Zero Error Coordination

In this paper, we consider a zero error coordination problem wherein the nodes of a network exchange messages to be able to perfectly coordinate their actions with the individual observations of each other. While previous works on coordination commonly assume an asymptotically vanishing error, we assume exact, zero error coordination. Furthermore, unlike previous works that employ the empirical or strong notions of coordination, we define and use a notion of set coordination. This notion of coordination bears similarities with the empirical notion of coordination. We observe that set coordination, in its special case of two nodes with a one-way communication link is equivalent with the "Hide and Seek" source coding problem of McEliece and Posner. The Hide and Seek problem has known intimate connections with graph entropy, rate distortion theory, Renyi mutual information and even error exponents. Other special cases of the set coordination problem relate to Witsenhausen's zero error rate and the distributed computation problem. These connections motivate a better understanding of set coordination, its connections with empirical coordination, and its study in more general setups. This paper takes a first step in this direction by proving new results for two node networks

Coordinated Path Following of UAVs over Time-Varying Digraphs Connected in an Integral Sense

This paper presents a new connectivity condition on the information flow between UAVs to achieve coordinated path following. The information flow is directional, so that the underlying communication network topology is represented by a time-varying digraph. We assume that this digraph is connected in an integral sense. This is a much more general assumption than the one currently used in the literature. Under this assumption, it is shown that a decentralized coordination controller ensures exponential convergence of the coordination error vector to a neighborhood of zero. The efficacy of the algorithm is confirmed with simulation results

Information Nonanticipative Rate Distortion Function and Its Applications

This paper investigates applications of nonanticipative Rate Distortion Function (RDF) in a) zero-delay Joint Source-Channel Coding (JSCC) design based on average and excess distortion probability, b) in bounding the Optimal Performance Theoretically Attainable (OPTA) by noncausal and causal codes, and computing the Rate Loss (RL) of zero-delay and causal codes with respect to noncausal codes. These applications are described using two running examples, the Binary Symmetric Markov Source with parameter p, (BSMS(p)) and the multidimensional partially observed Gaussian-Markov source. For the multidimensional Gaussian-Markov source with square error distortion, the solution of the nonanticipative RDF is derived, its operational meaning using JSCC design via a noisy coding theorem is shown by providing the optimal encoding-decoding scheme over a vector Gaussian channel, and the RL of causal and zero-delay codes with respect to noncausal codes is computed. For the BSMS(p) with Hamming distortion, the solution of the nonanticipative RDF is derived, the RL of causal codes with respect to noncausal codes is computed, and an uncoded noisy coding theorem based on excess distortion probability is shown. The information nonanticipative RDF is shown to be equivalent to the nonanticipatory epsilon-entropy, which corresponds to the classical RDF with an additional causality or nonanticipative condition imposed on the optimal reproduction conditional distribution.Comment: 34 pages, 12 figures, part of this paper was accepted for publication in IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT), 2014 and in book Coordination Control of Distributed Systems of series Lecture Notes in Control and Information Sciences, 201

Coordinated Path Following of UAVs using Event-Triggered Communication over Time-Varying Networks with Digraph Topologies

In this article, a novel time-coordination algorithm based on event-triggered communications is proposed to achieve coordinated path-following of UAVs. To be specific, in the approach adopted a UAV transmits its progression information over a time-varying network to its neighbors only when a decentralized trigger condition is satisfied, thereby significantly reducing the volume of inter-vehicle communications required when compared with the existing algorithms based on continuous communications. Using such intermittent communications, it is shown that a decentralized coordination controller guarantees exponential convergence of the coordination error to a neighborhood of zero. Also, a lower bound on the interval between two consecutive event-triggered times is provided showing that the chattering issue does not arise with the proposed algorithm. Finally, simulation results validate the efficacy of the proposed algorithm.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2307.0655

How to Coordinate Edge Devices for Over-the-Air Federated Learning?

This work studies the task of device coordination in wireless networks for over-the-air federated learning (OTA-FL). For conventional metrics of aggregation error, the task is shown to describe the zero-forcing (ZF) and minimum mean squared error (MMSE) schemes and reduces to the NP-hard problem of subset selection. We tackle this problem by studying properties of the optimal scheme. Our analytical results reveal that this scheme is found by searching among the leaves of a tree with favorable monotonic features. Invoking these features, we develop a low-complexity algorithm that approximates the optimal scheme by tracking a dominant path of the tree sequentially. Our numerical investigations show that the proposed algorithm closely tracks the optimal scheme

Coordination corrected ab initio formation enthalpies

The correct calculation of formation enthalpy is one of the enablers of ab-initio computational materials design. For several classes of systems (e.g. oxides) standard density functional theory produces incorrect values. Here we propose the “coordination corrected enthalpies” method (CCE), based on the number of nearest neighbor cation–anion bonds, and also capable of correcting relative stability of polymorphs. CCE uses calculations employing the Perdew, Burke and Ernzerhof (PBE), local density approximation (LDA) and strongly constrained and appropriately normed (SCAN) exchange correlation functionals, in conjunction with a quasiharmonic Debye model to treat zero-point vibrational and thermal effects. The benchmark, performed on binary and ternary oxides (halides), shows very accurate room temperature results for all functionals, with the smallest mean absolute error of 27(24) meV/atom obtained with SCAN. The zero-point vibrational and thermal contributions to the formation enthalpies are small and with different signs—largely canceling each other