TSFool: Crafting Highly-imperceptible Adversarial Time Series through Multi-objective Black-box Attack to Fool RNN Classifiers

Neural network (NN) classifiers are vulnerable to adversarial attacks. Although the existing gradient-based attacks achieve state-of-the-art performance in feed-forward NNs and image recognition tasks, they do not perform as well on time series classification with recurrent neural network (RNN) models. This is because the cyclical structure of RNN prevents direct model differentiation and the visual sensitivity of time series data to perturbations challenges the traditional local optimization objective of the adversarial attack. In this paper, a black-box method called TSFool is proposed to efficiently craft highly-imperceptible adversarial time series for RNN classifiers. We propose a novel global optimization objective named Camouflage Coefficient to consider the imperceptibility of adversarial samples from the perspective of class distribution, and accordingly refine the adversarial attack as a multi-objective optimization problem to enhance the perturbation quality. To get rid of the dependence on gradient information, we also propose a new idea that introduces a representation model for RNN to capture deeply embedded vulnerable samples having otherness between their features and latent manifold, based on which the optimization solution can be heuristically approximated. Experiments on 10 UCR datasets are conducted to confirm that TSFool averagely outperforms existing methods with a 46.3% higher attack success rate, 87.4% smaller perturbation and 25.6% better Camouflage Coefficient at a similar time cost.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure

Throughput Maximization Leveraging Just-Enough SNR Margin and Channel Spacing Optimization

Flexible optical network is a promising technology to accommodate high-capacity demands in next-generation networks. To ensure uninterrupted communication, existing lightpath provisioning schemes are mainly done with the assumption of worst-case resource under-provisioning and fixed channel spacing, which preserves an excessive signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) margin. However, under a resource over-provisioning scenario, the excessive SNR margin restricts the transmission bit-rate or transmission reach, leading to physical layer resource waste and stranded transmission capacity. To tackle this challenging problem, we leverage an iterative feedback tuning algorithm to provide a just-enough SNR margin, so as to maximize the network throughput. Specifically, the proposed algorithm is implemented in three steps. First, starting from the high SNR margin setup, we establish an integer linear programming model as well as a heuristic algorithm to maximize the network throughput by solving the problem of routing, modulation format, forward error correction, baud-rate selection, and spectrum assignment. Second, we optimize the channel spacing of the lightpaths obtained from the previous step, thereby increasing the available physical layer resources. Finally, we iteratively reduce the SNR margin of each lightpath until the network throughput cannot be increased. Through numerical simulations, we confirm the throughput improvement in different networks and with different baud-rates. In particular, we find that our algorithm enables over 20\% relative gain when network resource is over-provisioned, compared to the traditional method preserving an excessive SNR margin.Comment: submitted to IEEE JLT, Jul. 17th, 2021. 14 pages, 8 figure

MCNS: Mining Causal Natural Structures Inside Time Series via A Novel Internal Causality Scheme

Causal inference permits us to discover covert relationships of various variables in time series. However, in most existing works, the variables mentioned above are the dimensions. The causality between dimensions could be cursory, which hinders the comprehension of the internal relationship and the benefit of the causal graph to the neural networks (NNs). In this paper, we find that causality exists not only outside but also inside the time series because it reflects a succession of events in the real world. It inspires us to seek the relationship between internal subsequences. However, the challenges are the hardship of discovering causality from subsequences and utilizing the causal natural structures to improve NNs. To address these challenges, we propose a novel framework called Mining Causal Natural Structure (MCNS), which is automatic and domain-agnostic and helps to find the causal natural structures inside time series via the internal causality scheme. We evaluate the MCNS framework and impregnation NN with MCNS on time series classification tasks. Experimental results illustrate that our impregnation, by refining attention, shape selection classification, and pruning datasets, drives NN, even the data itself preferable accuracy and interpretability. Besides, MCNS provides an in-depth, solid summary of the time series and datasets.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure

Sensing as a Service in 6G Perceptive Mobile Networks: Architecture, Advances, and the Road Ahead

Sensing-as-a-service is anticipated to be the core feature of 6G perceptive mobile networks (PMN), where high-precision real-time sensing will become an inherent capability rather than being an auxiliary function as before. With the proliferation of wireless connected devices, resource allocation in terms of the users' specific quality-of-service (QoS) requirements plays a pivotal role to enhance the interference management ability and resource utilization efficiency. In this article, we comprehensively introduce the concept of sensing service in PMN, including the types of tasks, the distinctions/advantages compared to conventional networks, and the definitions of sensing QoS. Subsequently, we provide a unified RA framework in sensing-centric PMN and elaborate on the unique challenges. Furthermore, we present a typical case study named "communication-assisted sensing" and evaluate the performance trade-off between sensing and communication procedure. Finally, we shed light on several open problems and opportunities deserving further investigation in the future

Sensing as a Service in 6G Perceptive Networks: A Unified Framework for ISAC Resource Allocation

In the upcoming next-generation (5G-Advanced and 6G) wireless networks, sensing as a service will play a more important role than ever before. Recently, the concept of perceptive network is proposed as a paradigm shift that provides sensing and communication (S&C) services simultaneously. This type of technology is typically referred to as Integrated Sensing and Communications (ISAC). In this paper, we propose the concept of sensing quality of service (QoS) in terms of diverse applications. Specifically, the probability of detection, the Cramer-Rao bound (CRB) for parameter estimation and the posterior CRB for moving target indication are employed to measure the sensing QoS for detection, localization, and tracking, respectively. Then, we establish a unified framework for ISAC resource allocation, where the fairness and the comprehensiveness optimization criteria are considered for the aforementioned sensing services. The proposed schemes can flexibly allocate the limited power and bandwidth resources according to both S&C QoSs. Finally, we study the performance trade-off between S&C services in different resource allocation schemes by numerical simulations

ITportrait: Image-Text Coupled 3D Portrait Domain Adaptation

Domain adaptation of 3D portraits has gained more and more attention. However, the transfer mechanism of existing methods is mainly based on vision or language, which ignores the potential of vision-language combined guidance. In this paper, we propose a vision-language coupled 3D portraits domain adaptation framework, namely Image and Text portrait (ITportrait). ITportrait relies on a two-stage alternating training strategy. In the first stage, we employ a 3D Artistic Paired Transfer (APT) method for image-guided style transfer. APT constructs paired photo-realistic portraits to obtain accurate artistic poses, which helps ITportrait to achieve high-quality 3D style transfer. In the second stage, we propose a 3D Image-Text Embedding (ITE) approach in the CLIP space. ITE uses a threshold function to adaptively control the optimization direction of image or text in the CLIP space. Comprehensive quantitative and qualitative results show that our ITportrait achieves state-of-the-art (SOTA) results and benefits downstream tasks. All source codes and pre-trained models will be released to the public