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Published work

44 published item(s)

preprint2026arXiv

Active Multiple-Prediction-Powered Inference

Post-deployment monitoring of healthcare AI requires statistically valid, label-efficient methods, but gold-standard labels from clinician chart review are expensive. Prediction-powered inference (PPI) and active statistical inference (ASI) reduce label cost by combining a small labeled sample with abundant model predictions, but both are restricted to a single predictor, a poor fit for modern clinical pipelines that have multiple predictors of differing cost and accuracy available at inference time. We propose Active Multiple-Prediction-Powered Inference (AM-PPI), which routes each instance to a cost-appropriate predictor subset, samples gold-standard labels in proportion to the chosen subset's residual uncertainty, and reweights predictions to minimize estimator variance, all under a single deployment-time budget. AM-PPI generalizes ASI to leverage multiple predictors and extends Multiple-PPI from global per-predictor allocation to per-instance adaptive routing. We derive closed-form Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) conditions for all three decisions and prove, via biconvexity and strong duality, that the resulting fixed point is a global optimum despite the joint problem being non-jointly-convex. We establish asymptotic normality with valid coverage, minimum-variance unbiasedness within the linear-prediction augmented inverse propensity weighted (AIPW) class, and a closed-form criterion identifying when multiple predictors help. On synthetic data and three healthcare monitoring tasks, AM-PPI produces 10 to 40 percent narrower confidence intervals (CIs) than single-predictor ASI in the budget regime where routing matters, and matches the better baseline elsewhere.

preprint2026arXiv

Mean Field Analysis of Blockchain Systems

We present a novel framework for analyzing blockchain consensus mechanisms by modeling blockchain growth as a Partially Observable Stochastic Game (POSG) which we reduce to a set of Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes (POMDPs) through the use of the mean field approximation. This approach formalizes the decision-making process of miners in Proof-of-Work (PoW) systems and enables a principled examination of block selection strategies as well as steady state analysis of the induced Markov chain. By leveraging a mean field game formulation, we efficiently characterize the information asymmetries that arise in asynchronous blockchain networks. Our first main result is an exact characterization of the tradeoff between network delay and PoW efficiency--the fraction of blocks which end up in the longest chain. We demonstrate that the tradeoff observed in our model at steady state aligns closely with theoretical findings, validating our use of the mean field approximation. Our second main result is a rigorous equilibrium analysis of the Longest Chain Rule (LCR). We show that the LCR is a mean field equilibrium and that it is uniquely optimal in maximizing PoW efficiency under certain mild assumptions. This result provides the first formal justification for continued use of the LCR in decentralized consensus protocols, offering both theoretical validation and practical insights. Beyond these core results, our framework supports flexible experimentation with alternative block selection strategies, system dynamics, and reward structures. It offers a systematic and scalable substitute for expensive test-net deployments or ad hoc analysis. While our primary focus is on Nakamoto-style blockchains, the model is general enough to accommodate other architectures through modifications to the underlying MDP.

preprint2026arXiv

ViTok-v2: Scaling Native Resolution Auto-Encoders to 5 Billion Parameters

Vision Transformer (ViT) autoencoders have emerged as compelling tokenizers for images, offering improved reconstruction over convolutional tokenizers. However, existing ViT tokenizers cannot explore this landscape as performance degrades outside training resolutions, and reliance on adversarial losses prevents stable scaling. ViTok (Hansen-Estruch et al., 2025) found that the compression ratio r mediates a reconstruction-generation trade-off where lower r means better reconstructions but harder generations, so improving tokenizer reconstruction is key to more Pareto-optimal tokenizers. We introduce ViTok-v2, which addresses these limitations with native resolution support via NaFlex for generalization across resolutions and aspect ratios, and a novel DINOv3 perceptual loss that replaces both LPIPS and GAN objectives for stable training at any scale. ViTok-v2 is trained on about 2B images and scaled to 5B parameters, the largest image autoencoder to date. ViTok-v2 matches or exceeds state-of-the-art reconstruction at 256p and outperforms all baselines at 512p and above. In joint scaling experiments with flow matching generators, we show that scaling both the autoencoder and the generator advances the Pareto frontier of this trade-off.

preprint2022arXiv

Achieving Almost All Blockchain Functionalities with Polylogarithmic Storage

In current blockchain systems, full nodes that perform all of the available functionalities need to store the entire blockchain. In addition to the blockchain, full nodes also store a blockchain-summary, called the \emph{state}, which is used to efficiently verify transactions. With the size of popular blockchains and their states growing rapidly, full nodes require massive storage resources in order to keep up with the scaling. This leads to a tug-of-war between scaling and decentralization since fewer entities can afford expensive resources. We present \emph{hybrid nodes} for proof-of-work (PoW) cryptocurrencies which can validate transactions, validate blocks, validate states, mine, select the main chain, bootstrap new hybrid nodes, and verify payment proofs. With the use of a protocol called \emph{trimming}, hybrid nodes only retain polylogarithmic number of blocks in the chain length in order to represent the proof-of-work of the blockchain. Hybrid nodes are also optimized for the storage of the state with the use of \emph{stateless blockchain} protocols. The lowered storage requirements should enable more entities to join as hybrid nodes and improve the decentralization of the system. We define novel theoretical security models for hybrid nodes and show that they are provably secure. We also show that the storage requirement of hybrid nodes is near-optimal with respect to our security definitions.

preprint2022arXiv

Beamformed Self-Interference Measurements at 28 GHz: Spatial Insights and Angular Spread

We present measurements and analysis of self-interference in multi-panel millimeter wave (mmWave) full-duplex communication systems at 28 GHz. In an anechoic chamber, we measure the self-interference power between the input of a transmitting phased array and the output of a colocated receiving phased array, each of which is electronically steered across a number of directions in azimuth and elevation. These self-interference power measurements shed light on the potential for a full-duplex communication system to successfully receive a desired signal while transmitting in-band. Our nearly 6.5 million measurements illustrate that more self-interference tends to be coupled when the transmitting and receiving phased arrays steer their beams toward one another but that slight shifts in steering direction (on the order of one degree) can lead to significant fluctuations in self-interference power. We analyze these measurements to characterize the spatial variability of self-interference to better quantify and statistically model this sensitivity. Our analyses and statistical results can be useful references when developing and evaluating mmWave full-duplex systems and motivate a variety of future topics including beam selection, beamforming codebook design, and self-interference channel modeling.

preprint2022arXiv

Few-Max: Few-Shot Domain Adaptation for Unsupervised Contrastive Representation Learning

Contrastive self-supervised learning methods learn to map data points such as images into non-parametric representation space without requiring labels. While highly successful, current methods require a large amount of data in the training phase. In situations where the target training set is limited in size, generalization is known to be poor. Pretraining on a large source data set and fine-tuning on the target samples is prone to overfitting in the few-shot regime, where only a small number of target samples are available. Motivated by this, we propose a domain adaption method for self-supervised contrastive learning, termed Few-Max, to address the issue of adaptation to a target distribution under few-shot learning. To quantify the representation quality, we evaluate Few-Max on a range of source and target datasets, including ImageNet, VisDA, and fastMRI, on which Few-Max consistently outperforms other approaches.

preprint2022arXiv

LoneSTAR: Analog Beamforming Codebooks for Full-Duplex Millimeter Wave Systems

This work develops LoneSTAR, a novel enabler of full-duplex millimeter wave (mmWave) communication systems through the design of analog beamforming codebooks. LoneSTAR codebooks deliver high beamforming gain and broad coverage while simultaneously reducing the self-interference coupled by transmit and receive beams at a full-duplex mmWave transceiver. Our design framework accomplishes this by tolerating some variability in transmit and receive beamforming gain to strategically shape beams that reject self-interference spatially while accounting for digitally-controlled analog beamforming networks and self-interference channel estimation error. By leveraging the coherence time of the self-interference channel, a mmWave system can use the same LoneSTAR design over many time slots to serve several downlink-uplink user pairs in a full-duplex fashion without the need for additional self-interference cancellation. Compared to those using conventional codebooks, full-duplex mmWave systems employing LoneSTAR codebooks can mitigate higher levels of self-interference, tolerate more cross-link interference, and demand lower SNRs in order to outperform half-duplex operation -- all while supporting beam alignment. This makes LoneSTAR a potential standalone solution for enabling simultaneous transmission and reception in mmWave systems, from which it derives its name.

preprint2022arXiv

Master equation of discrete time graphon mean field games and teams

In this paper, we present a sequential decomposition algorithm equivalent of Master equation to compute GMFE of GMFG and graphon optimal Markovian policies (GOMPs) of graphon mean field teams (GMFTs). We consider a large population of players sequentially making strategic decisions where the actions of each player affect their neighbors which is captured in a graph, generated by a known graphon. Each player observes a private state and also a common information as a graphon mean-field population state which represents the empirical networked distribution of other players' types. We consider non-stationary population state dynamics and present a novel backward recursive algorithm to compute both GMFE and GOMP that depend on both, a player's private type, and the current (dynamic) population state determined through the graphon. Each step in computing GMFE consists of solving a fixed-point equation, while computing GOMP involves solving for an optimization problem. We provide conditions on model parameters for which there exists such a GMFE. Using this algorithm, we obtain the GMFE and GOMP for a specific security setup in cyber physical systems for different graphons that capture the interactions between the nodes in the system.

preprint2022arXiv

Network Design for Social Welfare

In this paper, we consider the problem of network design on network games. We study the conditions on the adjacency matrix of the underlying network to design a game such that the Nash equilibrium coincides with the social optimum. We provide the examples for linear quadratic games that satisfy this condition. Furthermore, we identify conditions on properties of adjacency matrix that provide a unique solution using variational inequality formulation, and verify the robustness and continuity of the social cost under perturbations of the network. Finally we comment on individual rationality and extension of our results to large random networked games.

preprint2022arXiv

STEER: Beam Selection for Full-Duplex Millimeter Wave Communication Systems

Modern millimeter wave (mmWave) communication systems rely on beam alignment to deliver sufficient beamforming gain to close the link between devices. We present a novel beam selection methodology for multi-panel, full-duplex mmWave systems, which we call STEER, that delivers high beamforming gain while significantly reducing the full-duplex self-interference coupled between the transmit and receive beams. STEER does not necessitate changes to conventional beam alignment methodologies nor additional over-the-air feedback, making it compatible with existing cellular standards. Instead, STEER uses conventional beam alignment to identify the general directions beams should be steered, and then it makes use of a minimal number of self-interference measurements to jointly select transmit and receive beams that deliver high gain in these directions while coupling low self-interference. We implement STEER on an industry-grade 28 GHz phased array platform and use further simulation to show that full-duplex operation with beams selected by STEER can notably outperform both half-duplex and full-duplex operation with beams chosen via conventional beam selection. For instance, STEER can reliably reduce self-interference by more than 20 dB and improve SINR by more than 10 dB, compared to conventional beam selection. Our experimental results highlight that beam alignment can be used not only to deliver high beamforming gain in full-duplex mmWave systems but also to mitigate self-interference to levels near or below the noise floor, rendering additional self-interference cancellation unnecessary with STEER.

preprint2020arXiv

Achieving Multi-Port Memory Performance on Single-Port Memory with Coding Techniques

Many performance critical systems today must rely on performance enhancements, such as multi-port memories, to keep up with the increasing demand of memory-access capacity. However, the large area footprints and complexity of existing multi-port memory designs limit their applicability. This paper explores a coding theoretic framework to address this problem. In particular, this paper introduces a framework to encode data across multiple single-port memory banks in order to {\em algorithmically} realize the functionality of multi-port memory. This paper proposes three code designs with significantly less storage overhead compared to the existing replication based emulations of multi-port memories. To further improve performance, we also demonstrate a memory controller design that utilizes redundancy across coded memory banks to more efficiently schedule read and write requests sent across multiple cores. Furthermore, guided by DRAM traces, the paper explores {\em dynamic coding} techniques to improve the efficiency of the coding based memory design. We then show significant performance improvements in critical word read and write latency in the proposed coded-memory design when compared to a traditional uncoded-memory design.

preprint2020arXiv

Beamforming Cancellation Design for Millimeter-Wave Full-Duplex

In recent years, there has been extensive research on millimeter-wave (mmWave) communication and on in-band full-duplex (FD) communication, but work on the combination of the two is relatively lacking. FD mmWave systems could offer increased spectral efficiency and decreased latency while also suggesting the redesign of existing mmWave applications. While FD technology has been well-explored for sub-6 GHz systems, the developed methods do not translate well to mmWave. This turns us to a method called beamforming cancellation (BFC), where the highly directional mmWave beams are steered to mitigate self-interference (SI) and enable simultaneous transmission and reception in-band. In this paper, we present BFC designs for two fully-connected hybrid beamforming scenarios, both of which sufficiently suppress the SI such that the sum spectral efficiency approaches that of a SI-free FD system. A simulation and its results are then used to verify our designs.

preprint2020arXiv

Decentralized multi-agent reinforcement learning with shared actions

In this paper, we propose a novel model-free reinforcement learning algorithm to compute the optimal policies for a multi-agent system with $N$ cooperative agents where each agent privately observes it's own private type and publicly observes each others' actions. The goal is to maximize their collective reward. The problem belongs to the broad class of decentralized control problems with partial information. We use the common agent approach wherein some fictitious common agent picks the best policy based on a belief on the current states of the agents. These beliefs are updated individually for each agent from their current belief and action histories. Belief state updates without the knowledge of system dynamics is a challenge. In this paper, we employ particle filters called the bootstrap filter distributively across agents to update the belief. We provide a model-free reinforcement learning (RL) method for this multi-agent partially observable Markov decision processes using the particle filter and sampled trajectories to estimate the optimal policies for the agents. We showcase our results with the help of a smartgrid application where the users strive to reduce collective cost of power for all the agents in the grid. Finally, we compare the performances for model and model-free implementation of the RL algorithm establishing the effectiveness of particle filter (pf) method.

preprint2020arXiv

Deep Networks as Logical Circuits: Generalization and Interpretation

Not only are Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) black box models, but also we frequently conceptualize them as such. We lack good interpretations of the mechanisms linking inputs to outputs. Therefore, we find it difficult to analyze in human-meaningful terms (1) what the network learned and (2) whether the network learned. We present a hierarchical decomposition of the DNN discrete classification map into logical (AND/OR) combinations of intermediate (True/False) classifiers of the input. Those classifiers that can not be further decomposed, called atoms, are (interpretable) linear classifiers. Taken together, we obtain a logical circuit with linear classifier inputs that computes the same label as the DNN. This circuit does not structurally resemble the network architecture, and it may require many fewer parameters, depending on the configuration of weights. In these cases, we obtain simultaneously an interpretation and generalization bound (for the original DNN), connecting two fronts which have historically been investigated separately. Unlike compression techniques, our representation is. We motivate the utility of this perspective by studying DNNs in simple, controlled settings, where we obtain superior generalization bounds despite using only combinatorial information (e.g. no margin information). We demonstrate how to "open the black box" on the MNIST dataset. We show that the learned, internal, logical computations correspond to semantically meaningful (unlabeled) categories that allow DNN descriptions in plain English. We improve the generalization of an already trained network by interpreting, diagnosing, and replacing components the logical circuit that is the DNN.

preprint2020arXiv

Detecting Patch Adversarial Attacks with Image Residuals

We introduce an adversarial sample detection algorithm based on image residuals, specifically designed to guard against patch-based attacks. The image residual is obtained as the difference between an input image and a denoised version of it, and a discriminator is trained to distinguish between clean and adversarial samples. More precisely, we use a wavelet domain algorithm for denoising images and demonstrate that the obtained residuals act as a digital fingerprint for adversarial attacks. To emulate the limitations of a physical adversary, we evaluate the performance of our approach against localized (patch-based) adversarial attacks, including in settings where the adversary has complete knowledge about the detection scheme. Our results show that the proposed detection method generalizes to previously unseen, stronger attacks and that it is able to reduce the success rate (conversely, increase the computational effort) of an adaptive attacker.

preprint2020arXiv

Equipping Millimeter-Wave Full-Duplex with Analog Self-Interference Cancellation

There have been recent works on enabling in-band full-duplex operation using millimeter-wave (mmWave) transceivers. These works are based solely on creating sufficient isolation between a transceiver's transmitter and receiver via multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) precoding and combining. In this work, we propose supplementing these beamforming strategies with analog self-interference cancellation (A-SIC). By leveraging A-SIC, a portion of the self-interference is cancelled without the need for beamforming, allowing for more optimal beamforming strategies to be used in serving users. We use simulation to demonstrate that even with finite resolution A-SIC solutions, there are significant gains to be had in sum spectral efficiency. With a single bit of A-SIC resolution, improvements over a beamforming-only design are present. With 8 bits of A-SIC resolution, our design nearly approaches that of ideal full-duplex operation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first mmWave full-duplex design that combines both beamforming and A-SIC to achieve simultaneous transmission and reception in-band.

preprint2020arXiv

Interpretable Factorization for Neural Network ECG Models

The ability of deep learning (DL) to improve the practice of medicine and its clinical outcomes faces a looming obstacle: model interpretation. Without description of how outputs are generated, a collaborating physician can neither resolve when the model's conclusions are in conflict with his or her own, nor learn to anticipate model behavior. Current research aims to interpret networks that diagnose ECG recordings, which has great potential impact as recordings become more personalized and widely deployed. A generalizable impact beyond ECGs lies in the ability to provide a rich test-bed for the development of interpretive techniques in medicine. Interpretive techniques for Deep Neural Networks (DNNs), however, tend to be heuristic and observational in nature, lacking the mathematical rigor one might expect in the analysis of math equations. The motivation of this paper is to offer a third option, a scientific approach. We treat the model output itself as a phenomenon to be explained through component parts and equations governing their behavior. We argue that these component parts should also be "black boxes" --additional targets to interpret heuristically with clear functional connection to the original. We show how to rigorously factor a DNN into a hierarchical equation consisting of black box variables. This is not a subdivision into physical parts, like an organism into its cells; it is but one choice of an equation into a collection of abstract functions. Yet, for DNNs trained to identify normal ECG waveforms on PhysioNet 2017 Challenge data, we demonstrate this choice yields interpretable component models identified with visual composite sketches of ECG samples in corresponding input regions. Moreover, the recursion distills this interpretation: additional factorization of component black boxes corresponds to ECG partitions that are more morphologically pure.

preprint2020arXiv

Learning Representations by Maximizing Mutual Information in Variational Autoencoders

Variational autoencoders (VAEs) have ushered in a new era of unsupervised learning methods for complex distributions. Although these techniques are elegant in their approach, they are typically not useful for representation learning. In this work, we propose a simple yet powerful class of VAEs that simultaneously result in meaningful learned representations. Our solution is to combine traditional VAEs with mutual information maximization, with the goal to enhance amortized inference in VAEs using Information Theoretic techniques. We call this approach InfoMax-VAE, and such an approach can significantly boost the quality of learned high-level representations. We realize this through the explicit maximization of information measures associated with the representation. Using extensive experiments on varied datasets and setups, we show that InfoMax-VAE outperforms contemporary popular approaches, including Info-VAE and $β$-VAE.

preprint2020arXiv

Long Short-Term Memory Spiking Networks and Their Applications

Recent advances in event-based neuromorphic systems have resulted in significant interest in the use and development of spiking neural networks (SNNs). However, the non-differentiable nature of spiking neurons makes SNNs incompatible with conventional backpropagation techniques. In spite of the significant progress made in training conventional deep neural networks (DNNs), training methods for SNNs still remain relatively poorly understood. In this paper, we present a novel framework for training recurrent SNNs. Analogous to the benefits presented by recurrent neural networks (RNNs) in learning time series models within DNNs, we develop SNNs based on long short-term memory (LSTM) networks. We show that LSTM spiking networks learn the timing of the spikes and temporal dependencies. We also develop a methodology for error backpropagation within LSTM-based SNNs. The developed architecture and method for backpropagation within LSTM-based SNNs enable them to learn long-term dependencies with comparable results to conventional LSTMs.

preprint2020arXiv

Millimeter Wave Full-Duplex Radios: New Challenges and Techniques

Equipping millimeter wave (mmWave) systems with full-duplex capability would accelerate and transform next-generation wireless applications and forge a path for new ones. Full-duplex mmWave transceivers could capitalize on the already attractive features of mmWave communication by supplying spectral efficiency gains and latency improvements while also affording future networks with deployment solutions in the form of interference management and wireless backhaul. Foreseeable challenges and obstacles in making mmWave full-duplex a reality are presented in this article along with noteworthy unknowns warranting further investigation. With these novelties of mmWave full-duplex in mind, we lay out potential solutions---beyond active self-interference cancellation---that harness the spatial degrees of freedom bestowed by dense antenna arrays to enable simultaneous transmission and reception in-band.

preprint2020arXiv

Model-free Reinforcement Learning for Non-stationary Mean Field Games

In this paper, we consider a finite horizon, non-stationary, mean field games (MFG) with a large population of homogeneous players, sequentially making strategic decisions, where each player is affected by other players through an aggregate population state termed as mean field state. Each player has a private type that only it can observe, and a mean field population state representing the empirical distribution of other players' types, which is shared among all of them. Recently, authors in [1] provided a sequential decomposition algorithm to compute mean field equilibrium (MFE) for such games which allows for the computation of equilibrium policies for them in linear time than exponential, as before. In this paper, we extend it for the case when state transitions are not known, to propose a reinforcement learning algorithm based on Expected Sarsa with a policy gradient approach that learns the MFE policy by learning the dynamics of the game simultaneously. We illustrate our results using cyber-physical security example.

preprint2020arXiv

Model-free Reinforcement Learning for Stochastic Stackelberg Security Games

In this paper, we consider a sequential stochastic Stackelberg game with two players, a leader and a follower. The follower has access to the state of the system while the leader does not. Assuming that the players act in their respective best interests, the follower's strategy is to play the best response to the leader's strategy. In such a scenario, the leader has the advantage of committing to a policy which maximizes its own returns given the knowledge that the follower is going to play the best response to its policy. Thus, both players converge to a pair of policies that form the Stackelberg equilibrium of the game. Recently,~[1] provided a sequential decomposition algorithm to compute the Stackelberg equilibrium for such games which allow for the computation of Markovian equilibrium policies in linear time as opposed to double exponential, as before. In this paper, we extend the idea to an MDP whose dynamics are not known to the players, to propose an RL algorithm based on Expected Sarsa that learns the Stackelberg equilibrium policy by simulating a model of the MDP. We use particle filters to estimate the belief update for a common agent which computes the optimal policy based on the information which is common to both the players. We present a security game example to illustrate the policy learned by our algorithm. by simulating a model of the MDP. We use particle filters to estimate the belief update for a common agent which computes the optimal policy based on the information which is common to both the players. We present a security game example to illustrate the policy learned by our algorithm.

preprint2020arXiv

Robust Face Verification via Disentangled Representations

We introduce a robust algorithm for face verification, i.e., deciding whether twoimages are of the same person or not. Our approach is a novel take on the idea ofusing deep generative networks for adversarial robustness. We use the generativemodel during training as an online augmentation method instead of a test-timepurifier that removes adversarial noise. Our architecture uses a contrastive loss termand a disentangled generative model to sample negative pairs. Instead of randomlypairing two real images, we pair an image with its class-modified counterpart whilekeeping its content (pose, head tilt, hair, etc.) intact. This enables us to efficientlysample hard negative pairs for the contrastive loss. We experimentally show that, when coupled with adversarial training, the proposed scheme converges with aweak inner solver and has a higher clean and robust accuracy than state-of-the-art-methods when evaluated against white-box physical attacks.

preprint2020arXiv

Sample Compression, Support Vectors, and Generalization in Deep Learning

Even though Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) are widely celebrated for their practical performance, they possess many intriguing properties related to depth that are difficult to explain both theoretically and intuitively. Understanding how weights in deep networks coordinate together across layers to form useful learners has proven challenging, in part because the repeated composition of nonlinearities has proved intractable. This paper presents a reparameterization of DNNs as a linear function of a feature map that is locally independent of the weights. This feature map transforms depth-dependencies into simple tensor products and maps each input to a discrete subset of the feature space. Then, using a max-margin assumption, the paper develops a sample compression representation of the neural network in terms of the discrete activation state of neurons induced by s ``support vectors". The paper shows that the number of support vectors s relates with learning guarantees for neural networks through sample compression bounds, yielding a sample complexity of O(ns/epsilon) for networks with n neurons. Finally, the number of support vectors s is found to monotonically increase with width and label noise but decrease with depth.

preprint2013arXiv

On Finite Alphabet Compressive Sensing

This paper considers the problem of compressive sensing over a finite alphabet, where the finite alphabet may be inherent to the nature of the data or a result of quantization. There are multiple examples of finite alphabet based static as well as time-series data with inherent sparse structure; and quantizing real values is an essential step while handling real data in practice. We show that there are significant benefits to analyzing the problem while incorporating its finite alphabet nature, versus ignoring it and employing a conventional real alphabet based toolbox. Specifically, when the alphabet is finite, our techniques (a) have a lower sample complexity compared to real-valued compressive sensing for sparsity levels below a threshold; (b) facilitate constructive designs of sensing matrices based on coding-theoretic techniques; (c) enable one to solve the exact $\ell_0$-minimization problem in polynomial time rather than a approach of convex relaxation followed by sufficient conditions for when the relaxation matches the original problem; and finally, (d) allow for smaller amount of data storage (in bits).

preprint2013arXiv

Optimal Locally Repairable Codes via Rank-Metric Codes

This paper presents a new explicit construction for locally repairable codes (LRCs) for distributed storage systems which possess all-symbols locality and maximal possible minimum distance, or equivalently, can tolerate the maximal number of node failures. This construction, based on maximum rank distance (MRD) Gabidulin codes, provides new optimal vector and scalar LRCs. In addition, the paper also discusses mechanisms by which codes obtained using this construction can be used to construct LRCs with efficient repair of failed nodes by combination of LRC with regenerating codes.

preprint2012arXiv

Ergodic Interference Alignment

This paper develops a new communication strategy, ergodic interference alignment, for the K-user interference channel with time-varying fading. At any particular time, each receiver will see a superposition of the transmitted signals plus noise. The standard approach to such a scenario results in each transmitter-receiver pair achieving a rate proportional to 1/K its interference-free ergodic capacity. However, given two well-chosen time indices, the channel coefficients from interfering users can be made to exactly cancel. By adding up these two observations, each receiver can obtain its desired signal without any interference. If the channel gains have independent, uniform phases, this technique allows each user to achieve at least 1/2 its interference-free ergodic capacity at any signal-to-noise ratio. Prior interference alignment techniques were only able to attain this performance as the signal-to-noise ratio tended to infinity. Extensions are given for the case where each receiver wants a message from more than one transmitter as well as the "X channel" case (with two receivers) where each transmitter has an independent message for each receiver. Finally, it is shown how to generalize this strategy beyond Gaussian channel models. For a class of finite field interference channels, this approach yields the ergodic capacity region.

preprint2012arXiv

Error Resilience in Distributed Storage via Rank-Metric Codes

This paper presents a novel coding scheme for distributed storage systems containing nodes with adversarial errors. The key challenge in such systems is the propagation of erroneous data from a single corrupted node to the rest of the system during a node repair process. This paper presents a concatenated coding scheme which is based on two types of codes: maximum rank distance (MRD) code as an outer code and optimal repair maximal distance separable (MDS) array code as an inner code. Given this, two different types of adversarial errors are considered: the first type considers an adversary that can replace the content of an affected node only once; while the second attack-type considers an adversary that can pollute data an unbounded number of times. This paper proves that the proposed coding scheme attains a suitable upper bound on resilience capacity for the first type of error. Further, the paper presents mechanisms that combine this code with subspace signatures to achieve error resilience for the second type of errors. Finally, the paper concludes by presenting a construction based on MRD codes for optimal locally repairable scalar codes that can tolerate adversarial errors.

preprint2012arXiv

Expansion coding: Achieving the capacity of an AEN channel

A general method of coding over expansions is proposed, which allows one to reduce the highly non-trivial problem of coding over continuous channels to a much simpler discrete ones. More specifically, the focus is on the additive exponential noise (AEN) channel, for which the (binary) expansion of the (exponential) noise random variable is considered. It is shown that each of the random variables in the expansion corresponds to independent Bernoulli random variables. Thus, each of the expansion levels (of the underlying channel) corresponds to a binary symmetric channel (BSC), and the coding problem is reduced to coding over these parallel channels while satisfying the channel input constraint. This optimization formulation is stated as the achievable rate result, for which a specific choice of input distribution is shown to achieve a rate which is arbitrarily close to the channel capacity in the high SNR regime. Remarkably, the scheme allows for low-complexity capacity-achieving codes for AEN channels, using the codes that are originally designed for BSCs. Extensions to different channel models and applications to other coding problems are discussed.

preprint2012arXiv

On Locality in Distributed Storage Systems

This paper studies the design of codes for distributed storage systems (DSS) that enable local repair in the event of node failure. This paper presents locally repairable codes based on low degree multivariate polynomials. Its code construction mechanism extends work on Noisy Interpolating Set by Dvir et al. \cite{dvir2011}. The paper presents two classes of codes that allow node repair to be performed by contacting 2 and 3 surviving nodes respectively. It further shows that both classes are good in terms of their rate and minimum distance, and allow their rate to be bartered for greater flexibility in the repair process.

preprint2011arXiv

Achievable Rates for K-user Gaussian Interference Channels

The aim of this paper is to study the achievable rates for a $K$ user Gaussian interference channels for any SNR using a combination of lattice and algebraic codes. Lattice codes are first used to transform the Gaussian interference channel (G-IFC) into a discrete input-output noiseless channel, and subsequently algebraic codes are developed to achieve good rates over this new alphabet. In this context, a quantity called efficiency is introduced which reflects the effectiveness of the algebraic coding strategy. The paper first addresses the problem of finding high efficiency algebraic codes. A combination of these codes with Construction-A lattices is then used to achieve non trivial rates for the original Gaussian interference channel.

preprint2011arXiv

Analysis of Laser & Detector Placement in MIMO Multimode Optical Fiber Systems

Multimode fibers (MMFs) offer a cost-effective connection solution for small and medium length networks. However, data rates through multimode fibers are traditionally limited by modal dispersion. Signal processing and Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) have been shown to be effective at combating these limitations, but device design for the specific purpose of MIMO in MMFs is still an open issue. This paper utilizes a statistical field propagation model for MMFs to aid the analysis and designs of MMF laser and detector arrays, and aims to improve data rates of the fiber. Simulations reveal that optimal device designs could possess 2-3 times the data carrying capacity of suboptimal ones.

preprint2011arXiv

Lattices for Physical-layer Secrecy: A Computational Perspective

In this paper, we use the hardness of quantization over general lattices as the basis of developing a physical layer secrecy system. Assuming that the channel state observed by the legitimate receiver and the eavesdropper are distinct, this asymmetry is used to develop a cryptosystem that resembles the McEliece cryptosystem, designed to be implemented at the physical layer. We ensure that the legitimate receiver observes a specific lattice over which decoding is known to be possible in polynomial-time. while the eavesdropper observes a lattice over which decoding will prove to have the complexity of lattice quantization over a general lattice

preprint2011arXiv

Network Control: A Rate-Distortion Perspective

Today's networks are controlled assuming pre-compressed and packetized data. For video, this assumption of data packets abstracts out one of the key aspects - the lossy compression problem. Therefore, first, this paper develops a framework for network control that incorporates both source-rate and source-distortion. Next, it decomposes the network control problem into an application-layer compression control, a transport-layer congestion control and a network-layer scheduling. It is shown that this decomposition is optimal for concave utility functions. Finally, this paper derives further insights from the developed rate-distortion framework by focusing on specific problems.

preprint2011arXiv

Sparse Online Low-Rank Projection and Outlier Rejection (SOLO) for 3-D Rigid-Body Motion Registration

Motivated by an emerging theory of robust low-rank matrix representation, in this paper, we introduce a novel solution for online rigid-body motion registration. The goal is to develop algorithmic techniques that enable a robust, real-time motion registration solution suitable for low-cost, portable 3-D camera devices. Assuming 3-D image features are tracked via a standard tracker, the algorithm first utilizes Robust PCA to initialize a low-rank shape representation of the rigid body. Robust PCA finds the global optimal solution of the initialization, while its complexity is comparable to singular value decomposition. In the online update stage, we propose a more efficient algorithm for sparse subspace projection to sequentially project new feature observations onto the shape subspace. The lightweight update stage guarantees the real-time performance of the solution while maintaining good registration even when the image sequence is contaminated by noise, gross data corruption, outlying features, and missing data. The state-of-the-art accuracy of the solution is validated through extensive simulation and a real-world experiment, while the system enjoys one to two orders of magnitude speed-up compared to well-established RANSAC solutions. The new algorithm will be released online to aid peer evaluation.

preprint2010arXiv

Network Coding for Multiple Unicasts: An Interference Alignment Approach

This paper considers the problem of network coding for multiple unicast connections in networks represented by directed acyclic graphs. The concept of interference alignment, traditionally used in interference networks, is extended to analyze the performance of linear network coding in this setup and to provide a systematic code design approach. It is shown that, for a broad class of three-source three-destination unicast networks, a rate corresponding to half the individual source-destination min-cut is achievable via alignment strategies.

preprint2010arXiv

On Algebraic Traceback in Dynamic Networks

This paper introduces the concept of incremental traceback for determining changes in the trace of a network as it evolves with time. A distributed algorithm, based on the methodology of algebraic traceback developed by Dean et al, is proposed which can completely determine a path of d nodes/routers using O(d) marked packets, and subsequently determine the changes in its topology using O(log d) marked packets with high probability. The algorithm is established to be order-wise optimal i.e., no other distributed algorithm can determine changes in the path topology using lesser order of bits (i.e., marked packets). The algorithm is shown to have a computational complexity of O(d log d), which is significantly less than that of any existing non-incremental algorithm of algebraic traceback. Extensions of this algorithm to settings with node identity spoofing and network coding are also presented.

preprint2010arXiv

On the Vacationing CEO Problem: Achievable Rates and Outer Bounds

This paper studies a class of source coding problems that combines elements of the CEO problem with the multiple description problem. In this setting, noisy versions of one remote source are observed by two nodes with encoders (which is similar to the CEO problem). However, it differs from the CEO problem in that each node must generate multiple descriptions of the source. This problem is of interest in multiple scenarios in efficient communication over networks. In this paper, an achievable region and an outer bound are presented for this problem, which is shown to be sum rate optimal for a class of distortion constraints.

preprint2010arXiv

Pilot Contamination and Precoding in Multi-Cell TDD Systems

This paper considers a multi-cell multiple antenna system with precoding used at the base stations for downlink transmission. For precoding at the base stations, channel state information (CSI) is essential at the base stations. A popular technique for obtaining this CSI in time division duplex (TDD) systems is uplink training by utilizing the reciprocity of the wireless medium. This paper mathematically characterizes the impact that uplink training has on the performance of such multi-cell multiple antenna systems. When non-orthogonal training sequences are used for uplink training, the paper shows that the precoding matrix used by the base station in one cell becomes corrupted by the channel between that base station and the users in other cells in an undesirable manner. This paper analyzes this fundamental problem of pilot contamination in multi-cell systems. Furthermore, it develops a new multi-cell MMSE-based precoding method that mitigate this problem. In addition to being a linear precoding method, this precoding method has a simple closed-form expression that results from an intuitive optimization problem formulation. Numerical results show significant performance gains compared to certain popular single-cell precoding methods.

preprint2010arXiv

Quantization using Compressive Sensing

The problem of compressing a real-valued sparse source using compressive sensing techniques is studied. The rate distortion optimality of a coding scheme in which compressively sensed signals are quantized and then reconstructed is established when the reconstruction is also required to be sparse. The result holds in general when the distortion constraint is on the expected $p$-norm of error between the source and the reconstruction. A new restricted isometry like property is introduced for this purpose and the existence of matrices that satisfy this property is shown.

preprint2010arXiv

Queue-Architecture and Stability Analysis in Cooperative Relay Networks

An abstraction of the physical layer coding using bit pipes that are coupled through data-rates is insufficient to capture notions such as node cooperation in cooperative relay networks. Consequently, network-stability analyses based on such abstractions are valid for non-cooperative schemes alone and meaningless for cooperative schemes. Motivated from this, this paper develops a framework that brings the information-theoretic coding scheme together with network-stability analysis. This framework does not constrain the system to any particular achievable scheme, i.e., the relays can use any cooperative coding strategy of its choice, be it amplify/compress/quantize or any alter-and-forward scheme. The paper focuses on the scenario when coherence duration is of the same order of the packet/codeword duration, the channel distribution is unknown and the fading state is only known causally. The main contributions of this paper are two-fold: first, it develops a low-complexity queue-architecture to enable stable operation of cooperative relay networks, and, second, it establishes the throughput optimality of a simple network algorithm that utilizes this queue-architecture.

preprint2008arXiv

Generalized Degrees of Freedom of the Symmetric Gaussian $K$ User Interference Channel

We characterize the generalized degrees of freedom of the $K$ user symmetric Gaussian interference channel where all desired links have the same signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and all undesired links carrying interference have the same interference-to-noise ratio, ${INR}={SNR}^α$. We find that the number of generalized degrees of freedom per user, $d(α)$, does not depend on the number of users, so that the characterization is identical to the 2 user interference channel with the exception of a singularity at $α=1$ where $d(1)=\frac{1}{K}$. The achievable schemes use multilevel coding with a nested lattice structure that opens the possibility that the sum of interfering signals can be decoded at a receiver even though the messages carried by the interfering signals are not decodable.

preprint2007arXiv

Hybrid-ARQ in Multihop Networks with Opportunistic Relay Selection

This paper develops a contention-based opportunistic feedback technique towards relay selection in a dense wireless network. This technique enables the forwarding of additional parity information from the selected relay to the destination. For a given network, the effects of varying key parameters such as the feedback probability are presented and discussed. A primary advantage of the proposed technique is that relay selection can be performed in a distributed way. Simulation results find its performance to closely match that of centralized schemes that utilize GPS information, unlike the proposed method. The proposed relay selection method is also found to achieve throughput gains over a point-to-point transmission strategy.