Optimization and Learning in Energy Efficient Cognitive Radio System

Energy efficiency and spectrum efficiency are two biggest concerns for wireless communication. The constrained power supply is always a bottleneck to the modern mobility communication system. Meanwhile, spectrum resource is extremely limited but seriously underutilized. Cognitive radio (CR) as a promising approach could alleviate the spectrum underutilization and increase the quality of service. In contrast to traditional wireless communication systems, a distinguishing feature of cognitive radio systems is that the cognitive radios, which are typically equipped with powerful computation machinery, are capable of sensing the spectrum environment and making intelligent decisions. Moreover, the cognitive radio systems differ from traditional wireless systems that they can adapt their operating parameters, i.e. transmission power, channel, modulation according to the surrounding radio environment to explore the opportunity. In this dissertation, the study is focused on the optimization and learning of energy efficiency in the cognitive radio system, which can be considered to better utilize both the energy and spectrum resources. Firstly, drowsy transmission, which produces optimized idle period patterns and selects the best sleep mode for each idle period between two packet transmissions through joint power management and transmission power control/rate selection, is introduced to cognitive radio transmitter. Both the optimal solution by dynamic programming and flexible solution by reinforcement learning are provided. Secondly, when cognitive radio system is benefited from the theoretically infinite but unsteady harvested energy, an innovative and flexible control framework mainly based on model predictive control is designed. The solution to combat the problems, such as the inaccurate model and myopic control policy introduced by MPC, is given. Last, after study the optimization problem for point-to-point communication, multi-objective reinforcement learning is applied to the cognitive radio network, an adaptable routing algorithm is proposed and implemented. Epidemic propagation is studied to further understand the learning process in the cognitive radio network

On Designing of a Low Leakage Patient-Centric Provider Network

When a patient in a provider network seeks services outside of their community, the community experiences a leakage. Leakage is undesirable as it typically leads to higher out-of-network cost for patient and increases barrier for care coordination, which is particularly problematic for Accountable Care Organization (ACO) as the in-network providers are financially responsible for patient quality and outcome. We aim to design a data-driven method to identify naturally occurring provider networks driven by diabetic patient choices, and understand the relationship among provider composition, patient composition, and service leakage pattern. We construct a healthcare provider network based on patients' historical medical insurance claims. A community detection algorithm is used to identify naturally occurring communities of collaborating providers. Finally, import-export analysis is conducted to benchmark their leakage pattern and identify further leakage reduction opportunity. The design yields six major provider communities with diverse profiles. Some communities are geographically concentrated, while others tend to draw patients with certain diabetic co-morbidities. Providers from the same healthcare institution are likely to be assigned to the same community. While most communities have high within-community utilization and spending, at 85% and 86% respectively, leakage still persists. Hence, we utilize a metric from import-export analysis to detect leakage, gaining insight on how to minimizing leakage. In conclusion, we identify patient-driven provider organization by surfacing providers who share a large number of patients. By analyzing the import-export behavior of each identified community using a novel approach and profiling community patient and provider composition we understand the key features of having a balanced number of PCP and specialists and provider heterogeneity