ALBERT

Description: Mobile broadband services have expanded considerably in recent years, driving operators to improve and densify their radio access network (RAN). It has become clear that small cells as well as macrocells must be included in a heterogeneous network, due to the scale of densification required. In order to maximize the end user experience, some level of radio coordination between these small and macrocells is needed ?? this coordination will be signaled across a mobile backhaul network. Mobile backhaul typically refers to the network between the base station site and the network controller site, but can also include interconnection between base station sites. Mobile backhaul includes a spectrum of networks and network technologies, including the RAN and core networks. There is considerable market interest on the development of small cell backhaul solutions that are an evolution of existing backhaul networks. Packet synchronisation mechanisms that are being developed are key to support the mobile backhaul application. Various standards bodies such as the Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance (NGMN), Small Cell Forum (SCF), Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF), and Broadband Forum (BBF) are also studying what the implications would be on their defined mobile backhaul network architectures.

Description: In this article, we introduce the EstiNet OpenFlow network simulator and emulator, and present its support for testing the functions and evaluating the performances of software-defined networks?? OpenFlow controller??s application programs. EstiNet uses an unique kernel reentering simulation methodology to enable unmodified real applications to run on nodes in its simulated network. As a result, without any modification, real NOX/POX or Floodlight OpenFlow controllers can readily run on a host in an EstiNet simulated network to control thousands of simulated OpenFlow switches. EstiNet has the characteristics of a simulator and an emulator at the same time. It combines the advantages of the simulation and emulation approaches without their respective shortcomings. EstiNet uses real OpenFlow controller programs, real network application programs, and the real TCP/IP protocol stack in the Linux kernel to generate correct, accurate, and repeatable SDN application performance results. In this article, we compare EstiNet with ns-3 and Mininet regarding their capabilities, performance, and scalability.

Description: This article discusses novel wireless and optical technologies to address the radical new challenges of small cell mobile backhaul (MBH). Specifically, we examine 60 GHz and 70??80 GHz millimeter-wave technologies for high-capacity last mile and pre-aggregation backhaul, and orthogonal frequency-division multiple access passive optical networks as the optical technology complement for enabling flexible cost-efficient hybrid backhaul coverage. Flexible high-capacity hybrid millimeter wave/optical MBH network operation is next verified via network simulations in the context of a demanding, urban small-cell backhaul application. Finally, a novel software defined networking tool called the backhaul resource manager is introduced for automated dynamic resource provisioning and capacity-aware path computation that improves fairness, network utilization and end-to-end user quality of experience. The introduction of the novel wireless, optical, and software-defined technologies thus has the potential to truly revolutionize the future MBH network.

Description: In this article we discuss different technology alternatives for small cell backhaul, and we present high-frequency microwave technology as a very interesting alternative for wireless backhauling of small cells. In fact, we demonstrate that high-frequency microwave technology can be used for NLOS wireless backhauling of small cells, which opens up new applications for microwave technology. We discuss urban NLOS channel propagation at high frequencies, and we show both measurement and simulation results to validate the use of high-frequency microwave technology for NLOS small cell backhaul.

Description: Currently, online social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and Foursquare have become extremely popular all over the world and play a significant role in people??s daily lives. People access OSNs using both traditional desktop PCs and new emerging mobile devices. With more than one billion users worldwide, OSNs are a new venue of innovation with many challenging research problems. In this survey, we aim to give a comprehensive review of state-of-the-art research related to user behavior in OSNs from several perspectives. First, we discuss social connectivity and interaction among users. Also, we investigate traffic activity from a network perspective. Moreover, as mobile devices become a commodity, we pay attention to the characteristics of social behaviors in mobile environments. Last but not least, we review malicious behaviors of OSN users, and discuss several solutions to detect misbehaving users. Our survey serves the important roles of both providing a systematic exploration of existing research highlights and triggering various potentially significant research in these topics.

Description: Spectrum sharing potentially holds the promise of solving the emerging spectrum crisis. However, technology innovators face the conundrum of developing spectrum sharing technologies without the ability to experiment and test with real incumbent systems. Interference with operational incumbents can prevent critical services, and the cost of deploying and operating an incumbent system can be prohibitive. Thus, the lack of incumbent systems and frequency authorization for technology incubation and demonstration has stymied spectrum sharing research. To this end, industry, academia, and regulators all require a test facility for validating hypotheses and demonstrating functionality without affecting operational incumbent systems. This article proposes a four-phase program supported by our spectrum accountability architecture. We propose that our comprehensive experimentation and testing approach for technology incubation and demonstration will accelerate the development of spectrum sharing technologies.

Description: It is known that if the objective of a wireless sensor network is not to reconstruct individual sensor readings at a fusion center but rather to compute a linear function of them, then the interference property of the wireless channel can be beneficially harnessed by letting nodes transmit simultaneously. Recently, an analog computation scheme was proposed to show that it is possible to take the advantage of the interference property even if nonlinear functions are to be computed. The scheme involves some pre-processing on the sensor readings and post-processing on the superimposed signals observed by the fusion center. Correspondingly, this paper provides a thorough base for a theory of analog-computing functions over wireless channels by specifying what is the maximum achievable. This means it is determined for networks of arbitrary topology which functions are generally analog-computable over the channel and how many wireless resources are needed. It turns out that the considerations are closely related to the famous 13th Hilbert problem and that analog-computations can be universally performed in the sense that the pre-processing at sensor nodes is independent of the function to be computed. Universality reduces the complexity of transmitters and the signaling overhead, and it is shown that this property is preserved if nodes leave or join the network. Analog-computability is therefore of high practical relevance as it allows for an efficient computation of functions in sensor networks.

Description: We study the application of matrix completion in the process of calibrating physical devices. In particular we propose an algorithm together with reconstruction bounds for calibrating circular ultrasound tomography devices. We use the time-of-flight (ToF) measurements between sensor pairs in a homogeneous medium to calibrate the system. The calibration process consists of a low-rank matrix completion algorithm to de-noise and estimate random and structured missing ToFs, and the classic multi-dimensional scaling method to estimate the sensor positions from the ToF measurements. We provide theoretical bounds on the calibration error. Several simulations are conducted to evaluate the theoretical results presented in this paper.

Description: We propose a particle filtering technique to track multiple maneuvering targets in the presence of clutter. We treat data association and state estimation, which are the two important sub-problems in tracking, as separate problems. We develop a game-theoretic framework to solve the data association, in which we model each tracker as a player and the set of measurements as strategies. We develop utility functions for each player, and then use a regret-based learning algorithm to find the equilibrium of this game. The game-theoretic approach allows us to associate measurements to all the targets simultaneously. Further, in contrast to the traditional Monte-Carlo data association algorithms that use samples of the association vector obtained from a proposal distribution, our method finds the association in a deterministic fashion. We then use Monte-Carlo sampling on the reduced dimensional state of each target, independently, and thereby mitigate the curse-of-dimensionality problem that is known to occur in particle filtering. We provide a number of numerical results to demonstrate the performance of our proposed filtering algorithm.

Description: In this paper we deal with the problem of detecting an extended target embedded in homogeneous Gaussian interference with unknown but structured covariance matrix. We model the possible target echo, from each range bin under test, as a deterministic signal with an unknown scaling factor accounting for the target response. At the design stage, we exploit some a-priori knowledge about the operating environment enforcing the inverse interference plus noise covariance matrix to belong to a set described via unitary invariant continuous functions. Hence, we derive the constrained Maximum Likelihood (ML) estimates of the unknown parameters, under both the $H_{0}$ and $H_{1}$ hypotheses, and design the Generalized Likelihood Ratio Test (GLRT) for the considered decision problem. At the analysis stage, we assess the performance of the devised GLRT for some covariance matrix uncertainty sets of practical relevance both for spatial and Doppler processing. The results highlight that correct use of the a-priori knowledge can lead to a detection performance quite close to the optimum receiver which supposes the perfect knowledge of the interference plus noise covariance matrix.

Description: In this paper, we present a novel memory-efficient high-throughput scalable architecture for multi-level 2-D DWT. We studied the existing DWT architectures and observed that data scanning method has a significant impact on the memory efficiency of DWT architecture. We propose a novel parallel stripe-based scanning method based on the analysis of the dependency graph of the lifting scheme. With the new scanning method for multi-level 2D DWT, a high memory efficient scalable parallel pipelined architecture is developed. The proposed architecture requires no frame memory and a temporal memory of size only $3 N +682$ for the 3-level DWT decomposition with an image of size $N times N$ pixels with 32 pixels processed concurrently. The elimination of frame memory and the small temporal memory lead to significant reduction in overall size. The proposed architecture has a regular structure and achieves 100% hardware utilization. The synthesis results in 90 nm CMOS process show that the proposed architecture achieves a better area-delay product by 60% and higher throughput by 97% when compared to the best existing design for the CDF (Cohen-Daubechies-Favreau) 9/7 2-D DWT.

Description: We consider a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) interference channel (IC), where a single data stream per user is transmitted and each receiver treats interference as noise. The paper focuses on the open problem of computing the outermost boundary (so-called Pareto boundary-PB) of the achievable rate region under linear transceiver design. The Pareto boundary consists of the strict PB and non-strict PB. For the two user case, we compute the non-strict PB and the two ending points of the strict PB exactly. For the strict PB, we formulate the problem to maximize one rate while the other rate is fixed such that a strict PB point is reached. To solve this non-convex optimization problem which results from the hard-coupled two transmit beamformers, we propose an alternating optimization algorithm. Furthermore, we extend the algorithm to the multi-user scenario and show convergence. Numerical simulations illustrate that the proposed algorithm computes a sequence of well-distributed operating points that serve as a reasonable and complete inner bound of the strict PB compared with existing methods.

Description: This paper studies secrecy rate optimization in a wireless network with a single-antenna source, a multi-antenna destination and a multi-antenna eavesdropper. This is an unfavorable scenario for secrecy performance as the system is interference-limited. In the literature, assuming that the receiver operates in half duplex (HD) mode, the aforementioned problem has been addressed via use of cooperating nodes who act as jammers to confound the eavesdropper. This paper investigates an alternative solution, which assumes the availability of a full duplex (FD) receiver. In particular, while receiving data, the receiver transmits jamming noise to degrade the eavesdropper channel. The proposed self-protection scheme eliminates the need for external helpers and provides system robustness. For the case in which global channel state information is available, we aim to design the optimal jamming covariance matrix that maximizes the secrecy rate and mitigates loop interference associated with the FD operation. We consider both fixed and optimal linear receiver design at the destination, and show that the optimal jamming covariance matrix is rank-1, and can be found via an efficient 1-D search. For the case in which only statistical information on the eavesdropper channel is available, the optimal power allocation is studied in terms of ergodic and outage secrecy rates. Simulation results verify the analysis and demonstrate substantial performance gain over conventional HD operation at the destination.

Description: A novel filter for nonlinear and non-Gaussian systems is proposed in this paper. The unscented Kalman filter is designed to give a preliminary estimation of the state. An additional RBF-network is added to the UKF innovation term to compensate for the non-Gaussianity of the whole system. The Renyi's entropy of the innovation is introduced and parameters of the RBF-network are updated using minimum entropy criterion at each time step. It has been shown that the proposed algorithm has a high accuracy in estimation because entropy can characterize all the randomness of the residual while UKF only cares for the mean and the covariance. It has been proved that with properly chosen bandwidth $Sigma$ , the minimum entropy problem of the innovation is convex. Therefore, the proposed adaptive nonlinear filter will be globally convergent and the misadjustment will be proportional to the step size $mu$ . The effectiveness of the proposed method is shown by simulation.

Description: In this paper, we explore a sequential Bayesian bound for state-space models focusing on hybrid continuous and discrete random states. We provide an analytic recursion for the sequential Weiss–Weinstein (SWW) bound for linear state-space models with solutions for Gaussian, uniform, and exponential distributions as derived, as well as for a combination of these. We compare the SWW bound for discretized states with the corresponding bound for the continuous states. The SWW bound is contrasted with the sequential Cramér–Rao bound for Gaussian distributions. Practical issues of SWW bounds are discussed and numerical simulation results provide insights into their behavior.

Description: Achieving better imaging of weak sources in the presence of strong interfering sources is a major challenge in various fields of signal processing, such as radio astronomy, SAR imaging, SONAR and wideband signal processing. We present a new algorithm for parameter estimation that can be implemented when a moving array is used. This adaptive beamformer can be employed in a variety of applications, such as radio astronomy with synthetic aperture arrays, SAR imaging, DOA estimation in towed array SONAR and wideband DOA estimation. Analytic performance analysis is provided together with simulations and tests on a new radio astronomy array. All these indicate a significant improvement compared to currently used filterbank techniques such as the MVDR, when strong interference is present, either inside or outside the field of view of the array. The latter case is especially important when directional antennas are used.

Description: This paper addresses the problem of adaptive waveform design for estimation of parameters of linear systems. This problem arises in several applications such as radar, sonar, or tomography. In the proposed technique, the transmit/input signal waveform is optimally determined at each step based on the observations in the previous steps. The waveform is determined to minimize the Bayesian Cramér-Rao bound (BCRB) or the Reuven-Messer bound (RMB) for estimation of the unknown system parameters at each step. The algorithms are tested for spatial transmit waveform design in multiple-input multiple-output radar target angle estimation at very low signal-to-noise ratio. The proposed techniques allow to automatically focusing the transmit beam toward the target direction. The simulations show that the proposed adaptive waveform design methods achieve significantly higher rate of performance improvement as a function of the pulse index, compared to other signal transmission methods, in terms of estimation accuracy.

Description: In this paper, we investigate the robust beamforming schemes for a multi-user multiple-input-single-output (MU-MISO) system with per-antenna power constraints and quantized channel direction information (CDI) feedback. Our design objective is to maximize the expectation of the weighted sum-rate performance by means of controlling the interference leakage and properly allocating the power among user equipments (UEs). First, we prove the optimality of the non-robust zero-forcing (ZF) beamforming scheme in the sense of generating the minimum amount of average inter-UE interference under quantized CDI. Then we derive closed-form expressions of the cumulative density function (CDF) of the interference leakage power for the non-robust ZF beamforming scheme, based on which we adjust the leakage thresholds and propose two robust beamforming schemes under per-antenna power constraints with an iterative process to update the per-UE power allocations using the geometric programming (GP). Simulation results show the superiority of the proposed robust beamforming schemes compared with the existing schemes in terms of the average weighted sum-rate performance.

Description: Delta-sigma $(Delta Sigma)$ A/D conversion is a popular technique used to achieve high resolution data conversion for low to moderate bandwidth applications. It is commonly accepted that the digital circuitry of the $Delta Sigma$ A/D converters should perform a linear time-invariant (LTI) filtering on the output of the $Delta Sigma$ modulator in order to reconstruct the input signal. However, it has been shown that, when higher order $Delta Sigma$ A/D converters are operated at higher oversampling ratios (OSRs), non-linear reconstruction algorithms extract more information about the input signal than LTI methods. Still, use of non-linear algorithms has been limited due to their complexity and stability issues. Two practical non-linear methods presented in the literature are fast projection onto convex sets (POCS) and direct projection (DP). In this work, we show that the non-linear reconstruction process for $Delta Sigma$ modulated sequences can be treated as a linear feasibility problem (LFP). We then show that if the reconstruction process is defined as an LFP, its implementation is less complex than in the case of the DP method. We further describe how the LFP can be well-conditioned and demonstrate the reconstruction process by using the surrogate constraint algorithm with random constraint selection. The described algorithm considers a small number of constraints at a time, which makes it suitable for serial implementation.

Description: Cognitive radio (CR) systems require awareness of spectrum occupancy in order to operate without causing harmful interference to primary users (PUs). Cyclostationary feature detection (CFD) is a preferred method for spectrum sensing under low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) or/and noise uncertainty scenarios. To determine the presence, or otherwise, of PU signals, conventional CFD schemes tend to use test statistics over, either, multiple cycle frequencies for a fixed lag set, or, multiple lags for a fixed cycle frequency. This paper proposes a new method that jointly utilizes cycle frequencies and lags to produce more reliable test statistics. As the optimal way to apply this joint utilization requires prior knowledge of the 4th-order cyclic cumulant, which can be challenging to obtain, an alternative sub-optimal scheme independent of this cumulant knowledge will also be provided. It will be shown that, in the low SNR region, where it is most critical for CR applications, the proposed sub-optimal scheme can lead to similar detection performances as the optimal maximum likelihood technique. It will also be demonstrated that, compared to multi-cycle-frequency detection with selection combining, equal gain combining, or maximum ratio combining, the proposed provide superior performance.

Description: In this paper, we study the problem of code design to improve the detection performance of multi-static radar in the presence of clutter (i.e., a signal-dependent interference). To this end, we briefly present a discrete-time formulation of the problem as well as the optimal detector in the presence of Gaussian clutter. Due to the lack of analytical expression for receiver operation characteristic (ROC), code design based on ROC is not feasible. Therefore, we consider several popular information-theoretic criteria including Bhattacharyya distance, Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence, J-divergence, and mutual information (MI) as design metrics. The code optimization problems associated with different information-theoretic criteria are obtained and cast under a unified framework. We propose two general methods based on Majorization-Minimization to tackle the optimization problems in the framework. The first method provides optimal solutions via successive majorizations whereas the second one consists of a majorization step, a relaxation, and a synthesis stage. Moreover, derivations of the proposed methods are extended to tackle the code design problems with a peak-to-average ratio power (PAR) constraint. Using numerical investigations, a general analysis of the coded system performance, computational efficiency of the proposed methods, and the behavior of the information-theoretic criteria is provided.

Description: Inspired from modern out-of-equilibrium statistical physics models, a matrix product based framework is defined and studied, that permits the formal definition of random vectors and time series whose desired joint distributions are a priori prescribed. Its key feature consists of preserving the writing of the joint distribution as the simple product structure it has under independence, while inputing controlled dependencies amongst components: This is obtained by replacing the product of probability densities by a product of matrices of probability densities. It is first shown that this matrix product model can be remapped onto the framework of Hidden Markov Models. Second, combining this dual perspective enables us both to study the statistical properties of this model in terms of marginal distributions and dependencies (a stationarity condition is notably devised) and to devise an efficient and accurate numerical synthesis procedure. A design procedure is also described that permits the tuning of model parameters to attain targeted statistical properties. Pedagogical well-chosen examples of times series and multivariate vectors aim at illustrating the power and versatility of the proposed approach and at showing how targeted statistical properties can actually be prescribed.

Description: Flow-induced Molecular Communication (FMC), where molecular transport is performed via flow, is utilized in microfluidic channels to enhance diffusion-based molecular communication. The incorporation of the microfluidic channel and the transport of molecules by flow, i.e., convection, require a rigorous analysis to develop an end-to-end concentration propagation model and a design for microfluidic channels. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to analyze concentration propagation in microfluidic channels from FMC perspective and devise them specifically to enhance the FMC. In this paper, a system-theoretic analysis of molecular transport is presented first. The system-theoretic model incorporates the solution of flow velocity in microfluidic channels and yields an end-to-end transfer function for concentration propagation based on building blocks of microfluidic channels. Then, the design of microfluidic channels is performed based on the least-squares Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filtering to achieve the desired end-to-end transfer function in FMC. According to the desired pass and stop bands, the required length and aspect-ratio parameters of the microfluidic channels are obtained for FIR filtering. The transfer functions for FMC is elaborated via numerical results. Furthermore, two example designs of microfluidic channels are presented for least-squares FIR band-pass and band-stop filtering in FMC.

Description: We study the problem of linear filter optimization with finite sample size, which has wide applications such as beamformer design in wireless communications and portfolio optimization in finance. Traditional methods in both fields are not robust against the imprecise channel vector and the noise covariance matrix (or the mean return and the covariance of assets in finance) due to finite sample size. We consider estimation errors both in the channel vector and the noise covariance matrix (or the mean return and the covariance) simultaneously. We resort to high-dimensional asymptotics to account for the fact that the observation dimension is of the same order of magnitude as the number of samples, and use the diagonal loading method (or the shrinkage estimator) to improve the robustness. The channel vector (or mean return) and the noise covariance matrix are estimated from the training data, and then corrected under several widely-used criteria. In an asymptotic setting where the number of samples is comparable to the observation dimension, we obtain linear filters that are as good as the optimal filters with a shrinkage structure and a perfect channel vector (or mean return) under different criteria. Monte Carlo simulations show the advantage of our linear filters in the finite sample size regime.

Description: The Discrete Gabor Transform (DGT) is the most commonly used transform for signal analysis and synthesis using a linear frequency scale. It turns out that the involved operators are rich in structure if one samples the discrete phase space on a subgroup. Most of the literature focuses on separable subgroups, in this paper we will survey existing methods for a generalization to arbitrary groups, as well as present an improvement on existing methods. Comparisons are made with respect to the computational complexity, and the running time of optimized implementations in the C programming language. The new algorithms have the lowest known computational complexity for nonseparable lattices and the implementations are freely available for download. By summarizing general background information on the state of the art, this article can also be seen as a research survey, sharing with the readers experience in the numerical work in Gabor analysis.

Description: This study devotes to uncertainty principles under the linear canonical transform (LCT) of a complex signal. A lower-bound for the uncertainty product of a signal in the two LCT domains is proposed that is sharper than those in the existing literature. We also deduce the conditions that give rise to the equal relation of the new uncertainty principle. The uncertainty principle for the fractional Fourier transform is a particular case of the general result for LCT. Examples, including simulations, are provided to show that the new uncertainty principle is truly sharper than the latest one in the literature, and illustrate when the new and old lower bounds are the same and when different.

Description: This paper proposes a new relay selection method based on local channel state information (CSI) for a system consisting of a source, a destination and an arbitrary number of amplify-and-forward relay nodes. A set of candidate relays, whose source-relay (S-R) links are not in outage, is formed. An S-R link is in outage if its signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is below the predefined threshold value of the destination SNR plus some adjustable margin. The candidate relay that yields the maximum second-hop SNR is then selected at the destination. Unlike the opportunistic relaying (OR) based on full CSI (F-CSI), the proposed method requires to equip the destination node with the instantaneous CSI of the S-R channel corresponding to only the selected relay. It is qualitatively shown that the training overhead of the proposed relay selection is less than or comparable to that of the partial relay selection (PRS) but can be much smaller than that of the OR with F-CSI. However, the proposed scheme requires to estimate a higher number of single-input single-output (SISO) channels than in the PRS scheme. The exact and asymptotic expressions of outage probability are derived and it is shown that the proposed method achieves full diversity. Simulation results verify theoretical analysis, and show that, for the optimized margin, the proposed scheme provides performance which is comparable to the method having F-CSI. The results also show that the proposed method significantly outperforms PRS, which may justify the linear order of the computational complexity associated with the estimation of the additional SISO channels and the low-cost one-dimensional line search used for optimizing the margin.

Description: Pulse-coupled synchronization is attracting increased attention in the sensor network community. Yet its properties have not been fully investigated. Using statistical analysis, we prove analytically that by controlling the number of connections at each node, synchronization can be guaranteed for generally pulse-coupled oscillators even in the presence of a refractory period. The approach does not require the initial phases to reside in half an oscillation cycle, which improves existing results. We also find that a refractory period can be strategically included to reduce idle listening at nearly no sacrifice to the synchronization probability. Given that reduced idle listening leads to higher energy efficiency in the synchronization process, the strategically added refractory period makes the synchronization scheme appealing to cheap sensor nodes, for which energy is a precious system resource. We also analyzed the pulse-coupled synchronization in the presence of unreliable communication links and obtained similar results. QualNet experimental results are given to confirm the effectiveness of the theoretical predictions.

Description: The Gauss-Newton algorithm is a popular and efficient centralized method for solving non-linear least squares (NLLS) problems. In this paper, a multi-agent distributed version of this algorithm is proposed to solve general NLLS problems in a network, named Gossip-based Gauss-Newton (GGN) algorithm. Furthermore, we analyze and present sufficient conditions for its convergence and show numerically that the GGN algorithm achieves performance comparable to the centralized algorithm, with graceful degradation in case of network failures. More importantly, the GGN algorithm provides significant performance gains compared to other distributed first order methods.

Description: Recently, various methods have emerged for sub- Nyquist sampling and reconstruction of signals with finite rate of innovation (FRI). These methods seek to sample parametric signals at close to their information rate and later reconstruct the parameters of interest. Some proposed reconstruction algorithms are based on annihilating filters and root-finding. Stochastic methods based on Gibbs sampling were subsequently proposed with the intent of improving robustness to noise, but these may run too slowly for some real-time applications. We present a fast maximum-likelihood-based deterministic greedy algorithm, IterML, for reconstructing FRI signals from noisy samples. We show in simulation that it achieves comparable or better performance than previous algorithms at a much lower computational cost. We also uncover a fundamental flaw in the application of MMSE (minimum mean squared error) estimation, a technique employed by some existing methods, to the problem in question.

Description: This paper addresses the problem of sampling non-bandlimited signals within the Finite Rate of Innovation (FRI) setting. We had previously shown that, by using sampling kernels whose integer span contains specific exponentials (generalized Strang-Fix conditions), it is possible to devise non-iterative, fast reconstruction algorithms from very low-rate samples. Yet, the accuracy and sensitivity to noise of these algorithms is highly dependent on these exponential reproducing kernels — actually, on the exponentials that they reproduce. Hence, our first contribution here is to provide clear guidelines on how to choose the sampling kernels optimally, in such a way that the reconstruction quality is maximized in the presence of noise. The optimality of these kernels is validated by comparing with Cramér-Rao's lower bounds (CRB). Our second contribution is to relax the exact exponential reproduction requirement. Instead, we demonstrate that arbitrary sampling kernels can reproduce the “best” exponentials within quite a high accuracy in general, and that applying the exact FRI algorithms in this approximate context results in near-optimal reconstruction accuracy for practical noise levels. Essentially, we propose a universal extension of the FRI approach to arbitrary sampling kernels. Numerical results checked against the CRB validate the various contributions of the paper and in particular outline the ability of arbitrary sampling kernels to be used in FRI algorithms.

Description: This paper presents a new method for estimating high dimensional covariance matrices. The method, permuted rank-penalized least-squares (PRLS), is based on a Kronecker product series expansion of the true covariance matrix. Assuming an i.i.d. Gaussian random sample, we establish high dimensional rates of convergence to the true covariance as both the number of samples and the number of variables go to infinity. For covariance matrices of low separation rank, our results establish that PRLS has significantly faster convergence than the standard sample covariance matrix (SCM) estimator. The convergence rate captures a fundamental tradeoff between estimation error and approximation error, thus providing a scalable covariance estimation framework in terms of separation rank, similar to low rank approximation of covariance matrices . The MSE convergence rates generalize the high dimensional rates recently obtained for the ML Flip-flop algorithm , for Kronecker product covariance estimation. We show that a class of block Toeplitz covariance matrices is approximatable by low separation rank and give bounds on the minimal separation rank $r$ that ensures a given level of bias. Simulations are presented to validate the theoretical bounds. As a real world application, we illustrate the utility of the proposed Kronecker covariance estimator for spatio-temporal linear least squares prediction of multivariate wind speed measurements.

Description: Given a limited number of entries from the superposition of a low-rank matrix plus the product of a known compression matrix times a sparse matrix, recovery of the low-rank and sparse components is a fundamental task subsuming compressed sensing, matrix completion, and principal components pursuit. This paper develops algorithms for decentralized sparsity-regularized rank minimization over networks, when the nuclear- and $ell_1$ -norm are used as surrogates to the rank and nonzero entry counts of the sought matrices, respectively. While nuclear-norm minimization has well-documented merits when centralized processing is viable, non-separability of the singular-value sum challenges its decentralized minimization. To overcome this limitation, leveraging an alternative characterization of the nuclear norm yields a separable, yet non-convex cost minimized via the alternating-direction method of multipliers. Interestingly, if the decentralized (non-convex) estimator converges, under certain conditions it provably attains the global optimum of its centralized counterpart. As a result, this paper bridges the performance gap between centralized and in-network decentralized, sparsity-regularized rank minimization. This, in turn, facilitates (stable) recovery of the low rank and sparse model matrices through reduced-complexity per-node computations, and affordable message passing among single-hop neighbors. Several application domains are outlined to highlight the generality and impact of the proposed framework. These include unveiling traffic anomalies in backbone networks, and predicting networkwide path latencies. Simulations with synthetic and real network data confirm the convergence of the novel decentralized algorithm, and its centralized performance guarantees.

Description: Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar utilizes orthogonal waveforms on each transmit element to achieve virtual aperture extension. Compared to a directed beam radar, MIMO radar has increased Doppler resolution due to the longer integration times required to maintain the same energy on target. However, the requirement for longer integration times can also cause target returns to be spread over multiple range-Doppler bins, which decreases probability of detection. This paper derives an analytical expression for probability of detection that explicitly accounts for range-Doppler migration. The effect of target velocity, target acceleration and integration time on range-Doppler migration is analyzed. A framework for velocity and acceleration compensation and step sizes for full and partial compensation are proposed. Single-target track completeness and track accuracy are compared for directed beam radar, MIMO radar with full compensation, MIMO radar with partial compensation, and uncompensated MIMO radar. Results indicate that compensation is required to prevent degraded probability of detection and track completeness as target velocity and acceleration increase. Full compensation mitigates the effects of range-Doppler migration but requires additional computational complexity. The use of partial compensation reduces computational complexity requirements but has diminished tracking performance due to coasting over missed measurements.

Description: In this paper we address the problem of sparse signal reconstruction. We propose a new algorithm that determines the signal support applying statistical thresholding to accept the active components of the model. This adaptive decision test is integrated into the sparse Bayesian learning method, improving its accuracy and reducing convergence time. Moreover, we extend the formulation to accept multiple measurement sequences of signal contaminated by structured noise in addition to white noise. We also develop analytical expressions to evaluate the algorithm estimation error as a function of the problem sparsity and indeterminacy. By simulations, we compare the performance of the proposed algorithm with respect to other existing methods. We show a practical application processing real data of a polarimetric radar to separate the target signal from the clutter.

Description: In wireless communications, increased spectral efficiency and low error rates can be achieved by means of space- time-frequency coded MIMO-OFDM systems. In this work, we consider a MIMO-OFDM transmit signal design combining space-frequency modulation with a time-varying linear precoding technique which allows spreading and multiplexing the transmitted symbols, in both space, time and frequency domains. For this system, we propose two closed-form semi-blind receivers that exploit differently the multilinear structure of the received signal, which is formulated as a nested PARAllel FACtor (PARAFAC) model. First, we devise a least squares Khatri-Rao factorization (LS-KRF) based receiver for joint channel and symbol estimation by making an efficient use of a short frame of pilot symbols. The LS-KRF receiver provides the same performance at a lower computational complexity compared to the alternating least squares (ALS) based receiver. For further reducing pilot overhead, we develop a simplified closed-form PARAFAC (S-CFP) receiver coupled with a pairing algorithm that yields an unambiguous estimation of the transmitted symbols without the need of a pilot frame. The uniqueness conditions, spectral efficiency and computational complexity of the LS-KRF and S-CFP with pairing receivers are analyzed and compared with the ALS receiver. It is shown that the S-CFP with pairing receiver has the same order of computational complexity as the ALS receiver. Meanwhile, simulation results show that our S-CFP with pairing receiver achieves the same or very similar performance of the competing receivers with extra pilot overhead at sufficiently high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) conditions. On the other hand, it is slightly inferior to them in terms of channel estimation accuracy and bit error rate at lower SNRs.

Description: In this paper, we consider robust optimization of amplify-and-forward (AF) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) relay precoders in presence of deterministic imperfect channel state information (CSI), when the CSI uncertainty lies in a norm bounded region. Two widely used performance metrics, mutual information (MI) and mean square error (MSE), are adopted as design objectives. According to the philosophy of worst-case robustness, the robust optimization problems with respect to maximizing the worst-case MI and minimizing the worst-case MSE are formulated as maximin and minimax problems, respectively. Due to the fact that these two problems do not have a concave-convex or convex-concave structure, we cannot rely on the conventional saddle point theory to find the robust solutions. Nevertheless, by exploiting majorization theory, we show that the formulated maximin and minimax problems both admit saddle points. We further analytically characterize the saddle points, and provide closed-form solutions to robust relay precoder designs. Interestingly, we find that, under both MI and MSE metrics, the robust relay optimization leads to a channel-diagonalizing structure, meaning that eigenmode transmission is optimal from the worst-case robustness perspective. The proposed robust designs can improve the spectral efficiency and reliability of AF MIMO relaying against CSI uncertainties at the similar cost of computational complexity as the existing non-robust schemes.

Description: We develop multi-step gradient methods for network-constrained optimization of strongly convex functions with Lipschitz-continuous gradients. Given the topology of the underlying network and bounds on the Hessian of the objective function, we determine the algorithm parameters that guarantee the fastest convergence and characterize situations when significant speed-ups over the standard gradient method are obtained. Furthermore, we quantify how uncertainty in problem data at design-time affects the run-time performance of the gradient method and its multi-step counterpart, and conclude that in most cases the multi-step method outperforms gradient descent. Finally, we apply the proposed technique to three engineering problems: resource allocation under network-wide budget constraint, distributed averaging, and Internet congestion control. In all cases, our proposed algorithms converge significantly faster than the state-of-the art.

Description: This paper presents a new computationally efficient method for direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation with arbitrary arrays. The total angular field-of-view is first divided into several small sectors and the original noise subspace exploited by the multiple signal classification (MUSIC) algorithm is mapped from one sector to the other sectors by a Hadarmard product transformation. This transformation gives a new noise-like subspace cluster (NLSC), whose intersection is found to be simultaneously orthogonal to the steering vectors associated with the true DOAs and several virtual DOAs. Based on such a multiple orthogonality, a novel compressed MUSIC (C-MUSIC) spatial spectrum at hand is derived. Unlike MUSIC with tremendous spectral search, C-MUSIC involves a limited search over only one sector, and hence it is computationally very attractive. To obtain the intersection of NLSC for more than two sectors, a low-complexity method is also proposed in the present work, which shows advantages over the existing alternative projection method (APM) and singular value decomposition (SVD) techniques. Furthermore, the mean square errors (MSEs) of the proposed estimator is derived. Simulation results illustrate that C-MUSIC trades-off MSEs by complexity and resolution as compared to the standard MUSIC efficiently.

Description: We analyze the performance of a matched subspace detector (MSD) where the test signal vector is assumed to reside in an unknown, low-rank $k$ subspace that must be estimated from finite, noisy, signal-bearing training data. Under both a stochastic and deterministic model for the test vector, subspace estimation errors due to limited training data degrade the performance of the standard plug-in detector, relative to that of an oracle detector. To avoid some of this performance loss, we utilize and extend recent results from random matrix theory (RMT) that precisely quantify the quality of the subspace estimate as a function of the eigen-SNR, dimensionality of the system, and the number of training samples. We exploit this knowledge of the subspace estimation accuracy to derive from first-principles a new RMT detector and to characterize the associated ROC performance curves of the RMT and plug-in detectors. Using more than the a critical number of informative components, which depends on the training sample size and eigen-SNR parameters of training data, will result in a performance loss that our analysis quantifies in the large system limit. We validate our asymptotic predictions with simulations on moderately sized systems.

Description: Standard spatial time-frequency distribution (STFD) estimators, derived based on the Gaussian noise assumption, are known to have poor performance in the case of impulsive noise. Recently, different STFD estimators have been proposed, which, based on simulations, are claimed to be robust. In this paper, we provide an influence function robustness analysis of STFD estimators. We derive the influence functions for the asymptotic and for the finite-sample case and study robustness of the standard, as well as for some recently proposed robust STFD estimators. The empirical influence function gives practitioners a simple way to pre-select STFD estimators for their scenario. Our analysis confirms that, unlike for the standard estimator, the proposed robust estimators yield a bounded influence function and are robust over a broad class of distributions. Future research on STFD estimation will allow for the design of robust and efficient estimators based on the influence function.

Description: In cognitive radio (CR), the soft decision fusion (SDF) rule plays a critical role in cooperative spectrum sensing (CSS). However, the computational cost on obtaining efficient SDF rule becomes infeasible even with a small number of cooperative users. In this paper, the efficiency of SDF rule in inhomogeneous background is studied from the perspective of quantization theory. We formulate the calculation of sensing performance including the probabilities of detection and false alarm when regarding both i) the quantization impact and ii) the inhomogeneous background, and then conclude a condition under which the sensing performance can be calculated by the fast Fourier transform (FFT). Based on this condition, two novel quantization schemes with two optimization methods are proposed to guarantee both the quantizer and decision threshold of SDF rule can be obtained efficiently, at the same time, the SDF can achieve high sensing performance.

Description: We examine the recovery of block sparse signals and extend the recovery framework in two important directions; one by exploiting the signals' intra-block correlation and the other by generalizing the signals' block structure. We propose two families of algorithms based on the framework of block sparse Bayesian learning (BSBL). One family, directly derived from the BSBL framework, require knowledge of the block structure. Another family, derived from an expanded BSBL framework, are based on a weaker assumption on the block structure, and can be used when the block structure is completely unknown. Using these algorithms, we show that exploiting intra-block correlation is very helpful in improving recovery performance. These algorithms also shed light on how to modify existing algorithms or design new ones to exploit such correlation and improve performance.

Description: In this paper, we first propose a generalized fourth-order PARATUCK2 tensor model for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication systems with space-time-frequency (STF) spreading-multiplexing. The core of the proposed PARATUCK2 model is composed of two third-order interaction tensors that define a joint time and frequency allocation of the data streams to the transmit antennas, thus allowing to adjust the multiplexing degree and spreading redundancy in three domains: space (transmit antennas), time (blocks) and frequency (subcarriers). Then, we investigate the identifiability of the PARATUCK2-STF MIMO system by deriving sufficient conditions which are translated into design recommendations for the STF allocation structure. In particular, essential uniqueness is discussed by interpreting the generalized fourth-order PARATUCK2 model as an equivalent third-order constrained factor (CONFAC) model with two fixed constraint matrices and one variable constraint matrix that depends on the stream-to-antenna allocation structure. We also present a blind receiver using the Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) algorithm based on the generalized fourth-order PARATUCK2 model. Numerical results are provided for a bit-error-rate performance evaluation and a comparison with some competing algorithms.

Description: The standard Capon beamformer (SCB) achieves the maximum output signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio in the error-free case. However, estimation errors of the signal steering vector and the array covariance matrix can result in severe performance deteriorations of the SCB, especially if the training data contains the desired signal component. A popular technique to improve the robustness against model errors is to compute the Capon beamformer with the maximum output power, considering an uncertainty set for the signal steering vector. However, maximizing the total beamformer output power may result in an insufficient suppression of interferers and noise. As an alternative approach to mitigate the detrimental effect of model errors, we propose to compute the Capon beamformer with the minimum sensitivity, considering the uncertainty set for the signal steering vector. The proposed maximally robust Capon beamformer (MRCB) is at least as robust as the maximum output power Capon beamformer with the same uncertainty set for the signal steering vector. We show that the MRCB can be implemented efficiently using Lagrange duality. Simulation results demonstrate that the MRCB outperforms state-of-the-art robust adaptive beamformers in many scenarios.

Description: The possibility to accurately localize tags by using wireless techniques is of great importance for several emerging applications in the Internet of Things. Precise ranging can be obtained with ultra wideband (UWB) impulse radio (IR) systems, where short impulses are transmitted, and their time-of-arrival (ToA) is estimated at the receiver. Due to the presence of noise and multipath, the estimator has the difficult task of discriminating the time intervals where the received waveform is due to noise only, by those where there are also signal components. Common low-complexity methods use an energy detector (ED), whose output is compared with a threshold, to discriminate the time intervals containing noise only from those containing signal plus noise. Optimal threshold design for these methods requires knowledge of the channel impulse response and of the receiver noise power. We propose a different approach, where ToA estimation is based on model selection by information theoretic criteria (ITC). The resulting ToA algorithms do not use thresholds, and do not require any information about the channel or the noise power level. These blind, universal ToA estimators show, for completely unknown multipath channels and in the presence of noise with unknown power, excellent performance when compared with ideal genie-aided schemes.

Description: Detection of cyclostationary primary user (PU) signals in colored Gaussian noise for cognitive radio systems is considered based on looking for single or multiple cycle frequencies at single or multiple time lags in the cyclic autocorrelation function (CAF) of the noisy PU signal. We explicitly exploit the knowledge that under the null hypothesis of PU signal absent, the measurements originate from possible colored Gaussian noise with unknown correlation function. Our formulation allows us to simplify the spectrum sensing detector and obviates the need for estimating an unwieldy covariance matrix needed in some prior works. We consider both single and multiple antenna receivers, and both nonconjugate and conjugate CAFs. A performance analysis of the proposed detector is carried out. Supporting simulation examples are provided to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed approaches and to compare them with some existing approaches. Our proposed approaches are computationally cheaper than the Dandawate- Giannakis and related approaches while having quite similar detection performance for a given false alarm rate.

Description: This paper presents a Cramér-Rao lower bound (CRLB) on the variance of unbiased estimates of factor matrices in Canonical Polyadic (CP) or CANDECOMP/PARAFAC (CP) decompositions of a tensor from noisy observations, (i.e., the tensor plus a random Gaussian i.i.d. tensor). A novel expression is derived for a bound on the mean square angular error of factors along a selected dimension of a tensor of an arbitrary dimension. The expression needs less operations for computing the bound, $O(NR^{6})$ , than the best existing state-of-the art algorithm, $O(N^{3}R^{6})$ operations, where $N$ and $R$ are the tensor order and the tensor rank. Insightful expressions are derived for tensors of rank 1 and rank 2 of arbitrary dimension and for tensors of arbitrary dimension and rank, where two factor matrices have orthogonal columns.

Description: Interference alignment (IA) has attracted great attention in the last few years for its breakthrough performance in interference networks. However, despite the numerous works dedicated to IA, the feasibility conditions of IA remains unclear for most network topologies. The IA feasibility analysis is challenging as the IA constraints are sets of high-degree polynomials, for which no systematic tool to analyze the solvability conditions exists. In this work, by developing a new mathematical framework that maps the solvability of sets of polynomial equations to the linear independence of their first-order terms, we propose a sufficient condition that applies to MIMO interference networks with general configurations. We have further proved that this sufficient condition coincides with the necessary conditions under a wide range of configurations. These results further consolidate the theoretical basis of IA.

Description: This paper introduces the novel class of modulated cyclostationary processes, a class of nonstationary processes exhibiting frequency coupling, and proposes a method of their estimation from repeated trials. Cyclostationary processes also exhibit frequency correlation but have Loève spectra whose support lies only on parallel lines in the dual-frequency plane. Such extremely sparse structure does not adequately represent many biological processes. Thus, we propose a model that, in the time domain, modulates the covariance of cyclostationary processes and consequently broadens their frequency support in the dual-frequency plane. The spectra and the cross-coherence of the proposed modulated cyclostationary process are first estimated using multitaper methods. A shrinkage procedure is then applied to each trial-specific estimate to reduce the estimation risk.

Description: Using an infinite sample, the contrast function and the FastICA algorithm are deterministic. In the practical case, we have only a finite sample. Then the contrast function and the FastICA algorithm become estimators of the deterministic case. This paper provides a unified study of the deflation FastICA algorithm assuming a finite or an infinite sample. We consider four random probability distributions based on the finite sample, and construct four FastICA estimators. We show that under mild conditions, each of these estimators are equal to a local minimizer of the contrast function with respect to the underlying random probability distribution. Making use of the existing results of M-estimators, we give a rigorous analysis of the asymptotic errors of FastICA estimators. We derive five criteria for the optimal choice of the nonlinearity function.

Description: The Delsarte-Goethals frame (DGF) has been proposed for deterministic compressive sensing of sparse and compressible signals. Results in compressive sensing theory show that the DGF enables successful recovery of an overwhelming majority of sufficiently sparse signals. However, these results do not give a characterization of the sparse vectors for which the recovery procedure fails. In this paper, we present a formal analysis of the DGF that highlights the presence of clustered sparse vectors within its null space. This in turn implies that sparse recovery performance is diminished for sparse vectors that have their nonzero entries clustered together. Such clustered structure is present in compressive imaging applications, where commonly-used raster scannings of 2-D discrete wavelet transform representations yield clustered sparse representations for natural images. Prior work leverages this structure by proposing specially tailored sparse recovery algorithms that partition the recovery of the input vector into known clustered and unclustered portions. Alternatively, we propose new randomized and deterministic raster scannings for clustered coefficient vectors that improve recovery performance. Experimental results verify the aforementioned analysis and confirm the predicted improvements for both noiseless and noisy measurement regimes.

Description: This article deals with learning dictionaries for sparse approximation whose atoms are both adapted to a training set of signals and mutually incoherent. To meet this objective, we employ a dictionary learning scheme consisting of sparse approximation followed by dictionary update and we add to the latter a decorrelation step in order to reach a target mutual coherence level. This step is accomplished by an iterative projection method complemented by a rotation of the dictionary. Experiments on musical audio data and a comparison with the method of optimal coherence-constrained directions (mocod) and the incoherent k-svd (ink-svd) illustrate that the proposed algorithm can learn dictionaries that exhibit a low mutual coherence while providing a sparse approximation with better signal-to-noise ratio (snr) than the benchmark techniques.

Description: In this paper, we develop a framework to design sensing matrices for compressive sensing applications that lead to good mean squared error (MSE) performance subject to sensing cost constraints. By capitalizing on the MSE of the oracle estimator, whose performance has been shown to act as a benchmark to the performance of standard sparse recovery algorithms, we use the fact that a Parseval tight frame is the closest design - in the Frobenius norm sense - to the solution of a convex relaxation of the optimization problem that relates to the minimization of the MSE of the oracleestimator with respect to the equivalent sensing matrix, subject to sensing energy constraints. Based on this result, we then propose two sensing matrix designs that exhibit two key properties: i) the designs are closed form rather than iterative; ii) the designs exhibit superior performance in relation to other designs in the literature, which is revealed by our numerical investigation in various scenarios with different sparse recovery algorithms including basis pursuit de-noise (BPDN), the Dantzig selector and orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP).

Description: In this paper we consider adaptive detection of a signal embedded in additive disturbance whose multivariate distribution belongs to a very general class, including many statistical models commonly adopted for radar disturbance. We introduce the concept of generalized Constant False Alarm Rate (CFAR) and show that a class of receivers sharing some invariances complies with the quoted property. Then, we devise the Generalized Likelihood Ratio Test (GLRT) and prove that, under some mild technical conditions, it coincides with that obtained under the Gaussian assumption for the observations. We also deal with the existence of the Uniformly Most Powerful Invariant (UMPI) detector either using the Wijsman theorem or directly computing the maximal invariant Likelihood Ratio (LR). At the analysis stage, we focus on a compound matrix variate model for the disturbance component, which is a natural generalization of the Spherically Invariant Random Vector (SIRV). In this context, we assess the performance of some well known invariant decision rules also in comparison with the Most Powerful Invariant (MPI) detector. The results highlight that some among the analyzed receivers exhibit a performance level very close to the MPI test.

Description: This Special Issue seeks to review progress in synthetic aperture radar imaging which has been made possible through new algorithms and enabling hardware. It serves to capture the approaches propelling recent cutting-edge research and scholarly activities in SAR Imagery. SAR has become a valuable tool for civilian remote sensing applications as well as for military surveillance and reconnaissance. SAR operations can take place in all weather and times. SAR data can provide key information about the scene which can be extracted e.g. from the polarimetric features, the phase variation over time, and the reflectivity dependency on frequency. A wide variety of air- and space based sensors for long and short range operation has been realized, operating at frequencies extending from VHF to the upper millimeter wave region. Spectacular missions I ike the Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission, the TanDEM-X satellite pair and the COSMO/SkyMed constellation have underscored the unique and important role of SAR. In addition to the basic SAR modes, across- and along track interferometry have been established. Multi-band operations and the full polarimetric scattering matrix have been effectively utilized. We encourage paper submissions that highlight recent trends and applications of SAR imaging. We welcome contributions showing the marked improvements in SAR imaging and the attributes of efficient data acquisition, fast image computations, high image resolution, and effective image segmentations. This Special Issue aims to present the new developments in radar imaging related to polarimetry, bi- and multi-static sensors including MIMO architectures, novel focusing techniques and algorithms, compressive sensing and sparse imaging reconstructions, and other forthcoming radar imaging techniques. Air- and spaceborne SAR systems and techniques will also be considered.

Description: The robustness and integrity of IP networks require efficient tools for traffic monitoring and analysis, which scale well with traffic volume and network size. We address the problem of optimal large-scale monitoring of computer networks under resource constraints. Specifically, we consider the task of selecting the “best” subset of at most $K$ links to monitor, so as to optimally predict the traffic load at the remaining ones. Our notion of optimality is quantified in terms of the statistical error of network traffic predictors. The optimal monitoring problem at hand is akin to certain combinatorial constraints, which render the algorithms seeking the exact solution impractical. We develop a number of fast algorithms that improve upon existing algorithms in terms of computational complexity and accuracy. Our algorithms exploit the geometry of principal component analysis, which also leads us to new types of theoretical bounds on the prediction error. Finally, these algorithms are amenable to randomization, where the best of several parallel independent instances often yields the exact optimal solution. Their performance is illustrated and evaluated on simulated and real-network traces.

Description: This paper provides a detailed overview of the Digital Video Broadcasting Terrestrial (DVB-T) signal structure and the implications for passive radar systems that use these signals as illuminators of opportunity. In particular, we analyze the ambiguity function and explain its delay and Doppler properties in terms of the underlying structure of the DVB-T signal. Of particular concern for radar range-Doppler processing are ambiguities consistent in range and Doppler with targets of interest. In this paper we adopt a mismatched filtering approach for range-Doppler processing. We also recognize that while the structure of the DVB-T signal introduces ambiguities, the structure can also be exploited to better estimate the transmitted signal and channel, as well as any mismatch between transmitter and receiver (e.g., clock offsets). This study presents a scheme for pre-processing both the reference and surveillance signals obtained by the passive radar to mitigate the effects of the ambiguities and the clutter in range-Doppler processing. The effectiveness of our proposed scheme in enhancing target detection is demonstrated using real-world data from an (Australian) 8k-mode DVB-T system. A 29 dB reduction in residual ambiguity levels over existing techniques is observed, and a 36 dB reduction over standard matched filtering; with only a 1 dB reduction in the zero-delay, zero-Doppler peak.

Description: This paper presents a novel nonparametric Bayesian estimator for signal and image denoising in the wavelet domain. This approach uses a prior model of the wavelet coefficients designed to capture the sparseness of the wavelet expansion. A new family of Bessel K Form (BKF) densities are designed to fit the observed histograms, so as to provide a probabilistic model for the marginal densities of the wavelet coefficients. This paper first shows how the BKF prior can characterize images belonging to Besov spaces. Then, a new hyper-parameters estimator based on EM algorithm is designed to estimate the parameters of the BKF density; and, it is compared with a cumulants-based estimator. Exploiting this prior model, another novel contribution is to design a Bayesian denoiser based on the Maximum A Posteriori (MAP) estimation under the 0–1 loss function, for which we formally establish the mathematical properties and derive a closed-form expression. Finally, a comparative study on a digitized database of natural images and biomedical signals shows the effectiveness of this new Bayesian denoiser compared to other classical and Bayesian denoising approaches. Results on biomedical data illustrate the method in the temporal as well as the time-frequency domain.

Description: A conventional multilateration is a two-step process where, in the first step the time difference of arrivals (TDOA) of a signal at multiple sensors are estimated, and in the second step, these TDOAs are used in some position fixing technique to estimate the location of an emitter. Several estimators have been proposed over the years for the estimation of the TDOAs. Many techniques have been proposed for position fixing as well. Much of the research on position fixing has been focused on obtaining a simplified closed form solution. For the unknown deterministic signal model, Stein had derived the maximum-likelihood estimator (MLE) for the TDOA between two sensors, which is the peak location of the cross-correlation function. Since the asymptotic variance of an MLE approaches the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB), which is the inverse of the negative of the expected value of the curvature of the log-likelihood function, using this as a motivation, we propose a weighted least squares type position fixing technique where the weights are computed from the curvature of the log-likelihood function.

Description: One of the IEEE's current membership priorities is India. As of July, India has 39,814 IEEE members, the highest in any country outside of the United States. India has 11 sections. The number of student members is very large. However, retaining them after graduation is not a success story, and this is where the sections in India become involved. Recognizing the large number of IEEE Members and an active volunteer base, the IEEE India Office was opened in 2010 in Bangalore. It is poised to see further expansion. The office helps IEEE to continue its outreach efforts to representatives from academic, government, and industry, and explore additional business opportunities in India. The office encourages India's participation in global standards developments and promotes the IEEE Computer Society's software development certificate program. It also promotes continuing education and accreditation programs. These and the India sections' Communications Society (ComSoc) activities are briefly summarized.

Description: Provides a notice of upcoming conference events of interest to practitioners and researchers.

Description: Reviews the FSW SIGNAL AND SPECTRUM ANALYZER (by Rohde & Schwarz); The VECTOR SIGNAL GENERATOR SERIES (by Stanford Research Systems, Inc.); a BALANCED PHOTODETECTOR WITH 70 GHZ 3DB BANDWIDTH (from u 2 t Photonics AG); and SMALL CELL RF FORMAT FRONT-END SOLUTIONS (from Avago Technologies).

Description: In recent years, large-scale data centers have continued to be built out as the global Internet traffic has grown exponentially. These include both multi-tenant carrier-neutral ones and private data centers, and host many Internet application servers.

Description: Data center and cloud architectures continue to evolve to address the needs of large-scale multi-tenant data centers and clouds. These needs are centered around seven dimensions: scalability in computing, storage, and bandwidth, scalability in network services, efficiency in resource utilization, agility in service creation, cost efficiency, service reliability, and security. This article focuses on the first five dimensions as they pertain to networking. Large data centers are targeting support for tens of thousands of servers, exabytes of storage, terabits per second of traffic, and tens of thousands of tenants. In a data center, server and storage resources are interconnected with packet switches and routers that provide for the bandwidth and multi-tenant virtual networking needs. Data centers are interconnected across the wide area network via routing and transport technologies to provide a pool of resources, known as the cloud. High-speed optical interfaces and dense wavelength-division multiplexing optical transport are used to provide for high-capacity transport intra- and inter-datacenter. This article reviews various switching, routing, and optical transport technologies, and their applicability in addressing the networking needs of large-scale multi-tenant data centers.

Description: Six products are announced.

Description: This article surveys recent work in optical switching technologies and presents a fast optical circuit switch that intimately integrates the control electrics at the chip level using a novel wafer-scale heterogeneous integration technique.

Description: Intra-data-center traffic is estimated to be about four times global Internet traffic and is continuously increasing. Applying optical switching to data center networks will increase network bandwidth and reduce power consumption while meeting the traffic requirements. One of the major attributes of the optical switch must be scalability. The wavelength routing switch is a promising technology for the development of 1000 ?? 1000 scale large port count optical switches. Recent advances are demonstrated.

Description: Mega data centers and their interconnection networks have drawn great attention in recent years because of the rapid public adoption of cloud-based services. The unprecedented amount of data that needs to be communicated between data centers imposes new requirements and challenges to inter-data-center optical networks. In this article, we discuss the traffic growth trends and capacity demands of Google??s inter-data-center network, and how they drive the network architectures and technologies to scale capacities and operational ease on existing fiber plants. We extensively review recent research findings and emerging technologies, such as digital coherent detection and the flexgrid dense wavelength-division multiplexed channel plan, and propose practical implementations, such as C+L-band transmission, packet and optical layer integration, and a software-defined networking enabled network architecture for both capacity and operational scaling. In addition, we point out a few critical areas that require more attention and research to improve efficiency and flexibility of an inter-data-center optical network: optical regeneration, data rate mismatch between Ethernet and optical transport, and real-time optical performance monitoring.

Description: This article addresses the synchronization needs for mobile backhaul networks when deploying LTE small cells. Existing synchronization solutions for both FDD and TDD macro networks are discussed as well as the applicability of those solutions to small cells deployed in LTE TDD and LTE FDD networks. The benefits of using radio coordination features in a small cell environment and the corresponding demands placed on synchronization solutions are highlighted. Potential issues relating to synchronization of small cells are also discussed, and some additional synchronization solutions are proposed to address those issues.

Description: ompted me to reflect on ComSoc accomplishments over recent years. Consequently, I thought it would be interesting to review some pertinent published material reflecting on contributions of the six most recent Past Presidents, beginning with 2000, and running through to the end of the term of Byeong Gi Lee in 2011. Finding this material was actually easy, as the ComSoc Presidents have traditionally published a column each month in IEEE Communications Magazine. Generally, these columns were co-authored with the Vice Presidents, Directors, Committee Chairs and other contributors, providing an opportunity to share and highlight their accomplishments.

Description: As the number of wireless users and per-user bandwidth demands continue to increase, both the vendor and carrier communities agree that wireless networks must evolve toward more dense deployments. So-called heterogeneous networks are a commonly proposed evolution, whereby existing macrocellular networks are supplemented with an underlay of small cells. The placement of new small-cell sites is typically determined based on various location-dependent factors such as radio propagation calculations, user densities, and measurements of congestion and demand. The backhaul network, which can account for a significant portion of the total cost of the deployment, is then designed in reaction to the placement of small cells. In contrast, we describe a design method that first considers the locations of existing fibered and powered facilities that might be leveraged to provide inexpensive backhaul. Naturally, such a method is only feasible if the carrier has a legacy local fiber network. This article describes an efficient fiber backhaul strategy for a small-cell network, which leverages facilities associated with an existing FTTN residential access network. Once potential small-cell sites are determined from among all FTTN remote terminals, optimization techniques are used to choose the most efficient subset of sites for maximum coverage, and to design the fiber backhaul architecture.

Description: Warehouse-scale data center operators need much-higher-bandwidth intra-data center networks (DCNs) to sustain the increase of network traffic due to cloud computing and other emerging web applications. Current DCNs based on commodity switches require excessive amounts of power to face this traffic increase. Optical intra-DCN interconnection networks have recently emerged as a promising solution that can provide higher throughput while consuming less power. This article provides an update on recent developments in the field of ultra-highcapacity optical interconnects for intra-DCN communication. Several recently proposed architectures and technologies are examined and compared, while future trends and research challenges are outlined.

Description: The ubiquitous Ethernet has great potential to become an easy-to-install cost-effective backhaul solution for mobile small cells. However, limited Ethernet bandwidth is a practical constraint. Not only is small cell capacity limited by Ethernet bandwidth, but also the synchronization between cells can be substantially compromised. In this article we discuss small cells with Ethernet backhaul, focusing on two practical and important aspects: backhaul bandwidth requirements and tolerance to synchronization errors. The aspects become challenging in indoor small cell applications where the cells need to cooperatively suppress strong interference, producing a large amount of backhaul traffic. To address the challenges, we introduce a new distributed scheme of cooperative small cells over Ethernet. Exploiting a soft information combining technique, the scheme allows the signals of cooperative cells to be combined at aggregate switches along their backhaul paths, reducing backhaul traffic in Ethernet and distributing computational complexity. Our case study shows that the distributed scheme can reduce small cell backhaul traffic by 64 percent, compared to a conventional centralized approach. It is also tolerant to a large frequency error of ??4.6 ppm in a ??freerun?? state where synchronization is lost. Given the substantially reduced backhaul traffic, the new distributed scheme is able to support three times the cooperative small cells of the conventional centralized approach.

Description: Among the received eight submissions from the last call, we have accepted four of them, with one from academia, one from a national laboratory, one from industry, and one from a combined team of academia and industry. At the time of writing this editorial for these four articles, we have also finished the first-round review process of the next batch of nine submissions, and shall move to the second-round review process. Most accepted papers received the decision of major revision in the first-round review and needed to go through the second-round review. The number of submissions remains stable, and we should be able to pick at least one from product vendors, test laboratories, and test equipment vendors, which gives enough industrial flavor to this Series. The due dates remain June 1 and December 1 each year.

Description: A large body of research has recently addressed the channel assignment problem in multi-radio wireless mesh networks. In order to reduce interference, many proposals require radio interfaces to (more or less frequently) switch channels to exploit the availability of multiple orthogonal channels. However, such proposals have been almost exclusively evaluated by means of simulations and the impact of switching channels on the network performance has not been experimentally evaluated so far. In this article, we aim to fill such a gap and present the results of a thorough experimental campaign we conducted on the ORBIT wireless testbed to study the effects of switching channels in a multiradio wireless mesh network. Our experiments show that in common scenarios a channel switch causes a non-negligible interruption in the connectivity among nodes, which is on the order of 10 seconds. Also, our tests reveal that a rapid recovery from link failures caused by channel switches is prevented by a rather slow update of the advertised link quality. Inspired by the analysis of the experiments we conducted, we also propose and evaluate a preliminary technique to reduce the interruption in the delivery of packets caused by a channel switch.

Description: Circuit Switched Fallback (CSFB) is the most commonly used method to support voice services over Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks today, as the deployment of IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) is still in its infancy. In this article, we discuss the performance of CSFB voice traffic redirection from LTE to UMTS using data from live commercial networks. The key factors impacting CSFB call setup delay are highlighted. Data from multiple cell geometries including stationary and mobility conditions are presented for Mobile Originated (MO) calls towards landlines, Mobile Terminated (MT) calls from landlines and Mobile-to-Mobile (M2M) CSFB calls. Analysis results in well optimized deployments show that on an average, MO/MT call-setup time for CSFB from LTE to UMTS is around 1 sec greater than legacy UMTS. However, the results can vary depending on the network configuration and the conditions of the measurement. To illustrate the optimization of CSFB performance in real networks, we also highlight the principal call set up optimization and implementation factors impacting CSFB call setup delay and success rates. This article demonstrates that in well optimized networks, CSFB to UMTS call setup success rates can be very close to those achieved in the legacy UMTS systems.

Description: The evolution of centralized radio access networks is discussed from a pragmatic perspective, taking into account the network and radio requirements. The use of wavelength-division multiplexing technology to support this evolution is proposed, and the opportunities for network operators in terms of operational cost, energy efficiency, reuse of already deployed infrastructures, and network convergence are discussed.

Description: Listing of the advertisers represented in this issue.

Description: Evaluation of the convergence bound in the frequency domain for Volterra series expansion of nonlinear systems described by NARX models is studied. This provides new convergence criteria under which the nonlinear system of interest has a convergent Volterra series expansion, and the new criteria are expressed explicitly in terms of the input magnitude, model parameters, and frequency variable. The new convergence criteria are firstly developed for harmonic inputs and then extended to multi-tone and general input cases. Based on the theoretical analysis, a general procedure for calculating the convergence bound is provided. The results provide a fundamental basis for nonlinear signal processing using the Volterra series theory.

Description: The distributed beamforming problem for amplify-and-forward relay networks is studied. Maximizing output SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) for distributed beamforming can be considered as a generalized eigenvector problem (GEP) and the principal eigenvector and its eigenvalue can be derived with a standard closed-form solution. In this paper, four classes of beamforming algorithms are derived based on different design criteria and constraints, including maximizing output SNR subject to a constraint on the total transmitted signal power, minimizing the total transmitted signal power subject to certain level of output SNR, minimizing the relay node number subject to constraints on the total signal power and output SNR, and a robust algorithm to deal with channel estimation errors. All of the algorithms have a low computational complexity due to the proposed real-valued implementation.

Description: In this paper, we study the design and analysis of optimal detection scheme for sensors that are deployed to monitor the change in the environment and are powered by energy harvested from the environment. In this type of applications, detection delay is of paramount importance. We model this problem as quickest change detection problem with stochastic energy constraints. In particular, a wireless sensor powered by renewable energy takes observations from a random sequence, whose distribution will change at an unknown time. Such a change implies events of interest. The energy in the sensor is consumed by taking observations and is replenished randomly. The sensor cannot take observations if there is no energy left in the battery. Our goal is to design optimal power allocation and detection schemes to minimize the worst case detection delay, which is the difference between the time when the change occurs and the time when an alarm is raised. Two types of average run length (ARL) constraints, namely an algorithm level ARL constraint and a system level ARL constraint, are considered. We propose a low complexity scheme in which the energy allocation rule is to spend energy to take observations as long as the battery is not empty and the detection scheme is the Cumulative Sum test. We show that this scheme is optimal for the formulation with the algorithm level ARL constraint and is asymptotically optimal for the formulations with the system level ARL constraint.

Description: This paper considers a transmit strategy for an AWGN MIMO bidirectional broadcast channel in the wideband regime. In order to characterize the boundaries of the wideband capacity and energy per bit regions, the transmit strategy at the relay is designed to maximize the weighted wideband rate sum. A closed form of the optimal transmit covariance matrix is derived, which shows that a single beam transmit strategy is optimal. The transmit strategies for some special cases are also analyzed. The fairness versus energy efficiency tradeoff is then discussed. In addition, an extension to multipair MIMO bidirectional broadcast channel is studied in which we show that serving a certain pair with full power is optimal in the sense of maximizing the achievable weighted wideband rate sum. Finally, a discussion on the conjecture of the minimum energy per bit for multi-pair systems is provided.

Description: In this paper, we present and evaluate dynamic dictionary-based estimation methods for joint model order and parameter estimation. In dictionary-based estimation, a continuous parameter space is discretized, and vector-valued dictionary elements are formed for specific parameter values. A linear combination of a subset of dictionary elements is used to represent the model, where the number of elements used is the estimated model order, and the parameters corresponding to the selected elements are the parameter estimates. In static-based methods, the dictionary is fixed; while in the dynamic methods proposed here, the parameter sampling, and hence the dictionary, adapt to the data. We propose two dynamic dictionary-based estimation algorithms in which the dictionary elements are dynamically adjusted to improve parameter estimation performance. We examine the performance of both static and dynamic algorithms in terms of probability of correct model order selection and the root mean-squared error of parameter estimates. We show that dynamic dictionary methods overcome the problem of estimation bias induced by quantization effects in static dictionary-based estimation, and we demonstrate that dictionary-based estimation methods are capable of parameter estimation performance comparable to the Cramér-Rao lower bound and to traditional ML-based model estimation over a wide range of signal-to-noise ratios.

Description: The problem of distributed learning in wireless sensor networks is addressed, with the perspective of implementing nearest-neighbor (NN) regression in a decentralized way, with communication constraints. Elaborating on the ordered-transmission idea of Blum and Sadler , a universal channel access policy is designed that, without inter-sensor coordination, enables the fusion center to recover exactly the training-set labels it needs, while less informative labels are not delivered at all. Exploiting the aforementioned access policy, two different paradigms are then considered. In the first one, a constraint is imposed on the number of channel accesses, and a distributed regression algorithm is proposed reaching an asymptotic performance of twice the minimum achievable mean-squared error, while requiring just a single channel access. In the second one, a constraint is imposed on the number of quantization bits, and the focus is on devising consistent $k_{n}$ -NN regression rules. The noiseless case with quantized data is preliminarily addressed. Then, the role of the channel is explicitly taken into account, and a scheme with one-bit quantizers is proposed, reaching consistency over binary symmetric channels. Finally, it is argued that the inference task can be naturally suited to uncoded communications. Accordingly, two schemes are proposed, ensuring consistency over coherent and noncoherent channels, respectively; possible gains over the coded schemes are discussed.

Description: In this work the dynamic compressive sensing (CS) problem of recovering sparse, correlated, time-varying signals from sub-Nyquist, non-adaptive, linear measurements is explored from a Bayesian perspective. While there has been a handful of previously proposed Bayesian dynamic CS algorithms in the literature, the ability to perform inference on high-dimensional problems in a computationally efficient manner remains elusive. In response, we propose a probabilistic dynamic CS signal model that captures both amplitude and support correlation structure, and describe an approximate message passing algorithm that performs soft signal estimation and support detection with a computational complexity that is linear in all problem dimensions. The algorithm, DCS-AMP, can perform either causal filtering or non-causal smoothing, and is capable of learning model parameters adaptively from the data through an expectation-maximization learning procedure. We provide numerical evidence that DCS-AMP performs within 3 dB of oracle bounds on synthetic data under a variety of operating conditions. We further describe the result of applying DCS-AMP to two real dynamic CS datasets, as well as a frequency estimation task, to bolster our claim that DCS-AMP is capable of offering state-of-the-art performance and speed on real-world high-dimensional problems.

Description: Suppose a linear model ${bf y}={bf H}{bf x}+{bf n}$ , where inputs ${bf x,n}$ are independent Gaussian mixtures. The problem is to design the transfer matrix ${bf H}$ so as to minimize the mean square error (MSE) when estimating ${bf x}$ from ${bf y}$ . This problem has important applications, but faces at least three hurdles. Firstly, even for a fixed ${bf H}$ , the minimum MSE (MMSE) has no analytical form. Secondly, the MMSE is generally not convex in ${bf H}$ . Thirdly, derivatives of the MMSE w.r.t. ${bf H}$ are hard to obtain. This paper casts the problem as a stochastic program and invokes gradient methods. The study is motivated by two applications in signal processing. One concerns the choice of error-reducing precoders; the other deals with selection of pilot matrices for channel estimation. In either setting, our numerical results indicate improved estimation accuracy—markedly better than those obtained by optimal design based on standard linear estimators. Some implications of the non-convexities of the MMSE are noteworthy, yet, to our knowledge, not well known. For example, there are cases in which more pilot power is detrimental for channel estimation. This paper explains why.

Description: Complex-valued vector time series occur in diverse fields such as oceanography and meteorology, and scientifically interpretable parameters may be estimated from them. We show that it is possible to make inference such as confidence intervals on these parameters using a vector-valued circulant embedding simulation method, combined with bootstrapping. We apply the methodology to three parameters of interest in oceanography, and compare the resulting simulated confidence intervals with those computed using analytic results. We conclude that the simulation scheme offers an inference approach either in the absence of theoretical distributional results, or to check the effect of nuisance parameters where theoretical results are available.

Description: We introduce an iterative linear estimator (ILE) for estimating a signal from samples having location errors and additive noise. We assume that the signals lie in the span of a finite basis and the location errors and noise are mutually independent and normally distributed. The parameter estimation problem is formulated as obtaining a maximum likelihood (ML) estimate given the observations and an observation model. Using a linearized observation model we derive an approximation to the likelihood function. We then adopt an iterative strategy to develop a computationally efficient estimator, which captures the first order effect of sample location errors on signal estimation. Through numerical simulations we establish the efficacy of the proposed estimator for one-dimensional and two-dimensional parametric signals, comparing the mean squared estimation error against a basic linear estimator. We develop a numerical approximation of the Cramér-Rao lower bound (CRB) and the Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm, and for a one-dimensional signal compare our algorithm against them. We show that for high location error variance and small noise variance the mean squared error (MSE) with ILE is significantly lower when compared to the baseline linear estimator. When compared to EM, our algorithm provides comparable MSE with a significant reduction in computational time.

Description: A fast matching pursuit method using a Bayesian approach is introduced for sparse signal recovery. This method performs Bayesian estimates of sparse signals even when the signal prior is non-Gaussian or unknown. It is agnostic on signal statistics and utilizes a priori statistics of additive noise and the sparsity rate of the signal, which are shown to be easily estimated from data if not available. The method utilizes a greedy approach and order-recursive updates of its metrics to find the most dominant sparse supports to determine the approximate minimum mean-square error (MMSE) estimate of the sparse signal. Simulation results demonstrate the power and robustness of our proposed estimator.

Description: The December page is devoted to IEEE Communications Society Awards and the Awards Committee that receives the nominations and processes them to identify the recipients. ComSoc Awards are meant to honor colleagues who in some ways, either via scientific/technical contributions or exemplary services, have reached significant, widely recognized achievements in our telecommunications community. Owing to their high significance and value, they need to be awarded through a fair and transparent process, and this is the essential, yet difficult and heavy task of the Awards Committee. It is my pleasure to introduce Lajos Hanzo, the Chair of the IEEE Communications Society Awards Committee, who will describe the awards and the procedure followed by the Awards Committee.

Description: Presents the front cover for this issue of the publication.

Description: Cellular phone networks are often paralyzed after a disaster, as damage to fixed infrastructure, loss of power, and increased demand degrade coverage and quality of service. To ensure disaster victims and first responders have access to reliable local and global communication, we propose EmergeNet, a portable, rapidly deployable, small-scale cellular network. In this article, we describe EmergeNet, which addresses the challenges of emergency and disaster areas. EmergeNet provides free voice calling and text messaging within a disaster area, and enables users of unmodified GSM handsets to communicate with the outside world using the Skype VoIP network. We evaluate EmergeNet???s ability to provide robust service despite high load, limited bandwidth, and software or hardware failures. EmergeNet is uniquely well suited to providing reliable, fairly allocated voice and text communication in emergency and disaster scenarios.

Description: A wireless sensor network is liable to suffer faults for several reasons, which include faulty nodes or even the fact that nodes have been destroyed by a natural disaster, such as a flood. These faults can give rise to serious problems if WSNs do not have a reconfiguration mechanism at execution. It should be noted that many WSNs designed to detect natural disasters are deployed in inhospitable places and depend on multihop communication to allow the data to reach a sink node. As a result, a fault in a single node can leave a part of the system inoperable until the node recovers from this failure. In light of this, this article outlines a solution that entails employing unmanned aerial vehicles to reduce the problems arising from faults in a sensor network when monitoring natural disasters like floods and landslides. In the solution put forward, UAVs can be transported to the site of the disaster to mitigate problems caused by faults (e.g., by serving as routers or even acting as a data mule). Experiments conducted with real UAVs and with our WSN-based prototype for flood detection (already deployed in S??o Carlos, State of S??o Paulo, Brazil, have proven that this is a viable approach.