aggregation; and model updating and broadcasting. To better utilize the correlation among APs, called inter-AP correlation, we propose modeling the global aggregation stage as a lossy distributed source coding (L-DSC) problem to make analysis from the perspective of rate-distortion theory. We further analyze the performance of the proposed OA-FL in MIMO Cloud-RAN framework. Based on the analysis, we formulate a communication-learning optimization problem to improve the system performance by considering the inter-AP correlation. To solve this problem, we develop an algorithm by using alternating optimization (AO) and majorization-minimization (MM), which effectively improves the FL learning performance. Furthermore, we propose a practical design that demonstrates the utilization of inter-AP correlation. The numerical results show that the proposed practical design effectively leverages inter-AP correlation, and outperforms other baseline schemes.

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