In this paper, we investigate dynamic resource scheduling (i.e., joint user, subchannel, and power scheduling) for downlink multi-channel non-orthogonal multiple access (MC-NOMA) systems over time-varying fading channels. Specifically, we address the weighted average sum rate maximization problem with quality-of-service (QoS) constraints. In particular, to facilitate fast resource scheduling, we focus on developing a very low-complexity algorithm. To this end, by leveraging Lagrangian duality and the stochastic optimization theory, we first develop an opportunistic MC-NOMA scheduling algorithm whereby the original problem is decomposed into a series of subproblems, one for each time slot. Accordingly, resource scheduling works in an online manner by solving one subproblem per time slot, making it more applicable to practical systems. Then, we further develop a heuristic joint subchannel assignment and power allocation (Joint-SAPA) algorithm with very low computational complexity, called Joint-SAPA-LCC, that solves each subproblem. Finally, through simulation, we show that our Joint-SAPA-LCC algorithm provides good performance comparable to the existing Joint-SAPA algorithms despite requiring much lower computational complexity. We also demonstrate that our opportunistic MC-NOMA scheduling algorithm in which the Joint-SAPA-LCC algorithm is embedded works well while satisfying given QoS requirements.
Multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) has attracted much research attention recently. However, unlike its single-agent counterpart, many theoretical and algorithmic aspects of MARL have not been well-understood. In this paper, we study the emergence of coordinated behavior by autonomous agents using an actor-critic (AC) algorithm. Specifically, we propose and analyze a class of coordinated actor-critic algorithms (CAC) in which individually parametrized policies have a {\it shared} part (which is jointly optimized among all agents) and a {\it personalized} part (which is only locally optimized). Such kind of {\it partially personalized} policy allows agents to learn to coordinate by leveraging peers' past experience and adapt to individual tasks. The flexibility in our design allows the proposed MARL-CAC algorithm to be used in a {\it fully decentralized} setting, where the agents can only communicate with their neighbors, as well as a {\it federated} setting, where the agents occasionally communicate with a server while optimizing their (partially personalized) local models. Theoretically, we show that under some standard regularity assumptions, the proposed MARL-CAC algorithm requires $\mathcal{O}(\epsilon^{-\frac{5}{2}})$ samples to achieve an $\epsilon$-stationary solution (defined as the solution whose squared norm of the gradient of the objective function is less than $\epsilon$). To the best of our knowledge, this work provides the first finite-sample guarantee for decentralized AC algorithm with partially personalized policies.
Multi-antenna coded caching is known to combine a global caching gain that is proportional to the cumulative cache size found across the network, with an additional spatial multiplexing gain that stems from using multiple transmitting antennas. However, a closer look reveals two severe bottlenecks; the well-known exponential subpacketization bottleneck that dramatically reduces performance when the communicated file sizes are finite, and the considerable optimization complexity of beamforming multicast messages when the SNR is finite. We here present an entirely novel caching scheme, termed \emph{cyclic multi-antenna coded caching}, whose unique structure allows for the resolution of the above bottlenecks in the crucial regime of many transmit antennas. For this regime, where the multiplexing gain can exceed the coding gain, our new algorithm is the first to achieve the exact one-shot linear optimal DoF with a subpacketization complexity that scales only linearly with the number of users, and the first to benefit from a multicasting structure that allows for exploiting uplink-downlink duality in order to yield optimized beamformers ultra-fast. In the end, our novel solution provides excellent performance for networks with finite SNR, finite file sizes, and many users.
In this paper, we investigate a cell-free massive MIMO system with both access points (APs) and user equipments (UEs) equipped with multiple antennas over jointly correlated Rayleigh fading channels. We study four uplink implementations, from fully centralized processing to fully distributed processing, and derive achievable spectral efficiency (SE) expressions with minimum mean-squared error successive interference cancellation (MMSE-SIC) detectors and arbitrary combining schemes. Furthermore, the global and local MMSE combining schemes are derived based on full and local channel state information (CSI) obtained under pilot contamination, which can maximize the achievable SE for the fully centralized and distributed implementation, respectively. We study a two-layer decoding implementation with an arbitrary combining scheme in the first layer and optimal large-scale fading decoding in the second layer. Besides, we compute novel closed-form SE expressions for the two-layer decoding implementation with maximum ratio combining. We compare the SE of different implementation levels and combining schemes and investigate the effect of having additional UE antennas. Note that increasing the number of antennas per UE may degrade the SE performance and the optimal number of UE antennas maximizing the SE is related to the implementation levels, the length of the resource block, and the number of UEs.
We consider the subset selection problem for function $f$ with constraint bound $B$ that changes over time. Within the area of submodular optimization, various greedy approaches are commonly used. For dynamic environments we observe that the adaptive variants of these greedy approaches are not able to maintain their approximation quality. Investigating the recently introduced POMC Pareto optimization approach, we show that this algorithm efficiently computes a $\phi= (\alpha_f/2)(1-\frac{1}{e^{\alpha_f}})$-approximation, where $\alpha_f$ is the submodularity ratio of $f$, for each possible constraint bound $b \leq B$. Furthermore, we show that POMC is able to adapt its set of solutions quickly in the case that $B$ increases. Our experimental investigations for the influence maximization in social networks show the advantage of POMC over generalized greedy algorithms. We also consider EAMC, a new evolutionary algorithm with polynomial expected time guarantee to maintain $\phi$ approximation ratio, and NSGA-II with two different population sizes as advanced multi-objective optimization algorithm, to demonstrate their challenges in optimizing the maximum coverage problem. Our empirical analysis shows that, within the same number of evaluations, POMC is able to perform as good as NSGA-II under linear constraint, while EAMC performs significantly worse than all considered algorithms in most cases.
The Minimum Spanning Tree problem (abbr. MSTP) is a well-known combinatorial optimization problem that has been extensively studied by the researchers in the field of evolutionary computing to theoretically analyze the optimization performance of evolutionary algorithms. Within the paper, we consider a constrained version of the problem named 2-Hop (1,2)-Minimum Spanning Tree problem (abbr. 2H-(1,2)-MSTP) in the context of evolutionary algorithms, which has been shown to be NP-hard. Following how evolutionary algorithms are applied to solve the MSTP, we first consider the evolutionary algorithms with search points in edge-based representation adapted to the 2H-(1,2)-MSTP (including the (1+1) EA, Global Simple Evolutionary Multi-Objective Optimizer and its two variants). More specifically, we separately investigate the upper bounds on their expected time (i.e., the expected number of fitness evaluations) to obtain a $\frac{3}{2}$-approximate solution with respect to different fitness functions. Inspired by the special structure of 2-hop spanning trees, we also consider the (1+1) EA with search points in vertex-based representation that seems not so natural for the problem and give an upper bound on its expected time to obtain a $\frac{3}{2}$-approximate solution, which is better than the above mentioned ones.
While a Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA) is intended to provide a quantum advantage in finding approximate solutions to combinatorial optimization problems, noise in the system is a hurdle in exploiting its full potential. Several error mitigation techniques have been studied to lessen the effect of noise on this algorithm. Recently, Majumdar et al. proposed a Depth First Search (DFS) based method to reduce $n-1$ CNOT gates in the ansatz design of QAOA for finding Max-Cut in a graph G = (V, E), |V| = n. However, this method tends to increase the depth of the circuit, making it more prone to relaxation error. The depth of the circuit is proportional to the height of the DFS tree, which can be $n-1$ in the worst case. In this paper, we propose an $O(\Delta \cdot n^2)$ greedy heuristic algorithm, where $\Delta$ is the maximum degree of the graph, that finds a spanning tree of lower height, thus reducing the overall depth of the circuit while still retaining the $n-1$ reduction in the number of CNOT gates needed in the ansatz. We numerically show that this algorithm achieves nearly 10 times increase in the probability of success for each iteration of QAOA for Max-Cut. We further show that although the average depth of the circuit produced by this heuristic algorithm still grows linearly with n, our algorithm reduces the slope of the linear increase from 1 to 0.11.
We consider a distributed learning problem in a wireless network, consisting of N distributed edge devices and a parameter server (PS). The objective function is a sum of the edge devices' local loss functions, who aim to train a shared model by communicating with the PS over multiple access channels (MAC). This problem has attracted a growing interest in distributed sensing systems, and more recently in federated learning, known as over-the-air computation. In this paper, we develop a novel Accelerated Gradient-descent Multiple Access (AGMA) algorithm that uses momentum-based gradient signals over noisy fading MAC to improve the convergence rate as compared to existing methods. Furthermore, AGMA does not require power control or beamforming to cancel the fading effect, which simplifies the implementation complexity. We analyze AGMA theoretically, and establish a finite-sample bound of the error for both convex and strongly convex loss functions with Lipschitz gradient. For the strongly convex case, we show that AGMA approaches the best-known linear convergence rate as the network increases. For the convex case, we show that AGMA significantly improves the sub-linear convergence rate as compared to existing methods. Finally, we present simulation results using real datasets that demonstrate better performance by AGMA.
Sparse code multiple access (SCMA) is a promising multiuser communication technique for the enabling of future massive machine-type networks. Unlike existing codebook design schemes assuming uniform power allocation, we present a novel class of SCMA codebooks which display power imbalance among different users for downlink transmission. Based on the Star-QAM mother constellation structure and with the aid of genetic algorithm, we optimize the minimum Euclidean distance (MED) and the minimum product distance (MPD) of the proposed codebooks. Numerical simulation results show that our proposed codebooks lead to significantly improved error rate performances over Gaussian channels and Rayleigh fading channels.
We propose accelerated randomized coordinate descent algorithms for stochastic optimization and online learning. Our algorithms have significantly less per-iteration complexity than the known accelerated gradient algorithms. The proposed algorithms for online learning have better regret performance than the known randomized online coordinate descent algorithms. Furthermore, the proposed algorithms for stochastic optimization exhibit as good convergence rates as the best known randomized coordinate descent algorithms. We also show simulation results to demonstrate performance of the proposed algorithms.
In this paper, an interference-aware path planning scheme for a network of cellular-connected unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is proposed. In particular, each UAV aims at achieving a tradeoff between maximizing energy efficiency and minimizing both wireless latency and the interference level caused on the ground network along its path. The problem is cast as a dynamic game among UAVs. To solve this game, a deep reinforcement learning algorithm, based on echo state network (ESN) cells, is proposed. The introduced deep ESN architecture is trained to allow each UAV to map each observation of the network state to an action, with the goal of minimizing a sequence of time-dependent utility functions. Each UAV uses ESN to learn its optimal path, transmission power level, and cell association vector at different locations along its path. The proposed algorithm is shown to reach a subgame perfect Nash equilibrium (SPNE) upon convergence. Moreover, an upper and lower bound for the altitude of the UAVs is derived thus reducing the computational complexity of the proposed algorithm. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme achieves better wireless latency per UAV and rate per ground user (UE) while requiring a number of steps that is comparable to a heuristic baseline that considers moving via the shortest distance towards the corresponding destinations. The results also show that the optimal altitude of the UAVs varies based on the ground network density and the UE data rate requirements and plays a vital role in minimizing the interference level on the ground UEs as well as the wireless transmission delay of the UAV.