Yongwei Huang

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.

A new radar waveform design algorithm with improved feasibility for spectral coexistence

Radar signal design in a spectrally crowded environment is currently a challenge due to the increasing requests for spectrum from both military sensing applications and civilian wireless services. The goal of this paper is to improve a previously devised algorithm for the synthesis of optimized radar waveforms fulfilling spectral compatibility with overlaid licensed radiators. The new technique achieves an enhanced spectral coexistence with the surrounding electromagnetic environment through a suitable modulation of the transmitted waveform energy, which was kept fixed at the maximum level in the previously devised algorithm. At the analysis stage, the waveform performance is studied in terms of trade-off among the achievable Signal to Interference Plus Noise Ratio (SINR), spectral shape, and the resulting Autocorrelation Function (ACF), also in situations where the previous technique cannot be applied.

Fractional QCQP With Applications in ML Steering Direction Estimation for Radar Detection

This paper deals with the problem of estimating the steering direction of a signal, embedded in Gaussian disturbance, under a general quadratic inequality constraint, representing the uncertainty region of the steering. We resort to the maximum likelihood (ML) criterion and focus on two scenarios. The former assumes that the complex amplitude of the useful signal component fluctuates from snapshot to snapshot. The latter supposes that the useful signal keeps a constant amplitude within all the snapshots. We prove that the ML criterion leads in both cases to a fractional quadratically constrained quadratic problem (QCQP). In order to solve it, we first relax the problem into a constrained fractional semidefinite programming (SDP) problem which is shown equivalent, via the Charnes-Cooper transformation, to an SDP problem. Then, exploiting a suitable rank-one decomposition, we show that the SDP relaxation is tight and give a procedure to construct (in polynomial time) an optimal solution of the original problem from an optimal solution of the fractional SDP. We also assess the quality of the derived estimator through a comparison between its performance and the constrained Cramer Rao lower Bound (CRB). Finally, we give two applications of the proposed theoretical framework in the context of radar detection.

Robust Transceiver Optimization for Power-Splitting Based Downlink MISO SWIPT Systems

This letter considers a downlink multi-input single-out (MISO) system where each user performs simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) based on a power splitting receiver architecture. Assuming imperfect channel state information (CSI) at the base station, we develop two robust joint beamforming and power splitting (BFPS) designs that minimize the transmission power under both the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) and energy harvesting (EH) constraints per user. In the first design, we consider the worst-case (WC) SINR and EH constraints, and show that the WC-BFPS problem can be relaxed as a semidefinite program (SDP) through a linear matrix inequality representation for (infinitely many) robust quadratic matrix inequality constraints. In the second design, we consider the chance constraints (CCs) for SINR and EH, and resort to both semidefinite relaxation and Bernstein-type inequality restriction to transform the CC-BFPS problem into another convex SDP. Based on these convex reformulations, the (near-)optimal robust BFPS designs can be efficiently solved. Numerical results are provided to demonstrate the merit of the proposed robust designs.

Randomized Algorithms for Optimal Solutions of Double-Sided QCQP With Applications in Signal Processing

Quadratically constrained quadratic programming (QCQP) with double-sided constraints has plenty of applications in signal processing as have been addressed in recent years. QCQP problems are hard to solve, in general, and they are typically approached by solving a semidefinite programming (SDP) relaxation followed by a postprocessing procedure. Existing postprocessing schemes include Gaussian randomization to generate an approximate solution, rank reduction procedure (the so-called purification), and some specific rank-one matrix decomposition techniques to yield a globally optimal solution. In this paper, we propose several randomized postprocessing methods to output not an approximate solution but a globally optimal solution for some solvable instances of the double-sided QCQP (i.e., instances with a small number of constraints). We illustrate their applicability in robust receive beamforming, radar optimal code design, and broadcast beamforming for multiuser communications. As a byproduct, we derive an alternative (shorter) proof for the Sturm-Zhang rank-one matrix decomposition theorem.

Code Design for Radar STAP via Optimization Theory

In this paper, we deal with the problem of constrained code optimization for radar space-time adaptive processing (STAP) in the presence of colored Gaussian disturbance. At the design stage, we devise a code design algorithm complying with the following optimality criterion: maximization of the detection performance under a control on the regions of achievable values for the temporal and spatial Doppler estimation accuracy, and on the degree of similarity with a pre-fixed radar code. The resulting quadratic optimization problem is solved resorting to a convex relaxation that belongs to the semidefinite program (SDP) class. An optimal solution of the initial problem is then constructed through a suitable rank-one decomposition of an optimal solution of the relaxed one. At the analysis stage, we assess the performance of the new algorithm both on simulated data and on the standard challenging the Knowledge-Aided Sensor Signal Processing and Expert Reasoning (KASSPER) datacube.

A Dual Perspective on Separable Semidefinite Programming With Applications to Optimal Downlink Beamforming

This paper considers the downlink beamforming optimization problem that minimizes the total transmission power subject to global shaping constraints and individual shaping constraints, in addition to the constraints of quality of service (QoS) measured by signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR). This beamforming problem is a separable homogeneous quadratically constrained quadratic program (QCQP), which is difficult to solve in general. Herein we propose efficient algorithms for the problem consisting of two main steps: 1) solving the semidefinite programming (SDP) relaxed problem, and 2) formulating a linear program (LP) and solving the LP (with closed-form solution) to find a rank-one optimal solution of the SDP relaxation. Accordingly, the corresponding optimal beamforming problem (OBP) is proven to be “hidden” convex, namely, strong duality holds true under certain mild conditions. In contrast to the existing algorithms based on either the rank reduction steps (the purification process) or the Perron-Frobenius theorem, the proposed algorithms are based on the linear program strong duality theorem.

Lorentz-Positive Maps and Quadratic Matrix Inequalities With Applications to Robust MISO Transmit Beamforming

Consider a unicast downlink beamforming optimization problem with robust signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio constraints to account for imperfect channel state information at the base station in a multiple-input single-output (MISO) communication system. The convexity of this robust beamforming problem remains unknown. A slightly conservative version of the robust beamforming problem is thus studied herein as a compromise. It is in the form of a semi-infinite second-order cone program (SOCP) and, more importantly, it possesses an equivalent and explicit convex reformulation, due to a linear matrix inequality (LMI) description of the cone of Lorentz-positive maps. Hence, the conservative robust beamforming problem can be efficiently solved by an optimization solver. Additional robust shaping constraints can also be easily handled to control the amount of interference generated on other co-existing users such as in cognitive radio systems.

A Doppler Robust Max-Min Approach to Radar Code Design

This correspondence considers the problem of robust waveform design in the presence of colored Gaussian disturbance under a similarity and an energy constraint. We resort to a max-min approach, where the worst case detection performance (over the possible Doppler shifts) is optimized with respect to the radar waveform under the previously mentioned constraints. The resulting optimization problem is a non-convex Quadratically Constrained Quadratic Program (QCQP) with an infinite number of constraints, which is NP-hard in general and typically difficult to solve. Hence, we propose an algorithm with a polynomial computational complexity to generate a good sub-optimal solution for the aforementioned QCQP. The analysis, conducted in comparison with some known radar waveforms, shows that the sub-optimal solutions by the algorithm lead to high-quality radar signals.

Convex Optimization in Signal Processing and Communications: Semidefinite programming, matrix decomposition, and radar code design

In this chapter, we study specific rank-1 decomposition techniques for Hermitian positive semidefinite matrices. Based on the semidefinite programming relaxation method and the decomposition techniques, we identify several classes of quadratically constrained quadratic programming problems that are polynomially solvable. Typically, such problems do not have too many constraints. As an example, we demonstrate how to apply the new techniques to solve an optimal code design problem arising from radar signal processing. Introduction and notation Semidefinite programming (SDP) is a relatively new subject of research in optimization. Its success has caused major excitement in the field. One is referred to Boyd and Vandenberghe [11] for an excellent introduction to SDP and its applications. In this chapter, we shall elaborate on a special application of SDP for solving quadratically constrained quadratic programming (QCQP) problems. The techniques we shall introduce are related to how a positive semidefinite matrix can be decomposed into a sum of rank-1 positive semidefinite matrices, in a specific way that helps to solve nonconvex quadratic optimization with quadratic constraints. The advantage of the method is that the convexity of the original quadratic optimization problem becomes irrelevant; only the number of constraints is important for the method to be effective. We further present a study on how this method helps to solve a radar code design problem. Through this investigation, we aim to make a case that solving nonconvex quadratic optimization by SDP is a viable approach.