Andrea Abrardo

Performance analysis of a distributed resource allocation scheme for D2D communications

Device-to-device (D2D) communications underlaying a cellular infrastructure has recently been proposed as a means of increasing the cellular capacity, improving the user throughput and extending the battery lifetime of user equipments by facilitating the reuse of spectrum resources between D2D and cellular links. In network assisted D2D communications, when two devices are in the proximity of each other, the network can not only help the devices to set the appropriate transmit power and schedule time and frequency resources but also to determine whether communication should take place via the direct D2D link (D2D mode) or via the cellular base station (cellular mode). In this paper we formulate the joint mode selection, scheduling and power control task as an optimization problem that we first solve assuming the availability of a central entity. We also propose a distributed suboptimal joint mode selection and resource allocation scheme that we benchmark with respect to the centralized optimal solution. We find that the distributed scheme performs close to the optimal scheme both in terms of resource efficiency and user fairness.

Error-Resilient and Low-Complexity Onboard Lossless Compression of Hyperspectral Images by Means of Distributed Source Coding

In this paper, we propose a lossless compression algorithm for hyperspectral images inspired by the distributed-source-coding (DSC) principle. DSC refers to separate compression and joint decoding of correlated sources, which are taken as adjacent bands of a hyperspectral image. This concept is used to design a compression scheme that provides error resilience, very low complexity, and good compression performance. These features are obtained employing scalar coset codes to encode the current band at a rate that depends on its correlation with the previous band, without encoding the prediction error. Iterative decoding employs the decoded version of the previous band as side information and uses a cyclic redundancy code to verify correct reconstruction. We develop three algorithms based on this paradigm, which provide different tradeoffs between compression performance, error resilience, and complexity. Their performance is evaluated on raw and calibrated AVIRIS images and compared with several existing algorithms. Preliminary results of a field-programmable gate array implementation are also provided, which show that the proposed algorithms can sustain an extremely high throughput.

A comparative study of power control approaches for device-to-device communications

Device-to-device (D2D) communications integrated into cellular networks is a means to take advantage of the proximity of devices and thereby to increase the user bitrates and system capacity. D2D communications has recently been proposed for the 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) system as a method to increase the spectrum- and energy-efficiency. Such systems support a wide range of power control schemes based on a combination of open-loop and closed-loop components and there is a need to set the associated control parameters such that spectrum- and energy-efficiency targets are met. In this paper we study the performance of various power control strategies applicable to D2D communications in LTE networks and compare them with a utility function maximization approach that balances spectrum efficiency and the total transmission power. Our reference scheme is based on a fully distributed algorithm that iteratively sets the signal-to-interference-plus-noise (SINR) targets and corresponding transmit power levels. We find that the LTE-based power control approach performs close to the optimal scheme provided that the associated parameters are properly set1.

Centralized Radio Resource Allocation for OFDMA Cellular Systems

Efficient resource allocation in cellular OFDMA systems envisages the assignment of the number of sub-carriers and the relative transmission format on the basis of the experimented link quality. In this way, a higher number of sub-carriers with low per-carrier cshould be assigned to users at cell border. This strategy has already proved its efficiency in the single-cell scenario, while no study has been provided in the multi-cell scenario with reuse factor equal to one, i.e., in presence of severe interference conditions. In this paper we propose an optimum centralized radio resource allocator for the multi-cell scenario of an OFDMA cellular system which allows to highly outperform iterative decentralized allocation strategies based on local optimization criteria. The proposed scheme is characterized by huge implementation complexity, and, hence, it can be hardly implemented in the real world. However, it can help the system designer in catching the essence of interference limitations in OFDMA cellular systems, thus allowing the elaboration of efficient heuristic decentralized approaches. As an example, we prove that the sub-carrier transmission format adaptation is not useful in a multi-cell scenario. This is because users at cell border tends to consume the most of the resources (i.e., they are assigned the most of sub-carriers), thus producing interference for the neighbor cells over a large set of sub-carriers. Hence, since in this case neighbor cells are forced to use those (few) sub-carriers which experiment low interference, the diversity gain tends to be missed.

On the analytical evaluation of closed-loop power-control error statistics in DS-CDMA cellular systems

This paper proposes an analytical study that aims at evaluating the power-control error statistics in wireless direct-sequence code-division multiple-access (DS-CDMA) cellular systems based on an ideal variable step closed-loop power-control scheme. In particular, the cumulative distribution function and the correlation coefficient of the power-control error are derived through a first-order Taylor expansion of the received signal envelope. A novel power-control scheme that exploits the autocorrelation properties of the fading is also proposed, and its performance is analyzed in terms of power-control error statistics. Rayleigh and Rice frequency-selective channel models, which involve the use of a diversity RAKE receiver at the base station, have been taken into account. The proposed analytical approach specifically applies to CDMA systems. A method that aims at estimating the capacity of a DS-CDMA cellular network is also given.

Distributed source coding techniques for lossless compression of hyperspectral images

This paper deals with the application of distributed source coding (DSC) theory to remote sensing image compression. Although DSC exhibits a significant potential in many application fields, up till now the results obtained on real signals fall short of the theoretical bounds, and often impose additional system-level constraints. The objective of this paper is to assess the potential of DSC for lossless image compression carried out onboard a remote platform. We first provide a brief overview of DSC of correlated information sources. We then focus on onboard lossless image compression, and apply DSC techniques in order to reduce the complexity of the onboard encoder, at the expense of the decoders, by exploiting the correlation of different bands of a hyperspectral dataset. Specifically, we propose two different compression schemes, one based on powerful binary error-correcting codes employed as source codes, and one based on simpler multilevel coset codes. The performance of both schemes is evaluated on a few AVIRIS scenes, and is compared with other state-of-the-art 2D and 3D coders. Both schemes turn out to achieve competitive compression performance, and one of them also has reduced complexity. Based on these results, we highlight the main issues that are still to be solved to further improve the performance of DSC-based remote sensing systems.

Multiple-symbol differential detection of GMSK for mobile communications

A new multiple differential detection (MDD) sequence estimator is described which uses a decision feedback for the demodulation of a GMSK signal. This technique is based upon a maximum-likelihood sequence estimation of the transmitted phases rather than on a symbol-by-symbol detection. An upper and a lower bound on the bit error probability of the described detector in the case of an AWGN channel and a two-ray Rayleigh fading channel are derived. The performance of the detection algorithm in a mobile radio communication system is obtained through computer simulation. Comparisons with the coherent detection algorithm show that the proposed detection algorithm is quite attractive both in an AWGN and in a multipath channel. >

Radio resource allocation problems for OFDMA cellular systems

Orthogonal frequency division multiple-access (OFDMA) manages to efficiently exploit the inherent multi-user diversity of a cellular system by performing dynamic resource allocation. Radio resource allocation is the technique that assigns to each user in the system a subset of the available radio resources (mainly power and bandwidth) according to a certain optimality criterion on the basis of the experienced link quality. In this paper we address the problem of resource allocation in the downlink of a multi-cellular OFDMA system. The allocation problem is formulated with the goal of minimizing the transmitted power subject to individual rate constraint for each user. Exact and heuristic algorithms are proposed for the both the single-cell and the multi-cell scenario. In particular, we show that in the single-cell scenario the allocation problem can be efficiently solved following a network flow approach. In the multi-cell scenario we assume that all cells use the same frequencies and therefore the allocation problem is complicated by the presence of strong multiple access interference. We prove that the problem is strongly NP-hard, and we present an exact approach based on an MILP formulation. We also propose two heuristic algorithms designed to be simple and fast. All algorithms are tested and evaluated through an experimental campaign on simulated instances. Experimental results show that, although suboptimal, a Lagrangian-based heuristic consisting in solving a series of minimum network cost flow problems is attractive for practical implementation, both for the quality of the solutions and for the small computational times.

Rational dither modulation: a novel data-hiding method robust to value-metric scaling attacks

A novel quantization-based data-hiding method, named rational dither modulation (RDM), is presented. This method amounts to simple modifications of the well-known dither modulation (DM) scheme, which is largely vulnerable to scaling attacks. With such modifications, RDM becomes invariant to those attacks. Since RDM does not work by trying to estimate the step-size of the quantizers, it does not need any pilot-sequence. Moreover, RDM is suitable for a scalar operation, thus avoiding the cumbersome constructions of spherical codes. It is also shown that RDM approaches the performance of DM asymptotically with the size of the memory needed for the method to operate. Simulation results show the accuracy of our theoretical analysis and the superiority of RDM compared to the improved spread spectrum method.

Benchmarking Practical RRM Algorithms for D2D Communications in LTE Advanced

Device-to-device (D2D) communication integrated into cellular networks is an advanced tool to take advantage of the proximity of devices and allow for reusing cellular resources and thereby to increase the user bitrates and the system capacity. However, the introduction of D2D in legacy long term evolution (LTE) cellular spectrum requires to revisit and modify the existing radio resource management and power control (PC) techniques in order to fully realize the potential of the proximity and reuse gains and to limit the interference to the cellular layer. In this paper, we examine the performance of the legacy LTE PC tool box and benchmark it against an utility optimal iterative scheme. We find that the open loop PC scheme of LTE performs well for cellular users both in terms of the used transmit power levels and the achieved signal-to-interference-and-noise-ratio distribution. However, the performance of the D2D users as well as the overall system throughput can be boosted by the utility optimal scheme, by taking better advantage of both the proximity and the reuse gains. Therefore, in this paper we propose a hybrid PC scheme, in which cellular users employ the legacy LTE open loop PC, while D2D users exploits the utility optimizing distributed PC scheme. We also recognize that the hybrid scheme is not only nearly optimal, and can balance between spectral and energy efficiency, but it also allows for a distributed implementation at the D2D users, while preserving the LTE PC scheme for the cellular users.