A novel Physical Layer Security (PLS) framework is conceived for enhancing the security of the wireless communication systems by exploiting multi-domain polarization in Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) systems. We design a sophisticated key generation scheme based on multi-domain polarization, and the corresponding receivers. An in-depth analysis of the system's secrecy rate is provided, demonstrating the confidentiality of our approach in the presence of eavesdroppers having strong computational capabilities. More explicitly, our simulation results and theoretical analysis corroborate the advantages of the proposed scheme in terms of its bit error rate (BER), block error rate (BLER), and maximum achievable secrecy rate. Our findings indicate that the innovative PLS framework effectively enhances the security and reliability of wireless communication systems. For instance, in a $4\times4$ MIMO setup, the proposed PLS strategy exhibits an improvement of $2$dB compared to conventional MIMO, systems at a BLER of $2\cdot 10^{-5}$ while the eavesdropper's BLER reaches $1$.
Holographic MIMO (HMIMO) is being increasingly recognized as a key enabling technology for 6G wireless systems through the deployment of an extremely large number of antennas within a compact space to fully exploit the potentials of the electromagnetic (EM) channel. Nevertheless, the benefits of HMIMO systems cannot be fully unleashed without an efficient means to estimate the high-dimensional channel, whose distribution becomes increasingly complicated due to the accessibility of the near-field region. In this paper, we address the fundamental challenge of designing a low-complexity Bayes-optimal channel estimator in near-field HMIMO systems operating in unknown EM environments. The core idea is to estimate the HMIMO channels solely based on the Stein's score function of the received pilot signals and an estimated noise level, without relying on priors or supervision that is not feasible in practical deployment. A neural network is trained with the unsupervised denoising score matching objective to learn the parameterized score function. Meanwhile, a principal component analysis (PCA)-based algorithm is proposed to estimate the noise level leveraging the low-rank near-field spatial correlation. Building upon these techniques, we develop a Bayes-optimal score-based channel estimator for fully-digital HMIMO transceivers in a closed form. The optimal score-based estimator is also extended to hybrid analog-digital HMIMO systems by incorporating it into a low-complexity message passing algorithm. The (quasi-) Bayes-optimality of the proposed estimators is validated both in theory and by extensive simulation results. In addition to optimality, it is shown that our proposal is robust to various mismatches and can quickly adapt to dynamic EM environments in an online manner thanks to its unsupervised nature, demonstrating its potential in real-world deployment.
The purpose of this article is to investigate the viability of Multi-Carrier Modulation (MCM) systems based on the Fast Walsh Hadamard Transform (FWHT). In addition, a nonlinear Joint Low-Complexity Optimized Zero Forcing Successive Interference Cancellation (JLCOZF-SIC) equalizer is proposed. To that end, general equations for the number of flops of the proposed equalizer and various other equalizers are given. This article discusses the use of Banded Matrix Approximation (BMA) as a technique for reducing complexity. The proposed equalizer uses BMA to accomplish both equalization and co-Carrier Frequency Offset (co-CFO) corrections. In addition, three cases involving the proposed equalizer were investigated. In the first case, diagonal compensation is used. In the second case, BMA compensation is used. In the third case, complete matrix compensation is used. In the presence of frequency offset, noise, and frequency-selective Rayleigh fading environments, analysis and simulation results show that the OFDM-FWHT system with the proposed equalizer outperforms the conventional OFDM system with various linear and nonlinear equalizers.
With the rapid progress in virtual reality (VR) technology, the scope of VR applications has greatly expanded across various domains. However, the superiority of VR training over traditional methods and its impact on learning efficacy are still uncertain. To investigate whether VR training is more effective than traditional methods, we designed virtual training systems for mechanical assembly on both VR and desktop platforms, subsequently conducting pre-test and post-test experiments. A cohort of 53 students, all enrolled in engineering drawing course without prior knowledge distinctions, was randomly divided into three groups: physical training, desktop virtual training, and immersive VR training. Our investigation utilized analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) to examine the differences in post-test scores among the three groups while controlling for pre-test scores. The group that received VR training showed the highest scores on the post-test. Another facet of our study delved into the presence of the virtual system. We developed a specialized scale to assess this aspect for our research objectives. Our findings indicate that VR training can enhance the sense of presence, particularly in terms of sensory factors and realism factors. Moreover, correlation analysis uncovers connections between the various dimensions of presence. This study confirms that using VR training can improve learning efficacy and the presence in the context of mechanical assembly, surpassing traditional training methods. Furthermore, it provides empirical evidence supporting the integration of VR technology in higher education and engineering training. This serves as a reference for the practical application of VR technology in different fields.
The Vision Transformer has emerged as a powerful tool for image classification tasks, surpassing the performance of convolutional neural networks (CNNs). Recently, many researchers have attempted to understand the robustness of Transformers against adversarial attacks. However, previous researches have focused solely on perturbations in the spatial domain. This paper proposes an additional perspective that explores the adversarial robustness of Transformers against frequency-selective perturbations in the spectral domain. To facilitate comparison between these two domains, an attack framework is formulated as a flexible tool for implementing attacks on images in the spatial and spectral domains. The experiments reveal that Transformers rely more on phase and low frequency information, which can render them more vulnerable to frequency-selective attacks than CNNs. This work offers new insights into the properties and adversarial robustness of Transformers.
Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning (MARL) has emerged as a foundational approach for addressing diverse, intelligent control tasks, notably in autonomous driving within the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) domain. However, the widely assumed existence of a central node for centralized, federated learning-assisted MARL might be impractical in highly dynamic environments. This can lead to excessive communication overhead, potentially overwhelming the IoV system. To address these challenges, we design a novel communication-efficient and policy collaboration algorithm for MARL under the frameworks of Soft Actor-Critic (SAC) and Decentralized Federated Learning (DFL), named RSM-MASAC, within a fully distributed architecture. In particular, RSM-MASAC enhances multi-agent collaboration and prioritizes higher communication efficiency in dynamic IoV system by incorporating the concept of segmented aggregation in DFL and augmenting multiple model replicas from received neighboring policy segments, which are subsequently employed as reconstructed referential policies for mixing. Distinctively diverging from traditional RL approaches, with derived new bounds under Maximum Entropy Reinforcement Learning (MERL), RSM-MASAC adopts a theory-guided mixture metric to regulate the selection of contributive referential policies to guarantee the soft policy improvement during communication phase. Finally, the extensive simulations in mixed-autonomy traffic control scenarios verify the effectiveness and superiority of our algorithm.
New applications are being supported by current and future networks. In particular, it is expected that Metaverse applications will be deployed in the near future, as 5G and 6G network provide sufficient bandwidth and sufficiently low latency to provide a satisfying end-user experience. However, networks still need to evolve to better support this type of application. We present here a basic taxonomy of the metaverse, which allows to identify some of the networking requirements for such an application; we also provide an overview of the current state of balthe standardization efforts in different standardization organizations, including ITU-T, 3GPP, IETF and MPAI.
In real-world scenarios, trusted execution environments (TEEs) frequently host applications that lack the trust of the infrastructure provider, as well as data owners who have specifically outsourced their data for remote processing. We present Twine, a trusted runtime for running WebAssembly-compiled applications within TEEs, establishing a two-way sandbox. Twine leverages memory safety guarantees of WebAssembly (Wasm) and abstracts the complexity of TEEs, empowering the execution of legacy and language-agnostic applications. It extends the standard WebAssembly system interface (WASI), providing controlled OS services, focusing on I/O. Additionally, through built-in TEE mechanisms, Twine delivers attestation capabilities to ensure the integrity of the runtime and the OS services supplied to the application. We evaluate its performance using general-purpose benchmarks and real-world applications, showing it compares on par with state-of-the-art solutions. A case study involving fintech company Credora reveals that Twine can be deployed in production with reasonable performance trade-offs, ranging from a 0.7x slowdown to a 1.17x speedup compared to native run time. Finally, we identify performance improvement through library optimisation, showcasing one such adjustment that leads up to 4.1x speedup. Twine is open-source and has been upstreamed into the original Wasm runtime, WAMR.
Given large language models' (LLMs) increasing integration into workplace software, it is important to examine how potential biases they introduce can impact workers. Stylistic biases in the language suggested by LLMs may cause feelings of alienation and result in increased labor for individuals or groups whose style does not match. We examine how such writer-style bias impacts inclusion, control, and ownership over the work when co-writing with LLMs. In an online experiment, participants wrote hypothetical job promotion requests using either hesitant or self-assured auto-complete suggestions from an LLM and reported their subsequent perceptions of inclusion, control, and ownership. We found that the style of the AI model did not impact perceived inclusion. However, individuals with higher perceived inclusion did perceive greater agency and ownership, an effect more strongly impacting participants of minoritized genders. Feelings of inclusion mitigated a loss of control and agency when accepting more AI suggestions.
Deep neural networks (DNNs) are successful in many computer vision tasks. However, the most accurate DNNs require millions of parameters and operations, making them energy, computation and memory intensive. This impedes the deployment of large DNNs in low-power devices with limited compute resources. Recent research improves DNN models by reducing the memory requirement, energy consumption, and number of operations without significantly decreasing the accuracy. This paper surveys the progress of low-power deep learning and computer vision, specifically in regards to inference, and discusses the methods for compacting and accelerating DNN models. The techniques can be divided into four major categories: (1) parameter quantization and pruning, (2) compressed convolutional filters and matrix factorization, (3) network architecture search, and (4) knowledge distillation. We analyze the accuracy, advantages, disadvantages, and potential solutions to the problems with the techniques in each category. We also discuss new evaluation metrics as a guideline for future research.
This paper presents SimCLR: a simple framework for contrastive learning of visual representations. We simplify recently proposed contrastive self-supervised learning algorithms without requiring specialized architectures or a memory bank. In order to understand what enables the contrastive prediction tasks to learn useful representations, we systematically study the major components of our framework. We show that (1) composition of data augmentations plays a critical role in defining effective predictive tasks, (2) introducing a learnable nonlinear transformation between the representation and the contrastive loss substantially improves the quality of the learned representations, and (3) contrastive learning benefits from larger batch sizes and more training steps compared to supervised learning. By combining these findings, we are able to considerably outperform previous methods for self-supervised and semi-supervised learning on ImageNet. A linear classifier trained on self-supervised representations learned by SimCLR achieves 76.5% top-1 accuracy, which is a 7% relative improvement over previous state-of-the-art, matching the performance of a supervised ResNet-50. When fine-tuned on only 1% of the labels, we achieve 85.8% top-5 accuracy, outperforming AlexNet with 100X fewer labels.