Pub Date : 2024-09-17DOI: 10.1109/JSAC.2024.3459092
Haithm M. Al-Gunid;Wang Xingfu;Ammar Hawbani;Yang Mingchuan;Mohammed A. M. Sultan;Hui Tian;Liqiang Zhao;Liang Zhao
With the rapid expansion of Internet of Everything (IoE) devices and the increasing demand for high-speed data and reliable communication services, particularly within 6G cellular networks (CNs), the design of efficient and robust CNs has become a critical research area. Consequently, enabling massive connections, optimizing network resource utilization, and achieving cost-effective network operation pose significant challenges. To this end, integrated space-ground cellular networks based on control- and user-plane separation (ISGCN-CUPS) architecture has been proposed as a promising solution. Furthermore, it becomes an integral aspect of the broader paradigm of integrated space-air-ground CNs (ISAGCNs). However, scalability poses an issue when increasing the number of connected cellular users, especially when conventional orthogonal multiple access (OMA) is utilized. To address this challenge, this paper introduces the non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA)-enabled ISGCN-CUPS architecture. Subsequently, we provide an analytical model to analyze the scenarios of proposed architecture. Utilizing stochastic geometry, we derive closed-forms for coverage probabilities over control and data channels, by considering the propagation channel models for control and data channels, both with and without interference. Furthermore, total area spectral and energy efficiencies are computed. The proposed architecture demonstrates significant enhancements in terms of the key evaluation metrics compared to conventional and OMA-enabled ISGCN-CUPS architectures.
{"title":"NOMA-Enabled Integrated Space-Ground Cellular Networks Architecture Relying on Control- and User-Plane Separation","authors":"Haithm M. Al-Gunid;Wang Xingfu;Ammar Hawbani;Yang Mingchuan;Mohammed A. M. Sultan;Hui Tian;Liqiang Zhao;Liang Zhao","doi":"10.1109/JSAC.2024.3459092","DOIUrl":"10.1109/JSAC.2024.3459092","url":null,"abstract":"With the rapid expansion of Internet of Everything (IoE) devices and the increasing demand for high-speed data and reliable communication services, particularly within 6G cellular networks (CNs), the design of efficient and robust CNs has become a critical research area. Consequently, enabling massive connections, optimizing network resource utilization, and achieving cost-effective network operation pose significant challenges. To this end, integrated space-ground cellular networks based on control- and user-plane separation (ISGCN-CUPS) architecture has been proposed as a promising solution. Furthermore, it becomes an integral aspect of the broader paradigm of integrated space-air-ground CNs (ISAGCNs). However, scalability poses an issue when increasing the number of connected cellular users, especially when conventional orthogonal multiple access (OMA) is utilized. To address this challenge, this paper introduces the non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA)-enabled ISGCN-CUPS architecture. Subsequently, we provide an analytical model to analyze the scenarios of proposed architecture. Utilizing stochastic geometry, we derive closed-forms for coverage probabilities over control and data channels, by considering the propagation channel models for control and data channels, both with and without interference. Furthermore, total area spectral and energy efficiencies are computed. The proposed architecture demonstrates significant enhancements in terms of the key evaluation metrics compared to conventional and OMA-enabled ISGCN-CUPS architectures.","PeriodicalId":73294,"journal":{"name":"IEEE journal on selected areas in communications : a publication of the IEEE Communications Society","volume":"42 12","pages":"3690-3704"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142236512","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In the rapidly evolving domain of satellite communications, integrating advanced machine learning techniques, particularly split learning, is crucial for enhancing data processing and model training efficiency across satellites, space stations, and ground stations. Traditional ML approaches often face significant challenges within satellite networks due to constraints such as limited bandwidth and computational resources. To address this gap, we propose a novel framework for more efficient SL in satellite communications. Our approach, Dynamic Topology-Informed Pruning, namely DTIP, combines differential privacy with graph and model pruning to optimize graph neural networks for distributed learning. DTIP strategically applies differential privacy to raw graph data and prunes GNNs, thereby optimizing both model size and communication load across network tiers. Extensive experiments across diverse datasets demonstrate DTIP’s efficacy in enhancing privacy, accuracy, and computational efficiency. Specifically, on Amazon2M dataset, DTIP maintains an accuracy of 0.82 while achieving a 50% reduction in floating-point operations per second. Similarly, on ArXiv dataset, DTIP achieves an accuracy of 0.85 under comparable conditions. Our framework not only significantly improves the operational efficiency of satellite communications but also establishes a new benchmark in privacy-aware distributed learning, potentially revolutionizing data handling in space-based networks.
{"title":"An Efficient Privacy-Aware Split Learning Framework for Satellite Communications","authors":"Jianfei Sun;Cong Wu;Shahid Mumtaz;Junyi Tao;Mingsheng Cao;Mei Wang;Valerio Frascolla","doi":"10.1109/JSAC.2024.3459027","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/JSAC.2024.3459027","url":null,"abstract":"In the rapidly evolving domain of satellite communications, integrating advanced machine learning techniques, particularly split learning, is crucial for enhancing data processing and model training efficiency across satellites, space stations, and ground stations. Traditional ML approaches often face significant challenges within satellite networks due to constraints such as limited bandwidth and computational resources. To address this gap, we propose a novel framework for more efficient SL in satellite communications. Our approach, Dynamic Topology-Informed Pruning, namely DTIP, combines differential privacy with graph and model pruning to optimize graph neural networks for distributed learning. DTIP strategically applies differential privacy to raw graph data and prunes GNNs, thereby optimizing both model size and communication load across network tiers. Extensive experiments across diverse datasets demonstrate DTIP’s efficacy in enhancing privacy, accuracy, and computational efficiency. Specifically, on Amazon2M dataset, DTIP maintains an accuracy of 0.82 while achieving a 50% reduction in floating-point operations per second. Similarly, on ArXiv dataset, DTIP achieves an accuracy of 0.85 under comparable conditions. Our framework not only significantly improves the operational efficiency of satellite communications but also establishes a new benchmark in privacy-aware distributed learning, potentially revolutionizing data handling in space-based networks.","PeriodicalId":73294,"journal":{"name":"IEEE journal on selected areas in communications : a publication of the IEEE Communications Society","volume":"42 12","pages":"3355-3365"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142754265","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The space-terrestrial integrated network (STIN) is a pivotal architecture to support ubiquitous connectivity in the upcoming 6G era. Inter-operator resource and service sharing is a promising way to realize such a huge network, utilizing resources efficiently and reducing construction costs. Given the rationality of operators, the configuration of resources and services in STIN should focus on both the overall system performance and individual benefits of operators. Motivated by emerging symbiotic communication facilitating mutual benefits across different radio systems, we investigate the resource and service sharing in STIN from a symbiotic communication perspective in this paper. In particular, we consider a STIN consisting of a ground network operator (GNO) and a satellite network operator (SNO). Specifically, we aim to maximize the weighted sum rate (WSR) of the whole STIN by jointly optimizing the user association, resource allocation, and beamforming. Besides, we introduce a sharing coefficient to characterize the revenue of operators. Operators may suffer revenue loss when only focusing on maximizing the WSR. In pursuit of mutual benefits, we propose a mutual benefit constraint (MBC) to ensure that each operator obtains revenue gains. Then, we develop a centralized algorithm based on the successive convex approximation (SCA) method. Considering that the centralized algorithm is difficult to implement, we propose a distributed algorithm based on Lagrangian dual decomposition and the consensus alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM). Finally, we provide extensive numerical simulations to demonstrate the effectiveness of the two proposed algorithms, and the distributed optimization algorithm can approach the performance of the centralized one. The results also reveal that the proposed MBCs can enable operators to achieve mutual benefits and realize a symbiotic resource and service sharing paradigm.
{"title":"Toward Symbiotic STIN Through Inter-Operator Resource and Service Sharing: Joint Orchestration of User Association and Radio Resources","authors":"Shizhao He;Jungang Ge;Ying-Chang Liang;Dusit Niyato","doi":"10.1109/JSAC.2024.3459042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/JSAC.2024.3459042","url":null,"abstract":"The space-terrestrial integrated network (STIN) is a pivotal architecture to support ubiquitous connectivity in the upcoming 6G era. Inter-operator resource and service sharing is a promising way to realize such a huge network, utilizing resources efficiently and reducing construction costs. Given the rationality of operators, the configuration of resources and services in STIN should focus on both the overall system performance and individual benefits of operators. Motivated by emerging symbiotic communication facilitating mutual benefits across different radio systems, we investigate the resource and service sharing in STIN from a symbiotic communication perspective in this paper. In particular, we consider a STIN consisting of a ground network operator (GNO) and a satellite network operator (SNO). Specifically, we aim to maximize the weighted sum rate (WSR) of the whole STIN by jointly optimizing the user association, resource allocation, and beamforming. Besides, we introduce a sharing coefficient to characterize the revenue of operators. Operators may suffer revenue loss when only focusing on maximizing the WSR. In pursuit of mutual benefits, we propose a mutual benefit constraint (MBC) to ensure that each operator obtains revenue gains. Then, we develop a centralized algorithm based on the successive convex approximation (SCA) method. Considering that the centralized algorithm is difficult to implement, we propose a distributed algorithm based on Lagrangian dual decomposition and the consensus alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM). Finally, we provide extensive numerical simulations to demonstrate the effectiveness of the two proposed algorithms, and the distributed optimization algorithm can approach the performance of the centralized one. The results also reveal that the proposed MBCs can enable operators to achieve mutual benefits and realize a symbiotic resource and service sharing paradigm.","PeriodicalId":73294,"journal":{"name":"IEEE journal on selected areas in communications : a publication of the IEEE Communications Society","volume":"42 12","pages":"3674-3689"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142713910","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-09-16DOI: 10.1109/JSAC.2024.3459034
Jonathan Chamberlain;David Starobinski;Joel T. Johnson
Space-Air-Ground Integrated Networks will facilitate seamless user experiences across a variety of 6G applications. The deployment of these networks will necessitate new approaches to spectrum allocation. Spectrum access by passive microwave sensors for earth-based and space-based scientific applications represents a spectrum use application having unique attributes that motivate consideration of spectrum sharing between these “incumbents” and commercial users to ensure the most efficient utilization of available frequencies across applications. Toward this end, we propose an economic framework where incumbents have priority use, with a primary and secondary commercial tier underneath. For commercial users, the option to join the primary tier is based on a model of short term post-paid leases of spectrum, while the secondary tier is available to join at no cost. Using a joint game-theoretic and queuing-theoretic model, we find that for practical parameters the revenue maximizing equilibrium is: 1) stable in the Evolutionary Stable Strategy sense; 2) associated with the maximum priority upgrade fee customers are willing to pay; 3) associated with an equilibrium where all customers wish to join the priority class; and 4) socially optimal. We validate our findings leveraging trace data from satellite radiometers operating in the vicinity of Boston, Massachusetts.
{"title":"Facilitating Spectrum Sharing With Passive Satellite Incumbents","authors":"Jonathan Chamberlain;David Starobinski;Joel T. Johnson","doi":"10.1109/JSAC.2024.3459034","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/JSAC.2024.3459034","url":null,"abstract":"Space-Air-Ground Integrated Networks will facilitate seamless user experiences across a variety of 6G applications. The deployment of these networks will necessitate new approaches to spectrum allocation. Spectrum access by passive microwave sensors for earth-based and space-based scientific applications represents a spectrum use application having unique attributes that motivate consideration of spectrum sharing between these “incumbents” and commercial users to ensure the most efficient utilization of available frequencies across applications. Toward this end, we propose an economic framework where incumbents have priority use, with a primary and secondary commercial tier underneath. For commercial users, the option to join the primary tier is based on a model of short term post-paid leases of spectrum, while the secondary tier is available to join at no cost. Using a joint game-theoretic and queuing-theoretic model, we find that for practical parameters the revenue maximizing equilibrium is: 1) stable in the Evolutionary Stable Strategy sense; 2) associated with the maximum priority upgrade fee customers are willing to pay; 3) associated with an equilibrium where all customers wish to join the priority class; and 4) socially optimal. We validate our findings leveraging trace data from satellite radiometers operating in the vicinity of Boston, Massachusetts.","PeriodicalId":73294,"journal":{"name":"IEEE journal on selected areas in communications : a publication of the IEEE Communications Society","volume":"42 12","pages":"3719-3733"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142713940","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-09-12DOI: 10.1109/JSAC.2024.3459079
Xiangdong Zheng;Yuxin Wu;Lisheng Fan;Xianfu Lei;Rose Qingyang Hu;George K. Karagiannidis
In this paper, we investigate a sensing-enabled integrated space-air-ground (SAG) data collection network, in which an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) can not only work singly to sense data from multiple targets but also collaborate with a low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite to collect communication data from multiple users. Since the coverage of the UAV is much smaller than that of the LEO satellite, we first determine the set of usable users and targets for the UAV by analyzing the signal-to-noise ratios between the UAV and the users and targets. Based on this, we pose an optimization problem designed to maximize the total amount of data collected in the network while satisfying the constraints of UAV energy consumption, memory capacity, and minimum amount of sensor data per target. Moreover, considering that the network consists of three layers and the UAV has dual functions of communication and sensing, this problem is solved by jointly optimizing the scheduling of the users’ data upload scheme, the UAV trajectory, and the allocation of communication and sensing time. However, the formulated problem is a mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) problem, so it is difficult to find the optimal solution. Therefore, we further design an alternating iterative optimization algorithm (AIOA) framework to find an appropriate solution. Specifically, we alternately optimize the UAV trajectory, time allocation strategy, and data upload schedule in each iteration. Finally, simulation experiments validate the effectiveness of the AIOA and its superiority over other benchmarks in terms of the amount of data collected.
{"title":"Dual-Functional UAV-Empowered Space-Air-Ground Networks: Joint Communication and Sensing","authors":"Xiangdong Zheng;Yuxin Wu;Lisheng Fan;Xianfu Lei;Rose Qingyang Hu;George K. Karagiannidis","doi":"10.1109/JSAC.2024.3459079","DOIUrl":"10.1109/JSAC.2024.3459079","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, we investigate a sensing-enabled integrated space-air-ground (SAG) data collection network, in which an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) can not only work singly to sense data from multiple targets but also collaborate with a low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite to collect communication data from multiple users. Since the coverage of the UAV is much smaller than that of the LEO satellite, we first determine the set of usable users and targets for the UAV by analyzing the signal-to-noise ratios between the UAV and the users and targets. Based on this, we pose an optimization problem designed to maximize the total amount of data collected in the network while satisfying the constraints of UAV energy consumption, memory capacity, and minimum amount of sensor data per target. Moreover, considering that the network consists of three layers and the UAV has dual functions of communication and sensing, this problem is solved by jointly optimizing the scheduling of the users’ data upload scheme, the UAV trajectory, and the allocation of communication and sensing time. However, the formulated problem is a mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) problem, so it is difficult to find the optimal solution. Therefore, we further design an alternating iterative optimization algorithm (AIOA) framework to find an appropriate solution. Specifically, we alternately optimize the UAV trajectory, time allocation strategy, and data upload schedule in each iteration. Finally, simulation experiments validate the effectiveness of the AIOA and its superiority over other benchmarks in terms of the amount of data collected.","PeriodicalId":73294,"journal":{"name":"IEEE journal on selected areas in communications : a publication of the IEEE Communications Society","volume":"42 12","pages":"3412-3427"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142174757","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-09-12DOI: 10.1109/JSAC.2024.3459074
Pinjun Zheng;Xing Liu;Tareq Y. Al-Naffouri
Low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites and reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) have recently drawn significant attention as two transformative technologies, and the synergy between them emerges as a promising paradigm for providing cross-environment communication and positioning services. This paper investigates an integrated terrestrial and non-terrestrial wireless network that leverages LEO satellites and RISs to achieve simultaneous tracking of the three-dimensional (3D) position, 3D velocity, and 3D orientation of user equipment (UE). To address inherent challenges including nonlinear observation function, constrained UE state, and unknown observation statistics, we develop a Riemannian manifold-based unscented Kalman filter (UKF) method. This method propagates statistics over nonlinear functions using generated sigma points and maintains state constraints through projection onto the defined manifold space. Additionally, by employing Fisher information matrices (FIMs) of the sigma points, a belief assignment principle is proposed to approximate the unknown observation covariance matrix, thereby ensuring accurate measurement updates in the UKF procedure. Numerical results demonstrate a substantial enhancement in tracking accuracy facilitated by RIS integration, despite urban signal reception challenges from LEO satellites. In addition, extensive simulations underscore the superior performance of the proposed tracking method and FIM-based belief assignment over the adopted benchmarks. Furthermore, the robustness of the proposed UKF is verified across various uncertainty levels.
{"title":"LEO- and RIS-Empowered User Tracking: A Riemannian Manifold Approach","authors":"Pinjun Zheng;Xing Liu;Tareq Y. Al-Naffouri","doi":"10.1109/JSAC.2024.3459074","DOIUrl":"10.1109/JSAC.2024.3459074","url":null,"abstract":"Low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites and reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) have recently drawn significant attention as two transformative technologies, and the synergy between them emerges as a promising paradigm for providing cross-environment communication and positioning services. This paper investigates an integrated terrestrial and non-terrestrial wireless network that leverages LEO satellites and RISs to achieve simultaneous tracking of the three-dimensional (3D) position, 3D velocity, and 3D orientation of user equipment (UE). To address inherent challenges including nonlinear observation function, constrained UE state, and unknown observation statistics, we develop a Riemannian manifold-based unscented Kalman filter (UKF) method. This method propagates statistics over nonlinear functions using generated sigma points and maintains state constraints through projection onto the defined manifold space. Additionally, by employing Fisher information matrices (FIMs) of the sigma points, a belief assignment principle is proposed to approximate the unknown observation covariance matrix, thereby ensuring accurate measurement updates in the UKF procedure. Numerical results demonstrate a substantial enhancement in tracking accuracy facilitated by RIS integration, despite urban signal reception challenges from LEO satellites. In addition, extensive simulations underscore the superior performance of the proposed tracking method and FIM-based belief assignment over the adopted benchmarks. Furthermore, the robustness of the proposed UKF is verified across various uncertainty levels.","PeriodicalId":73294,"journal":{"name":"IEEE journal on selected areas in communications : a publication of the IEEE Communications Society","volume":"42 12","pages":"3445-3461"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142174760","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-09-12DOI: 10.1109/JSAC.2024.3459035
Ming Tao;Xueqiang Li;Jie Feng;Dapeng Lan;Jun Du;Celimuge Wu
In the paradigm of ubiquitous edge computing, with those advantages, e.g., high mobility, fast response, flexibility and controllability, and low cost of use, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) could be used not only as relays to assist with data collection, but also as computing power nodes to process uncomplicated computational workloads from ground users. Especially, UAVs could be employed to provide alternative computing power resources in field, lake, post-disaster and other complex regional environments. In this paper, to address the issue of computing power scheduling in UAVs empowered aerial computing systems, a scenario where multiple UAVs from the same departure station cooperatively fly over hovering points and achieve the data collection and computation in a decentralized manner is investigated. Nevertheless, due to limited onboard battery capacities of UAVs and diverse service requests of ground users, it is necessary to optimize energy efficiency and service fairness for improving mission execution capabilities of UAVs and the quality of service (QoS) experienced by ground users, and a joint optimization problem of energy efficiency and service fairness is formulated. Through considering complex coupling associations among the departure station, flight paths and hovering points of UAVs, the problem is investigated from the trajectory planning of UAVs and the location planning for both the departure station and hovering points. Proving investigations to be Markov decision processes (MDP), multi-agent cooperation approaches are proposed as promising solutions, and simulation results have been shown to demonstrate that the performance achieved by the proposal outperforms that achieved by schemes commonly used in literatures.
{"title":"Multi-Agent Cooperation for Computing Power Scheduling in UAVs Empowered Aerial Computing Systems","authors":"Ming Tao;Xueqiang Li;Jie Feng;Dapeng Lan;Jun Du;Celimuge Wu","doi":"10.1109/JSAC.2024.3459035","DOIUrl":"10.1109/JSAC.2024.3459035","url":null,"abstract":"In the paradigm of ubiquitous edge computing, with those advantages, e.g., high mobility, fast response, flexibility and controllability, and low cost of use, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) could be used not only as relays to assist with data collection, but also as computing power nodes to process uncomplicated computational workloads from ground users. Especially, UAVs could be employed to provide alternative computing power resources in field, lake, post-disaster and other complex regional environments. In this paper, to address the issue of computing power scheduling in UAVs empowered aerial computing systems, a scenario where multiple UAVs from the same departure station cooperatively fly over hovering points and achieve the data collection and computation in a decentralized manner is investigated. Nevertheless, due to limited onboard battery capacities of UAVs and diverse service requests of ground users, it is necessary to optimize energy efficiency and service fairness for improving mission execution capabilities of UAVs and the quality of service (QoS) experienced by ground users, and a joint optimization problem of energy efficiency and service fairness is formulated. Through considering complex coupling associations among the departure station, flight paths and hovering points of UAVs, the problem is investigated from the trajectory planning of UAVs and the location planning for both the departure station and hovering points. Proving investigations to be Markov decision processes (MDP), multi-agent cooperation approaches are proposed as promising solutions, and simulation results have been shown to demonstrate that the performance achieved by the proposal outperforms that achieved by schemes commonly used in literatures.","PeriodicalId":73294,"journal":{"name":"IEEE journal on selected areas in communications : a publication of the IEEE Communications Society","volume":"42 12","pages":"3521-3535"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142174700","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-09-12DOI: 10.1109/JSAC.2024.3459055
Fengsheng Wei;Gang Feng;Shuang Qin;Youkun Peng;Yijing Liu
Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has been recognized as a key supplement for terrestrial networks to meet the stringent requirements of the forthcoming 6G networks. However, a significant challenge lies in providing differentiated services through a common UAV network, without the need to deploy individual networks for each service type. In this paper, we consider the problem of joint network slicing and UAV deployment under dynamic wireless environments as well as the uncertain traffic demands. To overcome the challenges posed by the network dynamics, we propose an intelligent hierarchical UAV slicing framework that operates at two different time-scales. At the large time-scale, the problem of inter-slice resource slicing and UAV deployment is formulated as a mixed integer nonlinear program, and a decomposition technique is applied to resolve it. At the small time-scale, the problem of intra-slice resource adjustment is modeled as a stochastic game and a distributed learning algorithm is proposed to find its Nash Equilibrium. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed framework is lightweight and outperforms a number of known benchmark algorithms in terms of system utility, throughput and transmission delay.
{"title":"Hierarchical Network Slicing for UAV-Assisted Wireless Networks With Deployment Optimization","authors":"Fengsheng Wei;Gang Feng;Shuang Qin;Youkun Peng;Yijing Liu","doi":"10.1109/JSAC.2024.3459055","DOIUrl":"10.1109/JSAC.2024.3459055","url":null,"abstract":"Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has been recognized as a key supplement for terrestrial networks to meet the stringent requirements of the forthcoming 6G networks. However, a significant challenge lies in providing differentiated services through a common UAV network, without the need to deploy individual networks for each service type. In this paper, we consider the problem of joint network slicing and UAV deployment under dynamic wireless environments as well as the uncertain traffic demands. To overcome the challenges posed by the network dynamics, we propose an intelligent hierarchical UAV slicing framework that operates at two different time-scales. At the large time-scale, the problem of inter-slice resource slicing and UAV deployment is formulated as a mixed integer nonlinear program, and a decomposition technique is applied to resolve it. At the small time-scale, the problem of intra-slice resource adjustment is modeled as a stochastic game and a distributed learning algorithm is proposed to find its Nash Equilibrium. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed framework is lightweight and outperforms a number of known benchmark algorithms in terms of system utility, throughput and transmission delay.","PeriodicalId":73294,"journal":{"name":"IEEE journal on selected areas in communications : a publication of the IEEE Communications Society","volume":"42 12","pages":"3705-3718"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142174714","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-09-12DOI: 10.1109/JSAC.2024.3459039
Yinuo Zhao;Chi Harold Liu;Tianjiao Yi;Guozheng Li;Dapeng Wu
The integrated ground-air-space (GAS) communications system can enhance post-disaster rescue and management efforts when traditional networks fail, by navigating unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) and unmanned arieal vehicles (UAVs) to collaboratively collect sufficient data from point-of-interests (PoIs) in a timely manner. In this paper, we consider the GAS vehicular crowdsensing (VCS) campaign, where UGVs dispatch and callback UAVs periodically across multiple stops in the workzone, to maximize the total collected amount of data, geographic fairness while minimizing the energy consumption simultaneously. Specifically, we propose an energy-efficient, go-directed hierarchical multi-agent deep reinforcement learning (MADRL) method with discrete diffusion models called “gMADRL-VCS”, to optimize the high-level goal-conditioned navigation policies of UGVs, and the low-level long-term sensing strategies of UAVs. Extensive experimental results on two real-world datasets in Roma, Italy, and Hong Kong SAR, China show that gMADRL-VCS outperforms baselines in terms of energy efficiency, data collection ratio, energy consumption, and UAV-UGV cooperation factor.
{"title":"Energy-Efficient Ground-Air-Space Vehicular Crowdsensing by Hierarchical Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning With Diffusion Models","authors":"Yinuo Zhao;Chi Harold Liu;Tianjiao Yi;Guozheng Li;Dapeng Wu","doi":"10.1109/JSAC.2024.3459039","DOIUrl":"10.1109/JSAC.2024.3459039","url":null,"abstract":"The integrated ground-air-space (GAS) communications system can enhance post-disaster rescue and management efforts when traditional networks fail, by navigating unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) and unmanned arieal vehicles (UAVs) to collaboratively collect sufficient data from point-of-interests (PoIs) in a timely manner. In this paper, we consider the GAS vehicular crowdsensing (VCS) campaign, where UGVs dispatch and callback UAVs periodically across multiple stops in the workzone, to maximize the total collected amount of data, geographic fairness while minimizing the energy consumption simultaneously. Specifically, we propose an energy-efficient, go-directed hierarchical multi-agent deep reinforcement learning (MADRL) method with discrete diffusion models called “gMADRL-VCS”, to optimize the high-level goal-conditioned navigation policies of UGVs, and the low-level long-term sensing strategies of UAVs. Extensive experimental results on two real-world datasets in Roma, Italy, and Hong Kong SAR, China show that gMADRL-VCS outperforms baselines in terms of energy efficiency, data collection ratio, energy consumption, and UAV-UGV cooperation factor.","PeriodicalId":73294,"journal":{"name":"IEEE journal on selected areas in communications : a publication of the IEEE Communications Society","volume":"42 12","pages":"3566-3580"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142174769","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-09-12DOI: 10.1109/JSAC.2024.3459268
Wen-Yu Dong;Shaoshi Yang;Ping Zhang;Sheng Chen
Cooperative satellite-aerial-terrestrial networks (CSATNs), where unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are utilized as nomadic aerial relays (A), are highly valuable for many important applications, such as post-disaster urban reconstruction. In this scenario, direct communication between terrestrial terminals (T) and satellites (S) is often unavailable due to poor propagation conditions for satellite signals, and users tend to congregate in regions of finite size. There is a current dearth in the open literature regarding the uplink performance analysis of CSATN operating under the above constraints, and the few contributions on the uplink model terrestrial terminals by a Poisson point process (PPP) relying on the unrealistic assumption of an infinite area. This paper aims to fill the above research gap. First, we propose a stochastic geometry based innovative model to characterize the impact of the finite-size distribution region of terrestrial terminals in the CSATN by jointly using a binomial point process (BPP) and a type-II Matérn hard-core point process (MHCPP). Then, we analyze the relationship between the spatial distribution of the coverage areas of aerial nodes and the finite-size distribution region of terrestrial terminals, thereby deriving the distance distribution of the T-A links. Furthermore, we consider the stochastic nature of the spatial distributions of terrestrial terminals and UAVs, and conduct a thorough analysis of the coverage probability and average ergodic rate of the T-A links under Nakagami fading and the A-S links under shadowed-Rician fading. Finally, the accuracy of our theoretical derivations are confirmed by Monte Carlo simulations. Our research offers fundamental insights into the system-level performance optimization for the realistic CSATNs involving nomadic aerial relays and terrestrial terminals confined in a finite-size region.
{"title":"Stochastic Geometry Based Modeling and Analysis of Uplink Cooperative Satellite-Aerial-Terrestrial Networks for Nomadic Communications With Weak Satellite Coverage","authors":"Wen-Yu Dong;Shaoshi Yang;Ping Zhang;Sheng Chen","doi":"10.1109/JSAC.2024.3459268","DOIUrl":"10.1109/JSAC.2024.3459268","url":null,"abstract":"Cooperative satellite-aerial-terrestrial networks (CSATNs), where unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are utilized as nomadic aerial relays (A), are highly valuable for many important applications, such as post-disaster urban reconstruction. In this scenario, direct communication between terrestrial terminals (T) and satellites (S) is often unavailable due to poor propagation conditions for satellite signals, and users tend to congregate in regions of finite size. There is a current dearth in the open literature regarding the uplink performance analysis of CSATN operating under the above constraints, and the few contributions on the uplink model terrestrial terminals by a Poisson point process (PPP) relying on the unrealistic assumption of an infinite area. This paper aims to fill the above research gap. First, we propose a stochastic geometry based innovative model to characterize the impact of the finite-size distribution region of terrestrial terminals in the CSATN by jointly using a binomial point process (BPP) and a type-II Matérn hard-core point process (MHCPP). Then, we analyze the relationship between the spatial distribution of the coverage areas of aerial nodes and the finite-size distribution region of terrestrial terminals, thereby deriving the distance distribution of the T-A links. Furthermore, we consider the stochastic nature of the spatial distributions of terrestrial terminals and UAVs, and conduct a thorough analysis of the coverage probability and average ergodic rate of the T-A links under Nakagami fading and the A-S links under shadowed-Rician fading. Finally, the accuracy of our theoretical derivations are confirmed by Monte Carlo simulations. Our research offers fundamental insights into the system-level performance optimization for the realistic CSATNs involving nomadic aerial relays and terrestrial terminals confined in a finite-size region.","PeriodicalId":73294,"journal":{"name":"IEEE journal on selected areas in communications : a publication of the IEEE Communications Society","volume":"42 12","pages":"3428-3444"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142174755","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}