Communication Lab

SpecEES: Collaborative Research: Energy Efficient Dynamic Spectrum Access in Uncoordinated Networks

participants

Principle investigators:

Biao Chen (Syracuse University)

Venu Veeravalli (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)

Graduate students:

Meghana Bande (Ph.D., UIUC)

Komal Rajendrakumar Gujarathi (M.S., Syracuse University)

Yang Liu (Ph.D., Syracuse University)

Akshayaa Magesh (Ph.D., UIUC)

Tiexing Wang (Ph.D., Syracuse University)

Undergraduate students:

Olivia Flynn (Syracuse University)

Makhubar Moon (Syracuse University, summer REU)

Xin Zhang (Syracuse University)

Josh Zhao (Boston College, summer REU)

Tina Wang (University of Southern California, summer REU)

Xavier Evans (Syracuse University)

Jack Guida (Syracuse University)

Abstract

With its focus on energy efficient dynamic spectrum access where the users are treated as equals and there is minimal coordination across the users, this project addresses challenges for enabling next-generation wireless communications and networking in a dynamic spectrum environment. The results from the project should greatly enhance access to broadband wireless services in traditionally under-serviced communities. The spectrum-sensing and spectrum-sharing techniques developed should prove to be equally applicable in a slew of applications involving energy-constrained ad hoc networks such as those encountered in disaster relief operations and in a variety of applications relevant to national security. The involvement of undergraduate students in this project, especially in software radio experiment, is expected to foster their long-term interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM)-related fields.

This research project is focused on both spectral efficiency and energy efficiency for a class of dynamic spectrum access applications that have been much less well studied: an uncoordinated wide-band system where the users are treated as equals, i.e., there is no primary/secondary distinction. The project will develop the spectrum management framework as well as enabling technologies for such applications, ranging from multi-channel spectrum sensing using quickest change detection to novel spectrum access schemes for spectral/energy efficient and fair spectrum usage in the absence of user coordination. Experimental studies are an integral part of the proposed research, and the project leverages existing software radio capabilities developed at Syracuse University. This study of spectrum access with equally privileged users without coordination also fills an important gap in dynamic spectrum access. Given the generality of the models considered, this research can be expected to make fundamental contributions to the theories of quickest change detection and random access.

Activities and Broader Impacts

* Advised Olivia Flynn on her undergraduate honor thesis titled: "Using the Hungarian Algorithm for Channel Assignment in Wireless Communications.

* Participated in the DARPA Spectrum Collaboration Challenge as a finalist. The project provided a great opportunity for a number of graduate and undergraduate students to participate in STEM related activities.

* Recruited and advised undergraduate research assistants through REU supplements: Makhubar Moon (2018), Josh Zhao (2018 and 2019), Tina Wang (2020), and Xavier Evans (2020). They have all participated in various aspects of the project.

* Conducted extensive Wi-Fi sensing experiments and have published dataset and code on GitHub.

* Pis Chen and Veeravalli have met prior to pandemic and have continued email exchanges in technical collaboration. On-going discussion involves experimental data collection for spectrum sensing to be conducted at SU with the USRP testbed.

Publications

  • A. Magesh and V.V. Veeravalli. "Decentralized Heterogeneous Multi-Player Multi-Armed Bandits with Non-Zero Rewards on Collisions." Submitted to the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, January 2021.
  • M. Bande, A. Magesh, and V.V. Veeravalli. "Dynamic Spectrum Access using Stochastic Multi-User Bandits." To appear in IEEE Wireless Communication Letters, 2021.
  • M. Bande and V.V. Veeravalli. "Design of a Heterogeneous Cellular Network with a Wireless Backhaul." IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communication, 20(1): 243-253, January 2021.
  • A. Magesh and V.V. Veeravalli. "Decentralized Multi-Player Multi-Armed Bandits with Non-Zero Rewards on Collisions.² To be submitted to the IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory.
  • Y. Liu, T. Wang, Y. Jiang and B. Chen, "Harvesting Ambient RF for Presence Detection Through Deep Learning, IEEE Trans. Neural Networks, Learning Syst. DOI: 10.1109/TNNLS.2020.3042908.
  • M. Bande and V.V. Veeravalli. "Design of a Heterogeneous Cellular Network with a Wireless Backhaul." to appear in IEEE Trans. Wireless Commun.
  • A. Magesh and V.V. Veeravalli. "Decentralized Multi-User Multi Armed Bandits for Uncoordinated Spectrum Access." Proc. IEEE Asilomar Conf. Signals, Syst., and Computers, 2019.
  • S. Zhu, B. Chen, Z. Chen, and P. Yang, "Asymptotically Optimal One- and Two-Sample Testing with Kernels,"  in IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, vol. 67, no. 4, pp. 2074-2092, April 2021, doi: 10.1109/TIT.2021.3059267.
  • M. Bande and V.V. Veeravalli, Adversarial Multi-User Bandits for Uncoordinated Spectrum Access, Proc. IEEE ICASSP Brighton, UK, May 2019.
  • S. Zhu, B. Chen, P. Yang, and Z. Chen, Universal hypothesis testing with kernels: Asymptotically optimal tests for goodness of fit, Proc. Int. Conf. Artificial Intel. Statistics (AISTATS), April 2019, Naha, Okinawa, Japan.
  • T. Wang, Q. Li, D. Bucci, Y. Liang, B. Chen and P. Varshney, Clustering of Data Sequences with Composite Distributions, IEEE Trans. Signal Process. vo. 67, pp.2093-2106, Apr. 2019.
  • P. Yang and B. Chen, Robust divergence and universal hypothesis testing for continuous distributions, IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, vo. 65, pp.2360-2373, Apr. 2019.
  • M. Bande, A. El Gamal, and V.V. Veeravalli. “Degrees of Freedom in Wireless Interference Networks with Cooperative Transmission and Backhaul Load Constraints.” IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, 65(9): 5816-5832, Sep. 2019.
  • M. Bande and V.V. Veeravalli. Multi-User Multi-Armed Bandits for Uncoordinated Spectrum Access. In Proceedings of IEEE Int.Conf. Computing, Networking and Commun. (ICNC), Honolulu, Hawaii, February 2019.
  • Q. Li, T. Wang, D. Bucci, Y. Liang, B. Chen and P. Varshney, Nonparametric Composite Hypothesis Testing in an Asymptotic Regime", IEEE J. Selected Topics in Signal Process., vo. 12, pp. 1005-1014, Aug. 2018.

Recent News

April 2018: Shengyu Zhu is one of the winners of the 2018 All University Doctoral Prizes. Congratulations!

August 2017: Dr. Biao Chen is appointed the John E. and Patricia A. Breyer Professor in Electrical Engineering.

July 2017: Prof. Biao Chen was awarded an NSE grant to research energy efficient spectrum access for wireless systems.

March 2017: Prof. Biao Chen was awarded an NSF EAGER grant to assist the participation of DARPA Spectrum Collaboration Challenge.

January 2017: Team Air Orange, a group of researchers consisting of Syracuse University faculty, students, and alumni, made the finalist for the DARPA Spectrum Collaboration Challenge.

all news

If you have any questions regarding the website, please contact Tiexing Wang. Last updated on Nov. 9, 2020.