Energy-Efficient Scheduling and Power Allocation in Downlink OFDMA Networks with Base Station Coordination

This paper addresses the problem of energy-efficient resource allocation in the downlink of a cellular OFDMA system. Three definitions of the energy efficiency are considered for system design, accounting for both the radiated and the circuit power. User scheduling and power allocation are optimized across a cluster of coordinated base stations with a constraint on the maximum transmit power (either per subcarrier or per base station). The asymptotic noise-limited regime is discussed as a special case. %The performance of both an isolated and a non-isolated cluster of coordinated base stations is examined in the numerical experiments. Results show that the maximization of the energy efficiency is approximately equivalent to the maximization of the spectral efficiency for small values of the maximum transmit power, while there is a wide range of values of the maximum transmit power for which a moderate reduction of the data rate provides a large saving in terms of dissipated energy. Also, the performance gap among the considered resource allocation strategies reduces as the out-of-cluster interference increases.Comment: to appear on IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communication

Blind user detection in doubly-dispersive DS/CDMA channels

In this work, we consider the problem of detecting the presence of a new user in a direct-sequence/code-division-multiple-access (DS/CDMA) system with a doubly-dispersive fading channel, and we propose a novel blind detection strategy which only requires knowledge of the spreading code of the user to be detected, but no prior information as to the time-varying channel impulse response and the structure of the multiaccess interference. The proposed detector has a bounded constant false alarm rate (CFAR) under the design assumptions, while providing satisfactory detection performance even in the presence of strong cochannel interference and high user mobility.Comment: Accepted for publication on IEEE Transactions on Signal Processin

Beampattern Design for Transmit Architectures Based on Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces

In this work, we consider a transmit architecture where few active antennas (sources), each equipped with a dedicated radio frequency chain, illuminate a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) that control the beam-steering capability of the whole system. In this framework, we tackle the beampattern design problem, where the waveform emitted by the sources and the phase shifts introduced by the RIS are designed so that the realized beampattern matches, in a least-square sense, the desired one. The design of this architecture can be useful in many areas, such as radar detection and tracking, millimeter wave, sub-THz, and THz communications, and integrated sensing and communications. We provide a sub-optimum solution to the beampattern design problem, and we report an example to show that this RIS-based transmit architecture can be competitive with respect to fully-digital MIMO systems, especially if constant-modulus waveforms are required.Comment: Submitted for possible publication to IEEE Transactions on Signal Processin

Interplay of network dynamics and ties heterogeneity on spreading dynamics

The structure of a network dramatically affects the spreading phenomena unfolding upon it. The contact distribution of the nodes has long been recognized as the key ingredient in influencing the outbreak events. However, limited knowledge is currently available on the role of the weight of the edges on the persistence of a pathogen. At the same time, recent works showed a strong influence of temporal network dynamics on disease spreading. In this work we provide an analytical understanding, corroborated by numerical simulations, about the conditions for infected stable state in weighted networks. In particular, we reveal the role of heterogeneity of edge weights and of the dynamic assignment of weights on the ties in the network in driving the spread of the epidemic. In this context we show that when weights are dynamically assigned to ties in the network an heterogeneous distribution is able to hamper the diffusion of the disease, contrary to what happens when weights are fixed in time.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figure

A food chain ecoepidemic model: infection at the bottom trophic level

In this paper we consider a three level food web subject to a disease affecting the bottom prey. The resulting dynamics is much richer with respect to the purely demographic model, in that it contains more transcritical bifurcations, gluing together the various equilibria, as well as persistent limit cycles, which are shown to be absent in the classical case. Finally, bistability is discovered among some equilibria, leading to situations in which the computation of their basins of attraction is relevant for the system outcome in terms of its biological implications

Modeling the effects of variable feeding patterns of larval ticks on the transmission of Borrelia lusitaniae and Borrelia afzelii

Spirochetes belonging to the Borrelia burgdoferi sensu lato (sl) group cause Lyme Borreliosis (LB), which is the most commonly reported vector-borne zoonosis in Europe. B. burgdorferi sl is maintained in nature in a complex cycle involving Ixodes ricinus ticks and several species of vertebrate hosts. The transmission dynamics of B. burgdorferi sl is complicated by the varying competence of animals for different genospecies of spirochetes that, in turn, vary in their capability of causing disease. In this study, a set of difference equations simplifying the complex interaction between vectors and their hosts (competent and not for Borrelia) is built to gain insights into conditions underlying the dominance of B. lusitaniae (transmitted by lizards to susceptible ticks) and the maintenance of B. afzelii (transmitted by wild rodents) observed in a study area in Tuscany, Italy. Findings, in agreement with field observations, highlight the existence of a threshold for the fraction of larvae feeding on rodents below which the persistence of B. afzelii is not possible. Furthermore, thresholds change as nonlinear functions of the expected number of nymph bites on mice, and the transmission and recovery probabilities. In conclusion, our model provided an insight into mechanisms underlying the relative frequency of different Borrelia genospecies, as observed in field studies.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, to be published in Theoretical Population Biolog

Joint Design of surveillance radar and MIMO communication in cluttered environments

In this study, we consider a spectrum sharing architecture, wherein a multiple-input multiple-output communication system cooperatively coexists with a surveillance radar. The degrees of freedom for system design are the transmit powers of both systems, the receive linear filters used for pulse compression and interference mitigation at the radar receiver, and the space-time communication codebook. The design criterion is the maximization of the mutual information between the input and output symbols of the communication system, subject to constraints aimed at safeguarding the radar performance. Unlike previous studies, we do not require any time-synchronization between the two systems, and we guarantee the radar performance on all of the range-azimuth cells of the patrolled region under signal-dependent (endogenous) and signal-independent (exogenous) interference. This leads to a non-convex problem, and an approximate solution is thus introduced using a block coordinate ascent method. A thorough analysis is provided to show the merits of the proposed approach and emphasize the inherent tradeoff among the achievable mutual information, the density of scatterers in the environment, and the number of protected radar cells.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Transaction on Signal Processing on June 24, 201

Diversity-Integration Trade-offs in MIMO Detection

In this work, a MIMO detection problem is considered. At first, we derive the Generalized Likelihood Ratio Test (GLRT) for arbitrary transmitted signals and arbitrary time-correlation of the disturbance. Then, we investigate design criteria for the transmitted waveforms in both power-unlimited and power-limited systems and we study the interplay among the rank of the optimized code matrix, the number of transmit diversity paths and the amount of energy integrated along each path. The results show that increasing the rank of the code matrix allows generating a larger number of diversity paths at the price of reducing the average signal-to-clutter level along each path

Foundations of MIMO Radar Detection Aided by Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces

A reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) is a nearly-passive flat layer made of inexpensive elements that can add a tunable phase shift to the impinging electromagnetic wave and are controlled by a low-power electronic circuit. This paper considers the fundamental problem of target detection in a RIS-aided multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar. At first, a general signal model is introduced, which includes the possibility of using up to two RISs (one close to the radar transmitter and one close to the radar receiver) and subsumes both a monostatic and a bistatic radar configuration with or without a line-of-sight view of the prospective target. Upon resorting to a generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT), the design of the phase shifts introduced by the RIS elements is formulated as the maximization of the probability of detection in the location under inspection for a fixed probability of false alarm, and suitable optimization algorithms are proposed. The performance analysis shows the benefits granted by the presence of the RISs and shed light on the interplay among the key system parameters, such as the radar-RIS distance, the RIS size, and location of the prospective target. A major finding is that the RISs should be better deployed in the near-field of the radar arrays at both the transmit and the receive side. The paper is concluded by discussing some open problems and foreseen applications.Comment: Paper submitted to IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing; revised version after first-round revie