Daniel Pérez Palomar

A tutorial on decomposition methods for network utility maximization

A systematic understanding of the decomposability structures in network utility maximization is key to both resource allocation and functionality allocation. It helps us obtain the most appropriate distributed algorithm for a given network resource allocation problem, and quantifies the comparison across architectural alternatives of modularized network design. Decomposition theory naturally provides the mathematical language to build an analytic foundation for the design of modularized and distributed control of networks. In this tutorial paper, we first review the basics of convexity, Lagrange duality, distributed subgradient method, Jacobi and Gauss-Seidel iterations, and implication of different time scales of variable updates. Then, we introduce primal, dual, indirect, partial, and hierarchical decompositions, focusing on network utility maximization problem formulations and the meanings of primal and dual decompositions in terms of network architectures. Finally, we present recent examples on: systematic search for alternative decompositions; decoupling techniques for coupled objective functions; and decoupling techniques for coupled constraint sets that are not readily decomposable

Joint Tx-Rx beamforming design for multicarrier MIMO channels: a unified framework for convex optimization

This paper addresses the joint design of transmit and receive beamforming or linear processing (commonly termed linear precoding at the transmitter and equalization at the receiver) for multicarrier multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channels under a variety of design criteria. Instead of considering each design criterion in a separate way, we generalize the existing results by developing a unified framework based on considering two families of objective functions that embrace most reasonable criteria to design a communication system: Schur-concave and Schur-convex functions. Once the optimal structure of the transmit-receive processing is known, the design problem simplifies and can be formulated within the powerful framework of convex optimization theory, in which a great number of interesting design criteria can be easily accommodated and efficiently solved, even though closed-form expressions may not exist. From this perspective, we analyze a variety of design criteria, and in particular, we derive optimal beamvectors in the sense of having minimum average bit error rate (BER). Additional constraints on the peak-to-average ratio (PAR) or on the signal dynamic range are easily included in the design. We propose two multilevel water-filling practical solutions that perform very close to the optimal in terms of average BER with a low implementation complexity. If cooperation among the processing operating at different carriers is allowed, the performance improves significantly. Interestingly, with carrier cooperation, it turns out that the exact optimal solution in terms of average BER can be obtained in closed form.

Power Control By Geometric Programming

In wireless cellular or ad hoc networks where Quality of Service (QoS) is interference-limited, a variety of power control problems can be formulated as nonlinear optimization with a system-wide objective, e.g., maximizing the total system throughput or the worst user throughput, subject to QoS constraints from individual users, e.g., on data rate, delay, and outage probability. We show that in the high Signal-to- interference Ratios (SIR) regime, these nonlinear and apparently difficult, nonconvex optimization problems can be transformed into convex optimization problems in the form of geometric programming; hence they can be very efficiently solved for global optimality even with a large number of users. In the medium to low SIR regime, some of these constrained nonlinear optimization of power control cannot be turned into tractable convex formulations, but a heuristic can be used to compute in most cases the optimal solution by solving a series of geometric programs through the approach of successive convex approximation. While efficient and robust algorithms have been extensively studied for centralized solutions of geometric programs, distributed algorithms have not been explored before. We present a systematic method of distributed algorithms for power control that is geometric-programming-based. These techniques for power control, together with their implications to admission control and pricing in wireless networks, are illustrated through several numerical examples.

Practical algorithms for a family of waterfilling solutions

Many engineering problems that can be formulated as constrained optimization problems result in solutions given by a waterfilling structure; the classical example is the capacity-achieving solution for a frequency-selective channel. For simple waterfilling solutions with a single waterlevel and a single constraint (typically, a power constraint), some algorithms have been proposed in the literature to compute the solutions numerically. However, some other optimization problems result in significantly more complicated waterfilling solutions that include multiple waterlevels and multiple constraints. For such cases, it may still be possible to obtain practical algorithms to evaluate the solutions numerically but only after a painstaking inspection of the specific waterfilling structure. In addition, a unified view of the different types of waterfilling solutions and the corresponding practical algorithms is missing. The purpose of this paper is twofold. On the one hand, it overviews the waterfilling results existing in the literature from a unified viewpoint. On the other hand, it bridges the gap between a wide family of waterfilling solutions and their efficient implementation in practice; to be more precise, it provides a practical algorithm to evaluate numerically a general waterfilling solution, which includes the currently existing waterfilling solutions and others that may possibly appear in future problems.

Rank-Constrained Separable Semidefinite Programming With Applications to Optimal Beamforming

Consider a downlink communication system where multiantenna base stations transmit independent data streams to decentralized single-antenna users over a common frequency band. The goal of the base stations is to jointly adjust the beamforming vectors to minimize the transmission powers while ensuring the signal-to-interference-noise ratio requirement of each user within the system. At the same time, it may be necessary to keep the interference generated on other coexisting systems under a certain tolerable level. In addition, one may want to include general individual shaping constraints on the beamforming vectors. This beamforming problem is a separable homogeneous quadratically constrained quadratic program, and it is difficult to solve in general. In this paper, we give conditions under which strong duality holds and propose efficient algorithms for the optimal beamforming problem. First, we study rank-constrained solutions of general separable semidefinite programs (SDPs) and propose rank reduction procedures to achieve a lower rank solution. Then we show that the SDP relaxation of three classes of optimal beamforming problem always has a rank-one solution, which can be obtained by invoking the rank reduction procedures.

Optimal Linear Precoding Strategies for Wideband Noncooperative Systems Based on Game Theory—Part I: Nash Equilibria

In this two-part paper, we propose a decentralized strategy, based on a game-theoretic formulation, to find out the optimal precoding/multiplexing matrices for a multipoint-to-multipoint communication system composed of a set of wideband links sharing the same physical resources, i.e., time and bandwidth. We assume, as optimality criterion, the achievement of a Nash equilibrium and consider two alternative optimization problems: 1) the competitive maximization of mutual information on each link, given constraints on the transmit power and on the spectral mask imposed by the radio spectrum regulatory bodies; and 2) the competitive maximization of the transmission rate, using finite order constellations, under the same constraints as above, plus a constraint on the average error probability. In this first part of the paper, we start by showing that the solution set of both noncooperative games is always nonempty and contains only pure strategies. Then, we prove that the optimal precoding/multiplexing scheme for both games leads to a channel diagonalizing structure, so that both matrix-valued problems can be recast in a simpler unified vector power control game, with no performance penalty. Thus, we study this simpler game and derive sufficient conditions ensuring the uniqueness of the Nash equilibrium. Interestingly, although derived under stronger constraints, incorporating for example spectral mask constraints, our uniqueness conditions have broader validity than previously known conditions. Finally, we assess the goodness of the proposed decentralized strategy by comparing its performance with the performance of a Pareto-optimal centralized scheme. To reach the Nash equilibria of the game, in Part II, we propose alternative distributed algorithms, along with their convergence conditions.

A robust maximin approach for MIMO communications with imperfect channel state information based on convex optimization

This paper considers a wireless communication system with multiple transmit and receive antennas, i.e., a multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) channel. The objective is to design the transmitter according to an imperfect channel estimate, where the errors are explicitly taken into account to obtain a robust design under the maximin or worst case philosophy. The robust transmission scheme is composed of an orthogonal space-time block code (OSTBC), whose outputs are transmitted through the eigenmodes of the channel estimate with an appropriate power allocation among them. At the receiver, the signal is detected assuming a perfect channel knowledge. The optimization problem corresponding to the design of the power allocation among the estimated eigenmodes, whose goal is the maximization of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), is transformed to a simple convex problem that can be easily solved. Different sources of errors are considered in the channel estimate, such as the Gaussian noise from the estimation process and the errors from the quantization of the channel estimate, among others. For the case of Gaussian noise, the robust power allocation admits a closed-form expression. Finally, the benefits of the proposed design are evaluated and compared with the pure OSTBC and nonrobust approaches.

Alternative Distributed Algorithms for Network Utility Maximization: Framework and Applications

Network utility maximization (NUM) problem formulations provide an important approach to conduct network resource allocation and to view layering as optimization decomposition. In the existing literature, distributed implementations are typically achieved by means of the so-called dual decomposition technique. However, the span of decomposition possibilities includes many other elements that, thus far, have not been fully exploited, such as the use of the primal decomposition technique, the versatile introduction of auxiliary variables, and the potential of multilevel decompositions. This paper presents a systematic framework to exploit alternative decomposition structures as a way to obtain different distributed algorithms, each with a different tradeoff among convergence speed, message passing amount and asymmetry, and distributed computation architecture. Several specific applications are considered to illustrate the proposed framework, including resource-constrained and direct-control rate allocation, and rate allocation among QoS classes with multipath routing. For each of these applications, the associated generalized NUM formulation is first presented, followed by the development of novel alternative decompositions and numerical experiments on the resulting new distributed algorithms. A systematic enumeration and comparison of alternative vertical decompositions in the future will help complete a mathematical theory of network architectures.

Competitive Design of Multiuser MIMO Systems Based on Game Theory: A Unified View

This paper considers the noncooperative maximization of mutual information in the Gaussian interference channel in a fully distributed fashion via game theory. This problem has been studied in a number of papers during the past decade for the case of frequency-selective channels. A variety of conditions guaranteeing the uniqueness of the Nash Equilibrium (NE) and convergence of many different distributed algorithms have been derived. In this paper we provide a unified view of the state-of- the-art results, showing that most of the techniques proposed in the literature to study the game, even though apparently different, can be unified using our recent interpretation of the waterfilling operator as a projection onto a proper polyhedral set. Based on this interpretation, we then provide a mathematical framework, useful to derive a unified set of sufficient conditions guaranteeing the uniqueness of the NE and the global convergence of waterfilling based asynchronous distributed algorithms. The proposed mathematical framework is also instrumental to study the extension of the game to the more general MIMO case, for which only few results are available in the current literature. The resulting algorithm is, similarly to the frequency-selective case, an iterative asynchronous MIMO waterfilling algorithm. The proof of convergence hinges again on the interpretation of the MIMO waterfilling as a matrix projection, which is the natural generalization of our results obtained for the waterfilling mapping in the frequency-selective case.

MIMO transceiver design via majorization theory

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channels provide an abstract and unified representation of different physical communication systems, ranging from multi-antenna wireless channels to wireless digital subscriber line systems. They have the key property that several data streams can be simultaneously established. In general, the design of communication systems for MIMO channels is quite involved (if one can assume the use of sufficiently long and good codes, then the problem formulation simplifies drastically). The first difficulty lies on how to measure the global performance of such systems given the tradeoff on the performance among the different data streams. Once the problem formulation is defined, the resulting mathematical problem is typically too complicated to be optimally solved as it is a matrix-valued nonconvex optimization problem. This design problem has been studied for the past three decades (the first papers dating back to the 1970s) motivated initially by cable systems and more recently by wireless multi-antenna systems. The approach was to choose a specific global measure of performance and then to design the system accordingly, either optimally or suboptimally, depending on the difficulty of the problem. This text presents an up-to-date unified mathematical framework for the design of point-to-point MIMO transceivers with channel state information at both sides of the link according to an arbitrary cost function as a measure of the system performance. In addition, the framework embraces the design of systems with given individual performance on the data streams. Majorization theory is the underlying mathematical theory on which the framework hinges. It allows the transformation of the originally complicated matrix-valued nonconvex problem into a simple scalar problem. In particular, the additive majorization relation plays a key role in the design of linear MIMO transceivers (i.e., a linear precoder at the transmitter and a linear equalizer at the receiver), whereas the multiplicative majorization relation is the basis for nonlinear decision-feedback MIMO transceivers (i.e., a linear precoder at the transmitter and a decision-feedback equalizer at the receiver).