Random Beamforming with Heterogeneous Users and Selective Feedback: Individual Sum Rate and Individual Scaling Laws

This paper investigates three open problems in random beamforming based communication systems: the scheduling policy with heterogeneous users, the closed form sum rate, and the randomness of multiuser diversity with selective feedback. By employing the cumulative distribution function based scheduling policy, we guarantee fairness among users as well as obtain multiuser diversity gain in the heterogeneous scenario. Under this scheduling framework, the individual sum rate, namely the average rate for a given user multiplied by the number of users, is of interest and analyzed under different feedback schemes. Firstly, under the full feedback scheme, we derive the closed form individual sum rate by employing a decomposition of the probability density function of the selected user's signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio. This technique is employed to further obtain a closed form rate approximation with selective feedback in the spatial dimension. The analysis is also extended to random beamforming in a wideband OFDMA system with additional selective feedback in the spectral dimension wherein only the best beams for the best-L resource blocks are fed back. We utilize extreme value theory to examine the randomness of multiuser diversity incurred by selective feedback. Finally, by leveraging the tail equivalence method, the multiplicative effect of selective feedback and random observations is observed to establish the individual rate scaling.Comment: Submitted in March 2012. To appear in IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications. Part of this paper builds upon the following letter: Y. Huang and B. D. Rao, "Closed form sum rate of random beamforming", IEEE Commun. Lett., vol. 16, no. 5, pp. 630-633, May 201

SPECIES DIVERSITY AND HUMAN WELL-BEING: A SPATIAL ECONOMETRIC APPROACH

Economic valuation of biodiversity is generally carried out by applying revealed or stated preference approaches to determine people’s willingness to pay for small changes in management options. Studies on species preservation investigating passive or nonuse values typically rely on stated preference methods such as the contingent valuation approach and often focus on single animal species. The total value of species preservation can only be derived by aggregating the various values. This paper proposes a different approach by investigating country level data on life-satisfaction attempting to explain differences in subjective well-being by reference to amongst other things species diversity. While most recent papers have concentrated on finding determinants of life-satisfaction other than income, little attention has been drawn to spatial interdependencies. Most researchers investigating the determinants of life-satisfaction implicitly assume that subjective well-being is unaffected by events in neighbouring locations. The existence of spatial relationships in the data has implications for the econometric techniques typically employed including misleading inference testing procedures, bias and inconsistency depending on the precise form of the spatial relationship. We extend our analysis by a spatial econometric approach investigating whether and to what extend spatial relationships exist. Spatially weighted variables are shown to be a highly significant determinant of life-satisfaction. As nature does not respect man-made borders, neither does peoples happiness. Furthermore, even when controlling for a range of other factors we find a significant relationship with species diversity; the higher a countries number of bird or mammal species or the lower the percentage of bird species threatened the more satisfied the people are. Overall and from a human perspective, bird species seem to be a better indicator for biodiversity.amenity value, biodiversity, life-satisfaction, spatial econometrics, species diversity, well-being

A global database for metacommunity ecology, integrating species, traits, environment and space

The use of functional information in the form of species traits plays an important role in explaining biodiversity patterns and responses to environmental changes. Although relationships between species composition, their traits, and the environment have been extensively studied on a case-by-case basis, results are variable, and it remains unclear how generalizable these relationships are across ecosystems, taxa and spatial scales. To address this gap, we collated 80 datasets from trait-based studies into a global database for metaCommunity Ecology: Species, Traits, Environment and Space; “CESTES”. Each dataset includes four matrices: species community abundances or presences/absences across multiple sites, species trait information, environmental variables and spatial coordinates of the sampling sites. The CESTES database is a live database: it will be maintained and expanded in the future as new datasets become available. By its harmonized structure, and the diversity of ecosystem types, taxonomic groups, and spatial scales it covers, the CESTES database provides an important opportunity for synthetic trait-based research in community ecology

MIMO Underwater Visible Light Communications: Comprehensive Channel Study, Performance Analysis, and Multiple-Symbol Detection

In this paper, we analytically study the bit error rate (BER) performance of underwater visible light communication (UVLC) systems with binary pulse position modulation (BPPM). We simulate the channel fading-free impulse response (FFIR) based on Monte Carlo numerical method to take into account the absorption and scattering effects. Additionally, to characterize turbulence effects, we multiply the aforementioned FFIR by a fading coefficient which for weak oceanic turbulence can be modeled as a lognormal random variable (RV). Moreover, to mitigate turbulence effects, we employ multiple transmitters and/or receivers, i.e., spatial diversity technique over UVLC links. Closed-form expressions for the system BER are provided, when equal gain combiner (EGC) is employed at the receiver side, thanks to Gauss-Hermite quadrature formula and approximation to the sum of lognormal RVs. We further apply saddle-point approximation, an accurate photon-counting-based method, to evaluate the system BER in the presence of shot noise. Both laser-based collimated and light emitting diode (LED)-based diffusive links are investigated. Since multiple-scattering effect of UVLC channels on the propagating photons causes considerable inter-symbol interference (ISI), especially for diffusive channels, we also obtain the optimum multiple-symbol detection (MSD) algorithm to significantly alleviate ISI effects and improve the system performance. Our numerical analysis indicates good matches between the analytical and photon-counting results implying the negligibility of signal-dependent shot noise, and also between analytical results and numerical simulations confirming the accuracy of our derived closed-form expressions for the system BER. Besides, our results show that spatial diversity significantly mitigates fading impairments while MSD considerably alleviates ISI deteriorations

Network isolation and local diversity in neutral metacommunities

Biologists seek an understanding of the biological and environmental factors determining local community diversity. Recent advances in metacommunity ecology, and neutral theory in particular, highlight the importance of dispersal processes interacting with the spatial structure of a landscape for generating spatial patterns and maintaining biodiversity. The relative spatial isolation of a community is traditionally thought to have a large influence on local diversity. However, isolation remains an elusive concept to quantify, particularly in metacommunities with complex spatial structure. We represent the metacommunity as a network of local communities, and use network centrality measures to quantify the isolation of a local community. Using spatially explicit neutral theory, we examine how node position predicts variation in alpha diversity across a metacommunity. We find that diversity increases with node centrality in the network, but only when centrality is measured on a given scale in the network that widens with increasing dispersal rates and narrows with increasing evolutionary rates. More generally, complex biodiversity patterns form only when the underlying geography has structure on this critical scale. This provides a framework for understanding the influence of spatial geographic structure on global biodiversity patterns.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/79225/1/j.1600-0706.2010.18272.x.pd