A Linear Multi-User Detector for STBC MC-CDMA Systems based on the Adaptive Implementation of the Minimum-Conditional Bit-Error-Rate Criterion and on Genetic Algorithm-assisted MMSE Channel Estimation

The implementation of efficient baseband receivers characterized by affordable computational load is a crucial point in the development of transmission systems exploiting diversity in different domains. In this paper, we are proposing a linear multi-user detector for MIMO MC-CDMA systems with Alamouti’s Space-Time Block Coding, inspired by the concept of Minimum Conditional Bit-Error-Rate (MCBER) and relying on Genetic-Algorithm (GA)-assisted MMSE channel estimation. The MCBER combiner has been implemented in adaptive way by using Least-Mean-Square (LMS) optimization. Firstly, we shall analyze the proposed adaptive MCBER MUD receiver with ideal knowledge of Channel Status Information (CSI). Afterwards, we shall consider the complete receiver structure, encompassing also the non-ideal GA-assisted channel estimation. Simulation results evidenced that the proposed MCBER receiver always outperforms state-of-the-art receiver schemes based on EGC and MMSE criterion exploiting the same degree of channel knowledge (i.e. ideal or estimated CSI)

Combining Static and Dynamic Analysis for Vulnerability Detection

In this paper, we present a hybrid approach for buffer overflow detection in C code. The approach makes use of static and dynamic analysis of the application under investigation. The static part consists in calculating taint dependency sequences (TDS) between user controlled inputs and vulnerable statements. This process is akin to program slice of interest to calculate tainted data- and control-flow path which exhibits the dependence between tainted program inputs and vulnerable statements in the code. The dynamic part consists of executing the program along TDSs to trigger the vulnerability by generating suitable inputs. We use genetic algorithm to generate inputs. We propose a fitness function that approximates the program behavior (control flow) based on the frequencies of the statements along TDSs. This runtime aspect makes the approach faster and accurate. We provide experimental results on the Verisec benchmark to validate our approach.Comment: There are 15 pages with 1 figur

Droplet-based digital antibiotic susceptibility screen reveals single-cell clonal heteroresistance in an isogenic bacterial population

Since antibiotic resistance is a major threat to global health, recent observations that the traditional test of minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) is not informative enough to guide effective antibiotic treatment are alarming. Bacterial heteroresistance, in which seemingly susceptible isogenic bacterial populations contain resistant sub-populations, underlies much of this challenge. To close this gap, here we developed a droplet-based digital MIC screen that constitutes a practical analytical platform for quantifying the single-cell distribution of phenotypic responses to antibiotics, as well as for measuring inoculum effect with high accuracy. We found that antibiotic efficacy is determined by the amount of antibiotic used per bacterial colony forming unit (CFU), not by the absolute antibiotic concentration, as shown by the treatment of beta-lactamase-carrying Escherichia coli with cefotaxime. We also noted that cells exhibited a pronounced clustering phenotype when exposed to near-inhibitory amounts of cefotaxime. Overall, our method facilitates research into the interplay between heteroresistance and antibiotic efficacy, as well as research into the origin and stimulation of heterogeneity by exposure to antibiotics. Due to the absolute bacteria quantification in this digital assay, our method provides a platform for developing reference MIC assays that are robust against inoculum-density variations

Slow Frequency Hopping Assisted MC DS-CDMA using Large Area Synchronised Spreading Sequences

The family of Multi-Carrier Direct-Sequence CDMA (MC DS- CDMA) systems exhibits numerous attractive properties, which render them attractive candidates for next-generation wireless communications. We demonstrate that spreading codes exhibiting a so-called interference-free window (IFW) are capable of outperforming classic spreading codes, when the interfering multi-user and multipath components arrive within this IFW. The best possible quasi-synchronous timing of the spreading sequences has to be adjusted with the aid of accurate adaptive timing advance control, which has to be significantly more accurate than that used in the lower-bit-rate second-generation GSM system. Fortunately, the IFW duration may be extended with the advent of multi-carrier DS-CDMA proportionately to the number of subcarriers. Hence the resultant MC DS-CDMA system is capable of exhibiting a near-single-user performance without employing a multi-user detector. A deficiency of the resultant system is that the number of spreading codes exhibiting a certain IFW is limited and so is the IFW duration. This contribution sets out to mitigate the above-mentioned shortcomings so that when the users' delays are in the range of the IFW, we separate them with the aid of the unique, user-specific LAS spreading codes. By contrast, when the users roam at a high distance from the base-station and hence their received signal arrive outside the range of the IFW, we separate them using their unique frequency hopping patterns

Low Size-Complexity Inductive Logic Programming: The East-West Challenge Considered as a Problem in Cost-Sensitive Classification

The Inductive Logic Programming community has considered proof-complexity and model-complexity, but, until recently, size-complexity has received little attention. Recently a challenge was issued "to the international computing community" to discover low size-complexity Prolog programs for classifying trains. The challenge was based on a problem first proposed by Ryszard Michalski, 20 years ago. We interpreted the challenge as a problem in cost-sensitive classification and we applied a recently developed cost-sensitive classifier to the competition. Our algorithm was relatively successful (we won a prize). This paper presents our algorithm and analyzes the results of the competition

Multiuser MIMO-OFDM for Next-Generation Wireless Systems

This overview portrays the 40-year evolution of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) research. The amelioration of powerful multicarrier OFDM arrangements with multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems has numerous benefits, which are detailed in this treatise. We continue by highlighting the limitations of conventional detection and channel estimation techniques designed for multiuser MIMO OFDM systems in the so-called rank-deficient scenarios, where the number of users supported or the number of transmit antennas employed exceeds the number of receiver antennas. This is often encountered in practice, unless we limit the number of users granted access in the base station’s or radio port’s coverage area. Following a historical perspective on the associated design problems and their state-of-the-art solutions, the second half of this treatise details a range of classic multiuser detectors (MUDs) designed for MIMO-OFDM systems and characterizes their achievable performance. A further section aims for identifying novel cutting-edge genetic algorithm (GA)-aided detector solutions, which have found numerous applications in wireless communications in recent years. In an effort to stimulate the cross pollination of ideas across the machine learning, optimization, signal processing, and wireless communications research communities, we will review the broadly applicable principles of various GA-assisted optimization techniques, which were recently proposed also for employment inmultiuser MIMO OFDM. In order to stimulate new research, we demonstrate that the family of GA-aided MUDs is capable of achieving a near-optimum performance at the cost of a significantly lower computational complexity than that imposed by their optimum maximum-likelihood (ML) MUD aided counterparts. The paper is concluded by outlining a range of future research options that may find their way into next-generation wireless systems

Hybrid Iterative Multiuser Detection for Channel Coded Space Division Multiple Access OFDM Systems

Space division multiple access (SDMA) aided orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems assisted by efficient multiuser detection (MUD) techniques have recently attracted intensive research interests. The maximum likelihood detection (MLD) arrangement was found to attain the best performance, although this was achieved at the cost of a computational complexity, which increases exponentially both with the number of users and with the number of bits per symbol transmitted by higher order modulation schemes. By contrast, the minimum mean-square error (MMSE) SDMA-MUD exhibits a lower complexity at the cost of a performance loss. Forward error correction (FEC) schemes such as, for example, turbo trellis coded modulation (TTCM), may be efficiently combined with SDMA-OFDM systems for the sake of improving the achievable performance. Genetic algorithm (GA) based multiuser detection techniques have been shown to provide a good performance in MUD-aided code division multiple access (CDMA) systems. In this contribution, a GA-aided MMSE MUD is proposed for employment in a TTCM assisted SDMA-OFDM system, which is capable of achieving a similar performance to that attained by its optimum MLD-aided counterpart at a significantly lower complexity, especially at high user loads. Moreover, when the proposed biased Q-function based mutation (BQM) assisted iterative GA (IGA) MUD is employed, the GA-aided system’s performance can be further improved, for example, by reducing the bit error ratio (BER) measured at 3 dB by about five orders of magnitude in comparison to the TTCM assisted MMSE-SDMA-OFDM benchmarker system, while still maintaining modest complexity