Reasoning over the Air: A Reasoning-based Implicit Semantic-Aware Communication Framework

Semantic-aware communication is a novel paradigm that draws inspiration from human communication focusing on the delivery of the meaning of messages. It has attracted significant interest recently due to its potential to improve the efficiency and reliability of communication and enhance users' QoE. Most existing works focus on transmitting and delivering the explicit semantic meaning that can be directly identified from the source signal. This paper investigates the implicit semantic-aware communication in which the hidden information that cannot be directly observed from the source signal must be recognized and interpreted by the intended users. To this end, a novel implicit semantic-aware communication (iSAC) architecture is proposed for representing, communicating, and interpreting the implicit semantic meaning between source and destination users. A projection-based semantic encoder is proposed to convert the high-dimensional graphical representation of explicit semantics into a low-dimensional semantic constellation space for efficient physical channel transmission. To enable the destination user to learn and imitate the implicit semantic reasoning process of source user, a generative adversarial imitation learning-based solution, called G-RML, is proposed. Different from existing communication solutions, the source user in G-RML does not focus only on sending as much of the useful messages as possible; but, instead, it tries to guide the destination user to learn a reasoning mechanism to map any observed explicit semantics to the corresponding implicit semantics that are most relevant to the semantic meaning. Compared to the existing solutions, our proposed G-RML requires much less communication and computational resources and scales well to the scenarios involving the communication of rich semantic meanings consisting of a large number of concepts and relations.

Overcoming Beam Squint in Dual-Wideband mmWave MIMO Channel Estimation: A Bayesian Multi-Band Sparsity Approach

The beam squint effect, which manifests in different steering matrices in different sub-bands, has been widely considered a challenge in millimeter wave (mmWave) multiinput multi-output (MIMO) channel estimation. Existing methods either require specific forms of the precoding/combining matrix, which restrict their general practicality, or simply ignore the beam squint effect by only making use of a single sub-band for channel estimation. Recognizing that different steering matrices are coupled by the same set of unknown channel parameters, this paper proposes to exploit the common sparsity structure of the virtual channel model so that signals from different subbands can be jointly utilized to enhance the performance of channel estimation. A probabilistic model is built to induce the common sparsity in the spatial domain, and the first-order Taylor expansion is adopted to get rid of the grid mismatch in the dictionaries. To learn the model parameters, a variational expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm is derived, which automatically obtains the balance between the likelihood function and the common sparsity prior information, and is applicable to arbitrary forms of precoding/combining matrices. Simulation results show the superior estimation accuracy of the proposed algorithm over existing methods under different noise powers and system configurations.

Differentially Private Wireless Federated Learning Using Orthogonal Sequences

We propose a novel privacy-preserving uplink over-the-air computation (AirComp) method, termed FLORAS, for single-input single-output (SISO) wireless federated learning (FL) systems. From the communication design perspective, FLORAS eliminates the requirement of channel state information at the transmitters (CSIT) by leveraging the properties of orthogonal sequences. From the privacy perspective, we prove that FLORAS can offer both item-level and client-level differential privacy (DP) guarantees. Moreover, by adjusting the system parameters, FLORAS can flexibly achieve different DP levels at no additional cost. A novel FL convergence bound is derived which, combined with the privacy guarantees, allows for a smooth tradeoff between convergence rate and differential privacy levels. Numerical results demonstrate the advantages of FLORAS compared with the baseline AirComp method, and validate that our analytical results can guide the design of privacy-preserving FL with different tradeoff requirements on the model convergence and privacy levels.

Analysis of the Relative Entropy Asymmetry in the Regularization of Empirical Risk Minimization

The effect of the relative entropy asymmetry is analyzed in the empirical risk minimization with relative entropy regularization (ERM-RER) problem. A novel regularization is introduced, coined Type-II regularization, that allows for solutions to the ERM-RER problem with a support that extends outside the support of the reference measure. The solution to the new ERM-RER Type-II problem is analytically characterized in terms of the Radon-Nikodym derivative of the reference measure with respect to the solution. The analysis of the solution unveils the following properties of relative entropy when it acts as a regularizer in the ERM-RER problem: i) relative entropy forces the support of the Type-II solution to collapse into the support of the reference measure, which introduces a strong inductive bias that dominates the evidence provided by the training data; ii) Type-II regularization is equivalent to classical relative entropy regularization with an appropriate transformation of the empirical risk function. Closed-form expressions of the expected empirical risk as a function of the regularization parameters are provided.

MIMO Detection under Hardware Impairments: Learning with Noisy Labels

This paper considers a data detection problem in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication systems with hardware impairments. To address challenges posed by nonlinear and unknown distortion in received signals, two learning-based detection methods, referred to as model-driven and data-driven, are presented. The model-driven method employs a generalized Gaussian distortion model to approximate the conditional distribution of the distorted received signal. By using the outputs of coarse data detection as noisy training data, the model-driven method avoids the need for additional training overhead beyond traditional pilot overhead for channel estimation. An expectation-maximization algorithm is devised to accurately learn the parameters of the distortion model from noisy training data. To resolve a model mismatch problem in the model-driven method, the data-driven method employs a deep neural network (DNN) for approximating a-posteriori probabilities for each received signal. This method uses the outputs of the model-driven method as noisy labels and therefore does not require extra training overhead. To avoid the overfitting problem caused by noisy labels, a robust DNN training algorithm is devised, which involves a warm-up period, sample selection, and loss correction. Simulation results demonstrate that the two proposed methods outperform existing solutions with the same overhead under various hardware impairment scenarios.

Reconstructing Graph Diffusion History from a Single Snapshot

Diffusion on graphs is ubiquitous with numerous high-impact applications. In these applications, complete diffusion histories play an essential role in terms of identifying dynamical patterns, reflecting on precaution actions, and forecasting intervention effects. Despite their importance, complete diffusion histories are rarely available and are highly challenging to reconstruct due to ill-posedness, explosive search space, and scarcity of training data. To date, few methods exist for diffusion history reconstruction. They are exclusively based on the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) formulation and require to know true diffusion parameters. In this paper, we study an even harder problem, namely reconstructing Diffusion history from A single SnapsHot} (DASH), where we seek to reconstruct the history from only the final snapshot without knowing true diffusion parameters. We start with theoretical analyses that reveal a fundamental limitation of the MLE formulation. We prove: (a) estimation error of diffusion parameters is unavoidable due to NP-hardness of diffusion parameter estimation, and (b) the MLE formulation is sensitive to estimation error of diffusion parameters. To overcome the inherent limitation of the MLE formulation, we propose a novel barycenter formulation: finding the barycenter of the posterior distribution of histories, which is provably stable against the estimation error of diffusion parameters. We further develop an effective solver named DIffusion hiTting Times with Optimal proposal (DITTO) by reducing the problem to estimating posterior expected hitting times via the Metropolis--Hastings Markov chain Monte Carlo method (M--H MCMC) and employing an unsupervised graph neural network to learn an optimal proposal to accelerate the convergence of M--H MCMC. We conduct extensive experiments to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed method.

Efficient RL with Impaired Observability: Learning to Act with Delayed and Missing State Observations

In real-world reinforcement learning (RL) systems, various forms of impaired observability can complicate matters. These situations arise when an agent is unable to observe the most recent state of the system due to latency or lossy channels, yet the agent must still make real-time decisions. This paper introduces a theoretical investigation into efficient RL in control systems where agents must act with delayed and missing state observations. We establish near-optimal regret bounds, of the form $\tilde{\mathcal{O}}(\sqrt{{\rm poly}(H) SAK})$, for RL in both the delayed and missing observation settings. Despite impaired observability posing significant challenges to the policy class and planning, our results demonstrate that learning remains efficient, with the regret bound optimally depending on the state-action size of the original system. Additionally, we provide a characterization of the performance of the optimal policy under impaired observability, comparing it to the optimal value obtained with full observability.

A Tutorial on Holographic MIMO Communications--Part II: Performance Analysis and Holographic Beamforming

As Part II of a three-part tutorial on holographic multiple-input multiple-output (HMIMO), this Letter focuses on the state-of-the-art in performance analysis and on holographic beamforming for HMIMO communications. We commence by discussing the spatial degrees of freedom (DoF) and ergodic capacity of a point-to-point HMIMO system, based on the channel model presented in Part I. Additionally, we also consider the sum-rate analysis of multi-user HMIMO systems. Moreover, we review the recent progress in holographic beamforming techniques developed for various HMIMO scenarios. Finally, we evaluate both the spatial DoF and the channel capacity through numerical simulations.

A Tutorial on Holographic MIMO Communications--Part I: Channel Modeling and Channel Estimation

By integrating a nearly infinite number of reconfigurable elements into a finite space, a spatially continuous array aperture is formed for holographic multiple-input multiple-output (HMIMO) communications. This three-part tutorial aims for providing an overview of the latest advances in HMIMO communications. As Part I of the tutorial, this letter first introduces the fundamental concept of HMIMO and reviews the recent progress in HMIMO channel modeling, followed by a suite of efficient channel estimation approaches. Finally, numerical results are provided for demonstrating the statistical consistency of the new HMIMO channel model advocated with conventional ones and evaluating the performance of the channel estimators. Parts II and III of the tutorial will delve into the performance analysis and holographic beamforming, and detail the interplay of HMIMO with emerging technologies.

Cooperative Channel Capacity Learning

In this paper, the problem of determining the capacity of a communication channel is formulated as a cooperative game, between a generator and a discriminator, that is solved via deep learning techniques. The task of the generator is to produce channel input samples for which the discriminator ideally distinguishes conditional from unconditional channel output samples. The learning approach, referred to as cooperative channel capacity learning (CORTICAL), provides both the optimal input signal distribution and the channel capacity estimate. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed framework learns the capacity-achieving input distribution under challenging non-Shannon settings.