THz-Empowered UAVs in 6G: Opportunities, Challenges, and Trade-Offs

in IEEE Communications Magazine (in press)

Envisioned use cases of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) impose new service requirements in terms of data rate, latency, and sensing accuracy, to name a few. If such requirements are satisfactorily met, it ... [more ▼]

Envisioned use cases of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) impose new service requirements in terms of data rate, latency, and sensing accuracy, to name a few. If such requirements are satisfactorily met, it can create novel applications and enable highly reliable and harmonized integration of UAVs in the 6G network ecosystem. Towards this, terahertz (THz) bands are perceived as a prospective technological enabler for various improved functionalities such as ultra-high throughput and enhanced sensing capabilities. This paper focuses on THz-empowered UAVs with the following capabilities: communication, sensing, localization, imaging, and control. We review the potential opportunities and use cases of THz-empowered UAVs, corresponding novel design challenges, and resulting trade-offs. Furthermore, we overview recent advances in UAV deployments regulations, THz standardization, and health aspects related to THz bands. Finally, we take UAV to UAV (U2U) communication as a case-study to provide numerical insights into the impact of various system design parameters and environment factors. [less ▲]

FedFog: Network-Aware Optimization of Federated Learning over Wireless Fog-Cloud System

in IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications (in press)

Federated learning (FL) is capable of performing large distributed machine learning tasks across multiple edge users by periodically aggregating trained local parameters. To address key challenges of ... [more ▼]

Federated learning (FL) is capable of performing large distributed machine learning tasks across multiple edge users by periodically aggregating trained local parameters. To address key challenges of enabling FL over a wireless fogcloud system (e.g., non-i.i.d. data, users’ heterogeneity), we first propose an efficient FL algorithm based on Federated Averaging (called FedFog) to perform the local aggregation of gradient parameters at fog servers and global training update at the cloud. Next, we employ FedFog in wireless fog-cloud systems by investigating a novel network-aware FL optimization problem that strikes the balance between the global loss and completion time. An iterative algorithm is then developed to obtain a precise measurement of the system performance, which helps design an efficient stopping criteria to output an appropriate number of global rounds. To mitigate the straggler effect, we propose a flexible user aggregation strategy that trains fast users first to obtain a certain level of accuracy before allowing slow users to join the global training updates. Extensive numerical results using several real-world FL tasks are provided to verify the theoretical convergence of FedFog. We also show that the proposed co-design of FL and communication is essential to substantially improve resource utilization while achieving comparable accuracy of the learning model. [less ▲]

Area-Power Analysis of FFT Based Digital Beamforming for GEO, MEO, and LEO Scenarios

Scientific Conference (2022, June 19)

Satellite communication systems can provide seamless wireless coverage directly or through complementary ground terrestrial components and are projected to be incorporated into future wireless networks ... [more ▼]

Satellite communication systems can provide seamless wireless coverage directly or through complementary ground terrestrial components and are projected to be incorporated into future wireless networks, particularly 5G and beyond networks. Increased capacity and flexibility in telecom satellite payloads based on classic radio frequency technology have traditionally translated into increased power consumption and dissipation. Much of the analog hardware in a satellite communications payload can be replaced with highly integrated digital components that are often smaller, lighter, and less expensive, as well as software reprogrammable. Digital beamforming of thousands of beams simultaneously is not practical due to the limited power available onboard satellite processors. Reduced digital beamforming power consumption would enable the deployment of a full digital payload, resulting in comprehensive user applications. Beamforming can be implemented using matrix multiplication, hybrid methodology, or a discrete Fourier transform (DFT). Implementing DFT via fast Fourier transform (FFT) reduces the power consumption, process time, hardware requirements, and chip area. Therefore, in this paper, area-power efficient FFT architectures for digital beamforming are analyzed. The area in terms of look up tables (LUTs) is estimated and compared among conventional FFT, fully unrolled FFT, and a 4-bit quantized twiddle factor (TF) FFT. Further, for the typical satellite scenarios, area, and power estimation are reported. [less ▲]

Machine Learning for Radio Resource Management in Multibeam GEO Satellite Systems

in Electronics (2022), 11(7), 992

Satellite communications (SatComs) systems are facing a massive increase in traffic demand. However, this increase is not uniform across the service area due to the uneven distribution of users and ... [more ▼]

Satellite communications (SatComs) systems are facing a massive increase in traffic demand. However, this increase is not uniform across the service area due to the uneven distribution of users and changes in traffic demand diurnal. This problem is addressed by using flexible payload architectures, which allow payload resources to be flexibly allocated to meet the traffic demand of each beam. While optimization-based radio resource management (RRM) has shown significant performance gains, its intense computational complexity limits its practical implementation in real systems. In this paper, we discuss the architecture, implementation and applications of Machine Learning (ML) for resource management in multibeam GEO satellite systems. We mainly focus on two systems, one with power, bandwidth, and/or beamwidth flexibility, and the second with time flexibility, i.e., beam hopping. We analyze and compare different ML techniques that have been proposed for these architectures, emphasizing the use of Supervised Learning (SL) and Reinforcement Learning (RL). To this end, we define whether training should be conducted online or offline based on the characteristics and requirements of each proposed ML technique and discuss the most appropriate system architecture and the advantages and disadvantages of each approach. [less ▲]

Interference-aware Demand-based User Scheduling in Precoded High Throughput Satellite Systems

in IEEE Open Journal of Vehicular Technology (2022)

In recent years, dynamic traffic demand requisites have driven the satellite communication service providers to implement reconfigurable demand-driven features to align the delivered throughput with the ... [more ▼]

In recent years, dynamic traffic demand requisites have driven the satellite communication service providers to implement reconfigurable demand-driven features to align the delivered throughput with the temporal and geographical variations of the traffic demand. Also, in current interference-limited High Throughput Satellite (HTS) systems, the resulting inter-beam co-channel interference can be mitigated by carefully performing precoding and user scheduling. Unfortunately, the conventional user scheduling algorithms fail to provide demand satisfaction for dynamic traffic demand requisites. Hence, in this paper, we focus on the user scheduling design for precoded satellite systems where both co-channel interference and user demands are taken into account. In particular, we first classify the sectors in each beam according to the interference they may cause to neighboring beams. Next, we formulate the scheduling problem such as the activation of neighboring beam sectors is avoided while proportionally dwelling on the sectors based on their traffic demands. The supporting numerical results for different demand distribution profiles validate the effectiveness of proposed interference-aware demand-based user scheduling over conventional scheduling techniques. [less ▲]

Flexible Resource Optimization for GEO Multibeam Satellite Communication System

in IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications (2021)

Conventional GEO satellite communication systems rely on a multibeam foot-print with a uniform resource allocation to provide connectivity to users. However, applying uniform resource allocation is ... [more ▼]

Conventional GEO satellite communication systems rely on a multibeam foot-print with a uniform resource allocation to provide connectivity to users. However, applying uniform resource allocation is inefficient in presence of non-uniform demand distribution. To overcome this limitation, the next generation of broadband GEO satellite systems will enable flexibility in terms of power and bandwidth assignment, enabling on-demand resource allocation. In this paper, we propose a novel satellite resource assignment design whose goal is to satisfy the beam traffic demand by making use of the minimum transmit power and utilized bandwidth. The motivation behind the proposed design is to maximize the satellite spectrum utilization by pushing the spectrum reuse to affordable limits in terms of tolerable interference. The proposed problem formulation results in a non-convex optimization structure, for which we propose an efficient tractable solution. We validate the proposed method with extensive numerical results, which demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed approach with respect to benchmark schemes. [less ▲]

Learning-Based Multiplexing of Grant-Based and Grant-Free Heterogeneous Services with Short Packets

in Proceedings of 2021 IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM) (2021, December)

In this paper, we investigate the multiplexing of grant-based (GB) and grant-free (GF) device transmissions in an uplink heterogeneous network (HetNet), namely GB-GF HetNet, where the devices transmit ... [more ▼]

In this paper, we investigate the multiplexing of grant-based (GB) and grant-free (GF) device transmissions in an uplink heterogeneous network (HetNet), namely GB-GF HetNet, where the devices transmit their information using low-rate short data packets. Specifically, GB devices are granted unique time-slots for their transmissions. In contrast, GF devices can randomly select time-slots to transmit their messages utilizing the GF non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), which has emerged as a promising enabler for massive access and reducing access latency. However, random access (RA) in the GF NOMA can cause collisions and severe interference, leading to system performance degradation. To overcome this issue, we propose a multiple access (MA) protocol based on reinforcement learning for effective RA slots allocation. The proposed learning method aims to guarantee that the GF devices do not cause any collisions to the GB devices and the number of GF devices choosing the same time-slot does not exceed a predetermined threshold to reduce the interference. In addition, based on the results of the RA slots allocation using the proposed method, we derive the approximate closed-form expressions of the average decoding error probability (ADEP) for all devices to characterize the system performance. Our results presented in terms of access efficiency (AE), collision probability (CP), and overall ADEP (OADEP), show that our proposed method can ensure a smooth operation of the GB and GF devices within the same network while significantly minimizing the collision and interference among the device transmissions in the GB-GF HetNet. [less ▲]

An overview of generic tools for information-theoretic secrecy performance analysis over wiretap fading channels

in EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking volume (2021), (1), 194

Physical layer security (PLS) has been proposed to afford an extra layer of security on top of the conventional cryptographic techniques. Unlike the conventional complexity-based cryptographic techniques ... [more ▼]

Physical layer security (PLS) has been proposed to afford an extra layer of security on top of the conventional cryptographic techniques. Unlike the conventional complexity-based cryptographic techniques at the upper layers, physical layer security exploits the characteristics of wireless channels, e.g., fading, noise, interference, etc., to enhance wireless security. It is proved that secure transmission can benefit from fading channels. Accordingly, numerous researchers have explored what fading can offer for physical layer security, especially the investigation of physical layer security over wiretap fading channels. Therefore, this paper aims at reviewing the existing and ongoing research works on this topic. More specifically, we present a classification of research works in terms of the four categories of fading models: (i) small-scale, (ii) large-scale, (iii) composite, and (iv) cascaded. To elaborate these fading models with a generic and flexible tool, three promising candidates, including the mixture gamma (MG), mixture of Gaussian (MoG), and Fox’s H-function distributions, are comprehensively examined and compared. Their advantages and limitations are further demonstrated via security performance metrics, which are designed as vivid indicators to measure how perfect secrecy is ensured. Two clusters of secrecy metrics, namely (i) secrecy outage probability (SOP), and the lower bound of SOP; and (ii) the probability of nonzero secrecy capacity (PNZ), the intercept probability, average secrecy capacity (ASC), and ergodic secrecy capacity, are displayed and, respectively, deployed in passive and active eavesdropping scenarios. Apart from those, revisiting the secrecy enhancement techniques based on Wyner’s wiretap model, the on-off transmission scheme, jamming approach, antenna selection, and security region are discussed. [less ▲]

Proceedings of the 12th European CubeSatSymposium

in Proceedings of the 12th European CubeSatSymposium (2021, November 15)

Hybrid Beamforming for Terahertz Joint Ultra-Massive MIMO Radar-Communications

in IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing (2021), 15(6), 1468-1483

In this paper, we investigate the hybrid beamforming problem in joint radar-communications at terahertz (THz) bands. In order to address the extremely high attenuation at THz, ultra-massive multiple-input ... [more ▼]

In this paper, we investigate the hybrid beamforming problem in joint radar-communications at terahertz (THz) bands. In order to address the extremely high attenuation at THz, ultra-massive multiple-input multiple-output (UM-MIMO) antenna systems have been proposed for THz communications to compensate propagation losses. Further, we propose a new group-of-subarrays (GoSA) UM-MIMO structure to reduce the hardware cost. We formulate the GoSA beamformer design as an optimization problem to provide a trade-off between the unconstrained communications beamformers and the desired radar beamformers. Numerical experiments demonstrate that the proposed approach outperforms the conventional approaches in terms of spectral efficiency and hardware costs. [less ▲]