Block Coordinate Descent Method Research Articles

Multi-UAV-assisted Internet of Remote Things communication within satellite–aerial–terrestrial integrated network

Due to the limited transmission capabilities of terrestrial intelligent devices within the Internet of Remote Things (IoRT), this paper proposes an optimization scheme aimed at enhancing data transmission rate while ensuring communication reliability. This scheme focuses on multi-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-assisted IoRT data communication within the satellite–aerial–terrestrial integrated network (SATIN), which is one of the key technologies for the sixth generation (6G) networks. To optimize the system’s data transmission rate, we introduce a multi-dimensional coverage and power optimization (CPO) algorithm, rooted in the block coordinate descent (BCD) method. This algorithm concurrently optimizes various parameters, including the number and deployment of UAVs, the correlation between IoRT devices and UAVs, and the transmission power of both devices and UAVs. To ensure comprehensive coverage of a large-scale randomly distributed array of terrestrial devices, combined with machine learning algorithm, we present the Dynamic Deployment based on K-means (DDK) algorithm. Additionally, we address the non-convexity challenge in resource allocation for transmission power through variable substitution and the successive convex approximation technique (SCA). Simulation results substantiate the remarkable efficacy of our CPO algorithm, showcasing a maximum 240% improvement in the uplink transmission rate of IoRT data compared to conventional methods.

Energy Efficient Resource Allocation for Uplink RIS-Aided Millimeter-Wave Networks With NOMA

In this paper, energy efficiency (EE) is maximized for the reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) aided millimeter-Wave (mmWave) networks with non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) and multiple mobile devices. To this end, we first propose the EE optimization, under the constraints of maximum power, minimal rate of devices and constant modulus of beamforming (BF) vectors. Then, the joint resource allocation scheme of power allocation (PA) and BF is designed. Specifically, given PA, an effective iterative algorithm based on the majorizationminimization, concave-convex procedure and block coordinate descent (BCD) is presented to obtain closed-form solutions of suboptimal passive BF (PBF) and analog BF (ABF) for each iteration. Then, given PBF and ABF, an effective iterative algorithm based on the successive convex approximation, BCD and Dinkelbach methods is derived to achieve suboptimal closedform PA for each iteration. By incorporating these two algorithms into the BCD method, a joint optimization algorithm for EE maximization is presented. As a result, joint resource allocation of PA, PBF and ABF is attained. Besides, the convergence and complexity of the algorithms are analyzed. For comparison, the benchmark scheme based on the multidimensional search method and artificial bee colony algorithm is also presented. Simulation results show that the proposed joint scheme is effective and higher EE can be obtained with lower complexity.

Low-Light Enhancement Method Based on a Retinex Model for Structure Preservation

Enhancing low-light image visibility is a critical task in computer vision since it helps to improve input for high-level algorithms. High-quality images typically have clear structural information. In previous studies, due to the lack of proper structural guidance, restored images had some problems, such as unclear structural areas and overexposed or underexposed local areas. To address the above problems, in this paper, we introduce a coefficient of variation (COV) with excellent performance in maintaining structural information, and then we propose a low-light image enhancement method that utilizes the COV to extract structural information from images. First, we apply a traditional retinex model to estimate both reflectance and illumination. Second, we use the COV to indicate the degree of dispersion of the input sample, which enables us to obtain a robust structure-distinguishing weight map for low-light images. The weight map is adaptively divided to obtain a structural weight map, which is then used to enhance the gradient image. This process is applied before the reflectance layer of the retinex model. Finally, the result is obtained by using the block coordinate descent method. According to extensive experiments, outstanding results can be achieved by our proposed method in terms of both subjective and objective evaluation metrics in comparison with other state-of-the-art methods. The source code is available at our website <xref ref-type="fn" rid="fn1" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">¹</xref> <fn id="fn1" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><label>¹</label> <uri>https://github.com/bbxavi/spcv22</uri> </fn> .

A Customized Augmented Lagrangian Method for Block-Structured Integer Programming.

Integer programming with block structures has received considerable attention recently and is widely used in many practical applications such as train timetabling and vehicle routing problems. It is known to be NP-hard due to the presence of integer variables. We define a novel augmented Lagrangian function by directly penalizing the inequality constraints and establish the strong duality between the primal problem and the augmented Lagrangian dual problem. Then, a customized augmented Lagrangian method is proposed to address the block-structures. In particular, the minimization of the augmented Lagrangian function is decomposed into multiple subproblems by decoupling the linking constraints and these subproblems can be efficiently solved using the block coordinate descent method. We also establish the convergence property of the proposed method. To make the algorithm more practical, we further introduce several refinement techniques to identify high-quality feasible solutions. Numerical experiments on a few interesting scenarios show that our proposed algorithm often achieves a satisfactory solution and is quite effective.

Energy efficient resource allocation of IRS-Assisted UAV network

&lt;p&gt;The integration of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) networks with intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) technology offers a promising solution to enhance wireless communication by dynamically altering signal propagation. This study addresses the challenge of maximizing system energy efficiency (EE) in IRS-assisted UAV networks. The primary objective is to optimize power allocation and IRS reflection design to achieve this goal. To tackle the optimization problem, we employ a block coordinate descent (BCD) method, decomposing it into three subproblems: phase shift optimization, power allocation, and trajectory planning. These subproblems are iteratively solved using an improved particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed PSO algorithm effectively plans high-quality UAV trajectories in complex environments, significantly enhancing EE. The findings suggest that the IRS-assisted UAV model outperforms traditional UAV models, offering substantial improvements in wireless communication quality and EE.&lt;/p&gt;

Enhancing Data Freshness in Air-Ground Collaborative Heterogeneous Networks through Contract Theory and Generative Diffusion-Based Mobile Edge Computing.

Mobile edge computing is critical for improving the user experience of latency-sensitive and freshness-based applications. This paper provides insights into the potential of non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) convergence with heterogeneous air-ground collaborative networks to improve system throughput and spectral efficiency. Coordinated resource allocation between UAVs and MEC servers, especially in the NOMA framework, is addressed as a key challenge. Under the unrealistic assumption that edge nodes contribute resources indiscriminately, we introduce a two-stage incentive mechanism. The model is based on contract theory and aims at optimizing the utility of the service provider (SP) under the constraints of individual rationality (IR) and incentive compatibility (IC) of the mobile user. The block coordinate descent method is used to refine the contract design and complemented by a generative diffusion model to improve the efficiency of searching for contracts. During the deployment process, the study emphasizes the positioning of UAVs to maximize SP effectiveness. An improved differential evolutionary algorithm is introduced to optimize the positioning of UAVs. Extensive evaluation shows our approach has excellent effectiveness and robustness in deterministic and unpredictable scenarios.

Communication and computational resource optimization for Industry 5.0 smart devices empowered by MEC

Smart devices in Industry 5.0, such as sensors and robots, are often limited by low battery life and finite computational resources, hindering their ability to perform complex tasks. By offloading computation-intensive tasks to Mobile Edge Cloud Computing (MEC) servers at the network’s edge, businesses can achieve real-time data processing and analysis, reducing communication latency, quicker response times, and improved system reliability. This work presents an integrated framework for MEC and Industry 5.0, aimed at enhancing the performance, efficiency, and flexibility of industrial processes. In particular, we propose a joint optimization problem that maximizes computational energy efficiency by optimally allocating resources, such as processing power and computational resources, as well as device association, in the most efficient manner possible. The problem is formulated as nonconvex/nonlinear, which is intractable and poses high complexity. To solve this challenging problem, we first transform and decouple the original optimization problem into a series of subproblems using the block coordinate descent method. Then, we iteratively obtain an efficient solution using convex optimization methods. In addition, our work sheds light on the fundamental trade-off between local computation and partial offloading schemes. The results show that for small data size requirements, the performance is comparable among different schemes. However, as data size increases, our proposed hybrid scheme, which includes a partial offloading scheme, outperforms others, highlighting the effectiveness of the proposed joint optimization scheme.

Joint Trajectory Design and Resource Allocation for Secure Air–Ground Integrated IoT Networks

We investigate in this paper joint trajectory design and resource allocation for secure air-ground integrated Internet of Things (IoT) networks with unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) jamming and device to device (D2D) enhancement. By jointly optimizing ground user scheduling, UAV flight trajectory and transmit power, we are able to maximize the minimum system secrecy rate of UAV and D2D communications. The formulated optimization problems of the two typical network scenarios, i.e., with and without UAV jamming, are challenging to be solved due to the corresponding non-smooth and non-concave objective functions. Therefore, we propose alternating iterative algorithms to solve the problems by employing the successive convex approximation and block coordinate descent methods. Extensive results indicate that the proposed joint optimization schemes can effectively improve the secrecy communication performance under different spatial distributions of ground users.

A UAV-Assisted Secure Communication System by Jointly Optimizing Transmit Power and Trajectory in the Internet of Things

Secure communication technology has attracted more and more attention to improve the security of the Internet of Things (IoT). In this article, we discuss the maximum secrecy capacity problem for a mobile unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) assisted secure communication in IoT, where the UAV relays the covert information from the transmitter (Alice) to the legal receiver (Bob) without detection by an eavesdropper (Eve) though sharing the spectrum with the ground device-to-device (D2D) communications. Our design aims to maximize the sum secrecy capacity Bob received by optimizing the transmit power and the UAV’s trajectory jointly while guaranteeing that the normal communication behavior between ground D2D pairs is not affected. Therefore, we propose a jointly optimizing the transmit power and UAV trajectory algorithm (JOTUTA) based on the block coordinate descent (BCD) method. Specifically, we first transform the non-convex problem of transmit power based on a fixed UAV’s trajectory into a convex problem by D.C. (difference of two convex functions) programming. Secondly, we solve the problem of UAV’s trajectory optimization with given transmit power by the successive convex approximation (SCA) method. Experiments results show the effectiveness of JOTUTA and the advantages of improving the secrecy capacity are verified compared with existing work.

Energy Consumption Minimization in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle-Enabled Secure Wireless Sensor Networks

In wireless sensor networks (WSNs), unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are considered an effective data collection tool. In this paper, we investigate the energy-efficient data collection problem in a UAV-enabled secure WSN without knowing the instantaneous channel state information of the eavesdropper (Eve). Specifically, the UAV collected the information from all the wireless sensors at the scheduled time and forward it to the fusion center while Eve tries to eavesdrop on this confidential information from the UAV. To surmount this intractable and convoluted mixed-integer non-convex problem, we propose an efficient iterative optimization algorithm using the block coordinate descent (BCD) method to minimize the maximum energy consumption of the ground sensor nodes (GSNs) under the constraints of secrecy outage probability (SOP), connection outage probability (COP), minimum secure data, information causality, and UAV trajectory. Numerical results demonstrate the superiority of the algorithm we proposed in energy consumption and secrecy rate compared with other schemes.

Robust Transmission Design for RIS-Assisted Secure Multiuser Communication Systems in the Presence of Hardware Impairments

This paper investigates reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted secure multiuser communication systems in the presence of hardware impairments (HIs) at the RIS and the transceivers. We jointly optimize the beamforming vectors at the base station (BS) and the phase shifts of the reflecting elements at the RIS so as to maximize the weighted minimum approximate ergodic secrecy rate (WMAESR), subject to the transmission power constraints at the BS and unit-modulus constraints at the RIS. To solve the formulated optimization problem, we first decouple it into two tractable subproblems and then use the block coordinate descent (BCD) method to alternately optimize the subproblems. Two different methods are proposed to solve the two obtained subproblems. The first method transforms each subproblem into a second order cone programming (SOCP) problem by invoking the penalty convexconcave procedure (CCP) method and the closed-form fractional programming (FP) criterion, and then directly solves them by using CVX. The second method leverages the minorization-maximization (MM) algorithm. Specifically, we first derive a concave approximation function, which is a lower bound of the original objective function, and then the two subproblems are transformed into two simple surrogate problems that admit closed-form solutions. Simulation results verify the performance gains of the proposed robust transmission methods over existing non-robust designs. In addition, the MM algorithm is shown to have much lower complexity than the SOCP-based algorithm.

Sum Rate Optimization for MIMO Multicasting Network with Active IRS

This paper considers a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) multicasting system aided by the intelligent reflecting surface (IRS). We aim to maximize the sum information rate via jointly designing the transmit precoding matrix and the reflecting coefficient (RC) matrix, subject to the transmit power constrains of the Tx and IRS. To tackle the nonconvex problem, we recast the original problem into an equivalent formulation by using some important facts about matrices and proposed a block coordinate descent (BCD) method to optimize the variables. Finally, simulation results validate the effectiveness of active IRS in enhancing the rate performance.

Image restoration via joint low-rank and external nonlocal self-similarity prior

Recent studies have revealed that joint priors, such as joint sparsity and external nonlocal self-similarity (ENSS) prior and joint low-rank and sparsity prior, are extremely effective in various image inverse problems. Few works, however, make use of both low-rank and ENSS priors. With this in mind, in this paper we propose a new joint prior, namely LRENSS prior, which utilizes low-rank and ENSS priors jointly in a unified framework, and successfully adapt the proposed LRENSS prior to image restoration problems. Specifically, low-rank and ENSS priors are bridged by treating ENSS prior as dictionaries for structural sparse representation. Further, an elegant block coordinate descent method is developed to solve the corresponding optimization problem. The proposed LRENSS prior is validated on image denoising and image deblurring tasks. Experimental results illustrate that the proposed LRENSS prior has better performance than other state-of-the-art algorithms in both qualitative and quantitative assessments.

RIS-Aided Cell-Free MIMO System: Perfect and Imperfect CSI Design for Energy Efficiency

Thanks to the development of the 6th generation mobile network that makes it possible for us to move towards an intelligent ubiquitous information society, among which some novel technologies represented by cell-free network has also attracted widespread academic attention. Cell-free network has brought distinguished gains to the network capacity with its strong ability against inter-cell interference. Unfortunately, further improvement demands more base stations (BSs) to be settled, which incurs steep cost increase. To address this issue, reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) with low cost and power consumption is introduced in this paper to replace some of the trivial BSs in the system, then, a RIS-aided cell-free network paradigm is formulated. Our objective is to solve the weighted sumrate (WSR) maximization problem by jointly optimizing the beamforming design at BSs and the phase shift of RISs. Due to the non-convexity of the formulated problem, this paper investigates a joint optimizing scheme based on block coordinate descent (BCD) method. Subsequently, on account of the majority of the precious work reposed perfect channel state information (CSI) setup for the ultimate performance, this paper also extends the proposed algorithm to the case wherein CSI is imperfect by utilizing successive convex approximation (SCA). Finally, simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme shows great performance and robustness in perfect CSI scenario as well as the imperfect ones.

Secrecy-Energy-Efficiency Maximization for UAV-Enabled Two-Way Relay Systems

In wireless communication, unmanned-aerial-vehicle (UAV) relay seems to be an available paradigm to combat path-loss and expand signal coverage. Due to the openness of wireless channel and the inconvenient recharging, transmission security and energy efficiency are the most concerned issues for UAV-enabled communication. In this paper, for an UAV-enabled two-way relay system, where two wireless terminals exchange their information assisted by a flying UAV and a malicious user tries to eavesdrop the transmitted information, the achievable secrecy energy-efficiency is formulated when the UAV speed, trajectory, allowable power and the time scheduling in the uplink and downlink transmission are considered in a comprehensive manner. To solve this non-convex problem, we decompose it into three subproblems based on the block coordinate descent (BCD) method. Then, the successive convex approximation (SCA) technique and the Dinkelbach algorithm are combined to obtain the global solution in an iterative manner. Simulation results show that the proposed schemes have higher secrecy energy-efficiency compared to the existing baseline schemes.

Analysis and Optimization of Cache-Enabled mmWave HetNets With Integrated Access and Backhaul

In millimeter wave heterogeneous networks with integrated access and backhaul (mABHetNets), a considerable part of spectrum resources are occupied by the backhaul link, which limits the performance of the access link. In order to overcome such backhaul “ <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">spectrum occupancy</i> ”, we introduce cache into mABHetNets. Caching popular files at small base stations (SBSs) can offload the backhaul traffic and transfer spectrum from the backhaul link to the access link. To approach the optimal performance of cache-enabled mABHetNets, we first analyze the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio distribution and derive the average potential throughput (APT) expression by stochastic geometric tools. Then, based on our analytical work, we formulate a joint optimization problem of cache decision and spectrum partition to maximize the APT. Inspired by the block coordinate descent (BCD) method, we propose a joint cache decision, spectrum partition and power allocation (JCSPA) algorithm to approach the optimal solution. Numerical results show the effectiveness and enhancement of the proposed algorithm. Besides, we verify the APT under different parameters and find that the introduction of cache facilitates the transfer of backhaul spectrum to access link. Jointly deploying appropriate caching capacity at SBSs and performing specified spectrum partition can bring up about 90% APT gain in mABHetNets.

Unmanned-Aerial-Vehicle-Aided Integrated Sensing and Computation With Mobile-Edge Computing

Integrated sensing and communication (ISAC), which enables the joint radar sensing and data communications, shows its great potential in many intelligent applications. In this paper, we investigate the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) aided ISAC with mobile edge computing (MEC), where the ISAC device deployed on the UAV senses multiple targets with the sensing scheduling and offloads the radar sensing data to the edge-server to train a machine learning model for target recognition. The radar estimation information rate is utilized to measure the radar sensing performance. We aim to minimize a system-wise cost that includes both the UAV’s energy consumption and the data collecting time, while satisfying the requirements on both the model training error and the radar sensing performance. We formulate a joint optimization problem of the sensing scheduling, the number of time-slots, the sensing power, the communication power, and the UAV trajectory. Despite the strict non-convexity of the formulated problem, we propose an efficient algorithm for solving it. Our algorithm jointly leverages the vertical decomposition that exploits the layered structure of the formulated problem and the horizontal decomposition that utilizes the block coordinate descent (BCD) method. Numerical results are presented to validate the effectiveness of our proposed algorithms and show the performance gain of our proposed scheme.

Broadcast Secrecy Rate Maximization in UAV-Empowered IRS Backscatter Communications

The backscatter communications (BackCom) and physical layer security are respected to realize extremely low-power secure communications in the imminent sixth generation (6G). In a BackCom system, the backscatter device without radio frequency components sends messages to users by reflecting the external signals. However, the double-fading effect limits BackCom’s performance and the commonly used broadcast mode is vulnerable to eavesdropping. Two promising technologies, intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), show excellent potential in handling these problems. In this paper, we propose a UAV-empowered IRS-BackCom network, where an IRS acts as the backscatter device and uses the received signals from a UAV for BackCom. We aim to guarantee secure transmission and maximize the broadcast secrecy rate by jointly optimizing the UAV’s beamformer and trajectory and the IRS’s reflection coefficient. To tackle the non-convex problem, we leverage the block coordinate descent method to decompose it into three subproblems. Specifically, the UAV’s beamformer and trajectory and the IRS’s reflection matrix are optimized alternatively. Further, we adopt reinforcement learning to facilitate the intractable UAV’s trajectory optimization. Simulation results verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed system model and the optimization scheme.

An UAV and EV based mobile edge computing system for total delay minimization

In this paper, we studied a collaborative mobile edge computing(MEC) system based on unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV) and electric vehicle(EV), in which the EV moves to the target area carrying the UAV to provide computing and offloading services to the user equipment(UE). We aimed at minimizing all the UE tasks delay by optimizing the task offloading ratio, the UAV hovering position, and the computing resource allocation of EV and UAV, respectively. The problem was formulated as a Nonlinear Programming(NLP) problem, and we decomposed it into EV related subproblem and UAV related subproblem by the Block-Coordinate Descent(BCD) method. For EV related subproblem, we obtained the optimal offloading ratio by making the computing time on the UAV equal to its offloading time, and proved the method is feasible. For the UAV related subproblem, we introduced the non-orthogonal multiple access(NOMA) and successive interference cancellation(SIC) techniques to improve the communication efficiency, and we obtained the optimal hovering position by using the successive convex approximation(SCA) technique twice to transfer this subproblem into a convex problem. Finally, an overall iterative algorithm was proposed. To verify the effectiveness of our algorithm, we compared our scheme with ‘PSO’, ‘GT’, ‘MC’ and benchmark algorithm.

On adaptive block coordinate descent methods for ridge regression

On adaptive block coordinate descent methods for ridge regression