Decoding the `Nature Encoded\u27 Messages for Wireless Networked Control Systems

Because of low installation and reconfiguration cost wireless communication has been widely applied in networked control system (NCS). NCS is a control system which uses multi-purpose shared network as communication medium to connect spatially distributed components of control system including sensors, actuator, and controller. The integration of wireless communication in NCS is challenging due to channel unreliability such as fading, shadowing, interference, mobility and receiver thermal noise leading to packet corruption, packet dropout and packet transmission delay. In this dissertation, the study is focused on the design of wireless receiver in order to exploit the redundancy in the system state, which can be considered as a `nature encoding\u27 for the messages. Firstly, for systems with or without explicit channel coding, a decoding procedures based on Pearl\u27s Belief Propagation (BP), in a similar manner to Turbo processing in traditional data communication systems, is proposed to exploit the redundancy in the system state. Numerical simulations have demonstrated the validity of the proposed schemes, using a linear model of electric generator dynamic system. Secondly, we propose a quickest detection based scheme to detect error propagation, which may happen in the proposed decoding scheme when channel condition is bad. Then we combine this proposed error propagation detection scheme with the proposed BP based channel decoding and state estimation algorithm. The validity of the proposed schemes has been shown by numerical simulations. Finally, we propose to use MSE-based transfer chart to evaluate the performance of the proposed BP based channel decoding and state estimation scheme. We focus on two models to evaluate the performance of BP based sequential and iterative channel decoding and state estimation. The numerical results show that MSE-based transfer chart can provide much insight about the performance of the proposed channel decoding and state estimation scheme. In this dissertation, the study is focused on the design of wireless receiver in order to exploit the redundancy in the system state, which can be considered as a `nature encoding\u27 for the messages. Firstly, for systems with or without explicit channel coding, a decoding procedures based on Pearl\u27s Belief Propagation (BP), in a similar manner to Turbo processing in traditional data communication systems, is proposed to exploit the redundancy in the system state. Numerical simulations have demonstrated the validity of the proposed schemes, using a linear model of electric generator dynamic system. Secondly, we propose a quickest detection based scheme to detect error propagation, which may happen in the proposed decoding scheme when channel condition is bad. Then we combine this proposed error propagation detection scheme with the proposed BP based channel decoding and state estimation algorithm. The validity of the proposed schemes has been shown by numerical simulations. Finally, we propose to use MSE-based transfer chart to evaluate the performance of the proposed BP based channel decoding and state estimation scheme. We focus on two models to evaluate the performance of BP based sequential and iterative channel decoding and state estimation. The numerical results show that MSE-based transfer chart can provide much insight about the performance of the proposed channel decoding and state estimation scheme

Communication Protocol Design Considerations For Highway Vehicle Platoons And Enhanced Networked Robustness By Stochastic Dithers

Highway platooning of vehicles has been identified as a promising framework in developing intelligent transportation systems. By autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle control and inter-vehicle coordination, an appropriately managed platoon can potentially offer enhanced safety, improved highway utility, increased fuel economy, and reduced emission. This thesis is focused on quantitative characterization of impact of communication information structures and contents on platoon safety. By comparing different information structures which combine front sensors, rear sensors, and wireless communication channels, and different information contents such as distances, speeds, and drivers\u27 actions, we reveal a number of intrinsic relationships between vehicle coordination and communications in platoons. Typical communication standards and related communication latency and package loss are used as benchmark cases in our study. These findings provide useful guidelines for information harmonization module (IHM) design in sensor selections, communication resource allocations, and vehicle coordination. Two new weighted multi-information structure control and information data rate control are proposed. Both control methods have been validated by experimental simulation and finite element analysis, and also show a surprising improvement of communication resources usage with data rate control. The results for the proposed module are new in the literature for vehicle platoon control. A new method is introduced to enhance feedback robustness against communication gain uncertainties. The method employs a fundamental property in stochastic differential equations to add a scaled stochastic dither under which tolerable gain uncertainties can be much enlarged, beyond the traditional deterministic optimal gain margin. Algorithms, stability, convergence, and robustness are presented for first-order systems. Extension to higher-dimensional systems is further discussed. Simulation results are used to illustrate the merits of this methodology

FeedNetBack - D03.01 - Control Subject to Transmission Constraints, No Transmission Errors

This is a Deliverable Report for the FeedNetBack project (www.feednetback.eu). It describes the research performed within Work Package 3, Task 3.1 (Control Subject to Transmission Constraints, no Transmission Errors), in the first 35 months of the project. It targets the issue of control subject to transmission constraints with no transmission error. This research concerns problems arising from the presence of a communication channel (specified and modeled at the physical layer) within the control loop. The resulting constraints include finite capacities in the transmission of the sensor and/or actuator signals. Our focus is on designing new quantization, compression and coding techniques to support networked control in this scenario. A first contribution of this report is a new adaptive differential coding algorithm for systems controlled through a digital noiseless channel with limited channel rate. The proposed technique results in global stability for noiseless MIMO systems, with a data-rate which is known to be the minimal required (as assessed by information-theoretical limits known in the literature as 'data-rate theorem'). With respect to existing algorithms, our scheme improves the transient behavior. A second line of research for the noiseless scenario has addressed the effect of limited data-rate in an algorithm running over a network. As a representative example, the consensus algorithm has been analyzed, and in particular its randomized version known as gossip algorithm. Static quantizers have been considered at first (both deterministic and probabilistic) and then the dynamic adaptive quantizers have been introduced also in this setting

信頼性の高い大容量公共用移動通信システムを実現するためのソフトウェア無線およびコグニティブ無線に関する研究

Public safety mobile wireless communication systems (PMCSs) are widely used by public safety personnel, such as firefighters and police, as well as local governments. PMCSs are crucial to protect safety and security of communities. Conventional PMCSs effectively cover underpopulated areas as well as urban areas by employing long-zone scheme. Since the PMCSs can cover areas that are not covered by commercial cellule systems, they play the important role as the only communication tool. Moreover, the conventional PMCSs have enhanced robustness and reliability. The conventional PMCSs can keep their services even if backbone lines are cut off. In contrast, short-zone scheme systems cannot offer stable and wide service area without backbone line connection. For example, the Great East Japan Earthquake in Japan, police mobile communication systems had kept their functions while cellular phones became disabled. PMCSs are required to be quite high robustness and reliability in order to save human life. Recently, conventional PMCSs are required to realize further expansion of service areas and high speed transmission although they have stably provided users with wide service areas so far. Nowadays, in order to solve complicated public affair quickly, more stable service areas and broadband communication are required. Compared with conventional PMCSs in urban areas, commercial wireless mobile communication systems (CWMCSs) such as cellular systems supply stable service areas and broadband communication in times of peace. In accordance with development of wireless technology, PMCSs need to keep pace with CWMCSs. However, conventional PMCSs can hardly realize further stable service areas and high speed transmission because of large-zone scheme. In terms of realization of further stable service areas, no-service areas cannot be eliminated easily. This is because no-service areas are mostly attributed to shadowing; in large-zone scheme, a no-service area that must essentially be covered by a certain base station is seldom covered by other neighboring base stations. Although new allocation of base stations is fundamental answer to solve no-service area problem in PMCSs, building new base stations of PMCSs that are not used for a commercial purpose is restricted by national and local budget. Realization of high speed transmission of PMCSs is also difficult because of large-zone scheme. To realize high speed transmission, increase of transmit power or shrinking of service area coverage is required to compensate Signal to Noise Power Ratio (SNR) deterioration caused by expanding bandwidth. Increase of transmission power of mobile station used in large-zone scheme systems is almost impossible because transmission power of mobile station is originally high. Thus, shrinking of service areas is necessary for high speed communication. Currently, to realize high speed transmission, next generation broadband PMCSs (BPMCSs) employing short-or middle-zone scheme are being developed. In the 3GPP, it is considered that the Long Term Evolution (LTE) is used for communication of public safety. In Japan, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) has researched and developed Public Broadband Wireless Communication System (PBWCS), which employs 200MHz as carrier frequency. The PBWCS has already been equipped in national police agency in Japan. However, we consider that the conventional narrowband PMCSs (NPM-CSs) are not replaced with the BPMCSs completely. This is because the BPMCSs cannot cover all the areas that the conventional NPM-CSs have covered. Moreover, there are problems of robustness and reliability when accidents happen. Hence, users of PMCSs will utilize both of NPMCSs and BPMCSs in accordance with the situation. In this case, users equipping several terminals feel inconvenient and also radio resources are not used effectively. The best solution to realize optimal PMCSs is employing heterogeneous cognitive radio (HCR) for PMCSs. By applying the HCR to PMCSs, service areas expansion and high speed transmission in PM-CSs will be realized effectively. We propose an integrated system combining NPMCSs with CWMCSs and BPMCSs to make communication quality of the PMCSs improve. The proposed HCR recognizes communication conditions of several systems and then provides PMCS\u27s users with optimal communication quality. Although software defined radio techniques (SDR) are ideal to operate cognitive radio more flexibly, we deal with HCR mainly to realize combined systems in this thesis. We study advantages, problems, and their solution to realize the HCR for PMCSs. Firstly, we research service area expansion of NPMCSs using HCR. The proposed HCR is utilized for stabilization of NPMCS\u27s service area. If communication quality of a NPMCS deteriorates owing to shadowing, the proposed HCR terminal obtains a part of NPMCS\u27s data called subsidiary information (SI) from CWMCSs or BPMCSs. The proposed HCR terminal can improve PMCS\u27s bit error rate (BER) performance by combining the SI with received signals of the NPMCS and then decoding the combined signals using forward error correction (FEC). Since convolutional codes are often used in FEC of NPMCSs, we consider BER improvement methods of the convolutional code. We derive modified Viterbi algorithm from maximum likelihood sequence estimation (MLSE) of the combined signals. Moreover, we introduce the distance spectrum to evaluate characteristics of the convolutional codes. The distance spectrum is used for estimating improvement of BER performances. Next, we consider synchronization methods to realize the proposed HCR. In the HCR, there are two types of synchronization method; one is the self-synchronization method to synchronize each system itself. The other is the co-synchronization method to combine different systems. In this thesis, we consider self-synchronization methods of NPMCSs mainly. This is because the HCR aims to improve communication quality of NPMCSs equipping conventional self-synchronization methods that are not probably available in low SNR environments. In this environment, since NPMCSs can hardly obtain their self-synchronization alone, powerful self-synchronization methods using HCR techniques are required. We propose two synchronization methods that are utilization of global portioning system (GPS) signals and utilization of the SI, respectively. The synchronization methods utilizing GPS signals can acquire timing synchronization. To obtain timing synchronization, the proposed HCR acquires accurate time and own location using the GPS signals. The HCR also gets the location of base stations and the frame timing by making the SI convey their information. Since the HCR can know accurate time and distance between the base station and the HCR, synchronization timing can be calculated. However, in GPS based method, preciseness of timing synchronization may be deteriorated by measurement error of GPS signals, diffraction caused by mountains, and propagation delay caused by reection. For this reason, we consider a mitigation method of the timing error and then evaluate BER performances using computer simulation. Moreover, we propose a SI based synchronization method that can obtain timing synchronization without GPS signals. The proposed method is employed when a NPMCS uses differential coded π/4 shift QPSK as the modulation scheme. The notable feature of the proposed method is to convey the phase rotation of the π/4 shift QPSK as the SI. The HCR can forecast PMCS\u27s envelopes from the obtained SI and then obtain the timing synchronization by correlating the forecasted envelopes with real received envelopes. Since the proposed method can also be used for co-synchronization and BER improvement, CWMCS\u27s resource consumption to convey the SI is suppressed. Finally, we consider HCRs combining several PMCSs. In this thesis, the combination of NPMCSs and the combination of a NPMCS and a BPMCS are researched. In the combination of NPMCSs, we consider that several PMCSs are integrated by SDR. In the combination of a NPMCS and a BPMCS, we propose site diversity based on HCR to improve uplink communication quality of the BPMCS. In this diversity, since uplink interference must be avoided, we employ combination of the adaptive array and HCR techniques. Moreover, we propose information compression methods for narrow band backbone lines so that received data can be conveyed to head office with little BER deterioration. PMCSs will have played an important role to ensure social safety. In the thesis, we consider the one of the next generation PMCSs employing SDR and HCR. Using this research, we can obtain a direction of optimal PMCSs. The next step that we need to perform is to apply our proposed method to actual radio systems. We must continue this research so that high reliable and compact PMCSs can be realized.電気通信大学201

Unreliable and resource-constrained decoding

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2010.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Cataloged from student submitted PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 185-213).Traditional information theory and communication theory assume that decoders are noiseless and operate without transient or permanent faults. Decoders are also traditionally assumed to be unconstrained in physical resources like material, memory, and energy. This thesis studies how constraining reliability and resources in the decoder limits the performance of communication systems. Five communication problems are investigated. Broadly speaking these are communication using decoders that are wiring cost-limited, that are memory-limited, that are noisy, that fail catastrophically, and that simultaneously harvest information and energy. For each of these problems, fundamental trade-offs between communication system performance and reliability or resource consumption are established. For decoding repetition codes using consensus decoding circuits, the optimal tradeoff between decoding speed and quadratic wiring cost is defined and established. Designing optimal circuits is shown to be NP-complete, but is carried out for small circuit size. The natural relaxation to the integer circuit design problem is shown to be a reverse convex program. Random circuit topologies are also investigated. Uncoded transmission is investigated when a population of heterogeneous sources must be categorized due to decoder memory constraints. Quantizers that are optimal for mean Bayes risk error, a novel fidelity criterion, are designed. Human decision making in segregated populations is also studied with this framework. The ratio between the costs of false alarms and missed detections is also shown to fundamentally affect the essential nature of discrimination. The effect of noise on iterative message-passing decoders for low-density parity check (LDPC) codes is studied. Concentration of decoding performance around its average is shown to hold. Density evolution equations for noisy decoders are derived. Decoding thresholds degrade smoothly as decoder noise increases, and in certain cases, arbitrarily small final error probability is achievable despite decoder noisiness. Precise information storage capacity results for reliable memory systems constructed from unreliable components are also provided. Limits to communicating over systems that fail at random times are established. Communication with arbitrarily small probability of error is not possible, but schemes that optimize transmission volume communicated at fixed maximum message error probabilities are determined. System state feedback is shown not to improve performance. For optimal communication with decoders that simultaneously harvest information and energy, a coding theorem that establishes the fundamental trade-off between the rates at which energy and reliable information can be transmitted over a single line is proven. The capacity-power function is computed for several channels; it is non-increasing and concave.by Lav R. Varshney.Ph.D

Fundamental limits in Gaussian channels with feedback: confluence of communication, estimation, and control

The emerging study of integrating information theory and control systems theory has attracted tremendous attention, mainly motivated by the problems of control under communication constraints, feedback information theory, and networked systems. An often overlooked element is the estimation aspect; however, estimation cannot be studied isolatedly in those problems. Therefore, it is natural to investigate systems from the perspective of unifying communication, estimation, and control;This thesis is the first work to advocate such a perspective. To make Matters concrete, we focus on communication systems over Gaussian channels with feedback. For some of these channels, their fundamental limits for communication have been studied using information theoretic methods and control-oriented methods but remain open. In this thesis, we address the problems of characterizing and achieving the fundamental limits for these Gaussian channels with feedback by applying the unifying perspective;We establish a general equivalence among feedback communication, estimation, and feedback stabilization over the same Gaussian channels. As a consequence, we see that the information transmission (communication), information processing (estimation), and information utilization (control), seemingly different and usually separately treated, are in fact three sides of the same entity. We then reveal that the fundamental limitations in feedback communication, estimation, and control coincide: The achievable communication rates in the feedback communication problems can be alternatively given by the decay rates of the Cramer-Rao bounds (CRB) in the associated estimation problems or by the Bode sensitivity integrals in the associated control problems. Utilizing the general equivalence, we design optimal feedback communication schemes based on the celebrated Kalman filtering algorithm; these are the first deterministic, optimal communication schemes for these channels with feedback (except for the degenerated AWGN case). These schemes also extend the Schalkwijk-Kailath (SK) coding scheme and inherit its useful features, such as reduced coding complexity and improved performance. Hence, this thesis demonstrates that the new perspective plays a significant role in gaining new insights and new results in studying Gaussian feedback communication systems. We anticipate that the perspective could be extended to more general problems and helpful in building a theoretically and practically sound paradigm that unifies information, estimation, and control