Power Optimization for Network Localization

Reliable and accurate localization of mobile objects is essential for many applications in wireless networks. In range-based localization, the position of the object can be inferred using the distance measurements from wireless signals exchanged with active objects or reflected by passive ones. Power allocation for ranging signals is important since it affects not only network lifetime and throughput but also localization accuracy. In this paper, we establish a unifying optimization framework for power allocation in both active and passive localization networks. In particular, we first determine the functional properties of the localization accuracy metric, which enable us to transform the power allocation problems into second-order cone programs (SOCPs). We then propose the robust counterparts of the problems in the presence of parameter uncertainty and develop asymptotically optimal and efficient near-optimal SOCP-based algorithms. Our simulation results validate the efficiency and robustness of the proposed algorithms.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure

Mathematical optimization and game theoretic methods for radar networks

Radar systems are undoubtedly included in the hall of the most momentous discoveries of the previous century. Although radars were initially used for ship and aircraft detection, nowadays these systems are used in highly diverse fields, expanding from civil aviation, marine navigation and air-defence to ocean surveillance, meteorology and medicine. Recent advances in signal processing and the constant development of computational capabilities led to radar systems with impressive surveillance and tracking characteristics but on the other hand the continuous growth of distributed networks made them susceptible to multisource interference. This thesis aims at addressing vulnerabilities of modern radar networks and further improving their characteristics through the design of signal processing algorithms and by utilizing convex optimization and game theoretic methods. In particular, the problems of beamforming, power allocation, jammer avoidance and uncertainty within the context of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar networks are addressed. In order to improve the beamforming performance of phased-array and MIMO radars employing two-dimensional arrays of antennas, a hybrid two-dimensional Phased-MIMO radar with fully overlapped subarrays is proposed. The work considers both adaptive (convex optimization, CAPON beamformer) and non-adaptive (conventional) beamforming techniques. The transmit, receive and overall beampatterns of the Phased-MIMO model are compared with the respective beampatterns of the phased-array and the MIMO schemes, proving that the hybrid model provides superior capabilities in beamforming. By incorporating game theoretic techniques in the radar field, various vulnerabilities and problems can be investigated. Hence, a game theoretic power allocation scheme is proposed and a Nash equilibrium analysis for a multistatic MIMO network is performed. A network of radars is considered, organized into multiple clusters, whose primary objective is to minimize their transmission power, while satisfying a certain detection criterion. Since no communication between the clusters is assumed, non-cooperative game theoretic techniques and convex optimization methods are utilized to tackle the power adaptation problem. During the proof of the existence and the uniqueness of the solution, which is also presented, important contributions on the SINR performance and the transmission power of the radars have been derived. Game theory can also been applied to mitigate jammer interference in a radar network. Hence, a competitive power allocation problem for a MIMO radar system in the presence of multiple jammers is investigated. The main objective of the radar network is to minimize the total power emitted by the radars while achieving a specific detection criterion for each of the targets-jammers, while the intelligent jammers have the ability to observe the radar transmission power and consequently decide its jamming power to maximize the interference to the radar system. In this context, convex optimization methods, noncooperative game theoretic techniques and hypothesis testing are incorporated to identify the jammers and to determine the optimal power allocation. Furthermore, a proof of the existence and the uniqueness of the solution is presented. Apart from resource allocation applications, game theory can also address distributed beamforming problems. More specifically, a distributed beamforming and power allocation technique for a radar system in the presence of multiple targets is considered. The primary goal of each radar is to minimize its transmission power while attaining an optimal beamforming strategy and satisfying a certain detection criterion for each of the targets. Initially, a strategic noncooperative game (SNG) is used, where there is no communication between the various radars of the system. Subsequently, a more coordinated game theoretic approach incorporating a pricing mechanism is adopted. Furthermore, a Stackelberg game is formulated by adding a surveillance radar to the system model, which will play the role of the leader, and thus the remaining radars will be the followers. For each one of these games, a proof of the existence and uniqueness of the solution is presented. In the aforementioned game theoretic applications, the radars are considered to know the exact radar cross section (RCS) parameters of the targets and thus the exact channel gains of all players, which may not be feasible in a real system. Therefore, in the last part of this thesis, uncertainty regarding the channel gains among the radars and the targets is introduced, which originates from the RCS fluctuations of the targets. Bayesian game theory provides a framework to address such problems of incomplete information. Hence, a Bayesian game is proposed, where each radar egotistically maximizes its SINR, under a predefined power constraint

Massive MIMO is a Reality -- What is Next? Five Promising Research Directions for Antenna Arrays

Massive MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) is no longer a "wild" or "promising" concept for future cellular networks - in 2018 it became a reality. Base stations (BSs) with 64 fully digital transceiver chains were commercially deployed in several countries, the key ingredients of Massive MIMO have made it into the 5G standard, the signal processing methods required to achieve unprecedented spectral efficiency have been developed, and the limitation due to pilot contamination has been resolved. Even the development of fully digital Massive MIMO arrays for mmWave frequencies - once viewed prohibitively complicated and costly - is well underway. In a few years, Massive MIMO with fully digital transceivers will be a mainstream feature at both sub-6 GHz and mmWave frequencies. In this paper, we explain how the first chapter of the Massive MIMO research saga has come to an end, while the story has just begun. The coming wide-scale deployment of BSs with massive antenna arrays opens the door to a brand new world where spatial processing capabilities are omnipresent. In addition to mobile broadband services, the antennas can be used for other communication applications, such as low-power machine-type or ultra-reliable communications, as well as non-communication applications such as radar, sensing and positioning. We outline five new Massive MIMO related research directions: Extremely large aperture arrays, Holographic Massive MIMO, Six-dimensional positioning, Large-scale MIMO radar, and Intelligent Massive MIMO.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Digital Signal Processin

Multiple-input Multiple-output Radar Waveform Design Methodologies

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar is currently an active area of research. The MIMO techniques have been well studied for communications applications where they offer benefits in multipath fading environments. Partly inspired by these benefits, MIMO techniques are applied to radar and they offer a number of advantages such as improved resolution and sensitivity. It allows the use of transmitting multiple simultaneous waveforms from different phase centers. The employed radar waveform plays a key role in determining the accuracy, resolution, and ambiguity in performing tasks such as determining the target range, velocity, shape, and so on. The excellent performance promised by MIMO radar can be unleashed only by proper waveform design. In this article, a survey on MIMO radar waveform design is presented. The goal of this paper is to elucidate the key concepts of waveform design to encourage further research on this emerging technology.Defence Science Journal, 2013, 63(4), pp.393-401, DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/dsj.63.253

Contributions On Theory And Practice For Multi-Mission Wireless Systems

The field of wireless systems has long been an active research area with various applications. Recently much attention has been given to multi-mission wireless systems that combine capabilities including information sensing, data processing, energy harvesting as well as the traditional data communication. This dissertation describes our endeavor in addressing some of the research challenges in multi-mission wireless systems, including the development of fundamental limits of such multi-mission wireless systems and effective technologies for improved performance. The first challenge addressed in this dissertation is how to handle interference, which is encountered in almost all wireless systems involving multiple nodes, an attribute shared by most multi-mission systems. To deepen our understanding on the impact of interference, we study a class of Gaussian interference channels (GICs) with mixed interference. A simple coding scheme is proposed based on Sato\u27s non-naive frequency division. The achievable region is shown to be equivalent to that of Costa\u27s noiseberg region for the one-sided Gaussian interference channel. This allows for an indirect proof that this simple achievable rate region is indeed equivalent to the Han-Kobayashi (HK) region with Gaussian input and with time sharing for this class of Gaussian interference channels with mixed interference. Optimal power management strategies are then investigated for a remote estimation system with an energy harvesting sensor. We first establish the asymptotic optimality of uncoded transmission for such a system under Gaussian assumption. With the aim of minimizing the mean squared error (MSE) at the receiver, optimal power allocation policies are proposed under various assumptions with regard to the knowledge at the transmitter and the receiver as well as battery storage capacity. For the case where non-causal side information (SI) of future harvested energy is available and battery storage is unlimited, it is shown that the optimal power allocation amounts to a simple \u27staircase-climbing\u27 procedure, where the power level follows a non-decreasing staircase function. For the case where battery storage has a finite capacity, the optimal power allocation policy can also be obtained via standard convex optimization techniques. Dynamic programming is used to optimize the allocation policy when causal SI is available. The issue of unknown transmit power at the receiver is also addressed. Finally, to make the proposed solutions practically more meaningful, two heuristic schemes are proposed to reduce computational complexity. Related to the above remote sensing problem, we provide an information theoretic formulation of a multi-functioning radio where communication between nodes involves transmission of both messages and source sequences. The objective is to study the optimal coding trade-off between the rate for message transmission and the distortion for source sequence estimation. For point-to-point systems, it is optimal to simply split total capacity into two components, one for message transmission and one for source transmission. For the multi-user case, we show that such separation-based scheme leads to a strictly suboptimal rate-distortion trade-off by examining the simple problem of sending a common source sequence and two independent messages through a Gaussian broadcast channel. Finally we study the design of a practical multi-mission wireless system - the dual-use of airborne radio frequency (RF) systems. Specifically, airborne multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) communication systems are leveraged for the detection of moving targets in a typical airborne environment that is characterized by the lack of scatterers. With uniform linear arrays (ULAs), angular domain decomposition of channel matrices is utilized and target detection can be accomplished by detection of change in the resolvable paths in the angular domain. For both linear and nonlinear arrays, Doppler frequency analysis can also be applied and the change in frequency components indicates the presence of potential airborne targets. Nonparametric detection of distribution changes is utilized in both approaches