Robust Optimal Cross-Layer Designs for TDD-OFDMA Systems with Imperfect CSIT and Unknown Interference: State-Space Approach Based on 1-bit ACK/NAK Feedbacks
Cross-layer designs for OFDMA systems have been shown to offer significant gains of spectral efficiency by exploiting the multiuser diversity over the temporal and frequency domains. In this paper, we shall propose a robust optimal cross-layer design for downlink TDD-OFDMA systems with imperfect channel state information at the base station (CSIT) and unknown interference in slow fading channels. Exploiting the ACK/NAK (1-bit) feedbacks from the mobiles, the proposed cross-layer design does not require knowledge of the CSIT error statistics or interference statistics. To take into account of the potential packet error due to the imperfect CSIT and unknown interference, we define average system goodput (which measures the average b/s/Hz successfully delivered to the mobile) as our optimization objective. We formulate the cross-layer design as a state-space control problem. The optimal power, optimal rate and optimal user allocations are determined as the output equations from the system states based on dynamic programming approach. Simulation results illustrate that the performance of the proposed closed-loop cross-layer design is very robust with respect to imperfect CSIT, unknown interference, model mismatch as well as channel variations due to Doppler.

title: Decentralized Fair Resource Allocation for Relay-Assisted Cognitive Cellular Downlink Systems
abstract: In this paper, we consider a relay-assisted cognitive cellular downlink system dynamically accessing a spectrum licensed to a primary network, thereby improving the efficiency of spectrum usage. A cluster-based relay-assisted architecture is proposed, where relay stations are employed for minimizing the interference to users in the primary network and achieving fairness for cell-edge users. Based on this architecture, an optimal solution is derived for jointly controlling data rate, transmission power, and subband allocation to optimize the weighted sum goodput where proportional fair scheduling (PFS) is included as a special case. As shown by simulations, the proposed solution achieves significant throughput gains and better user fairness compared with existing designs.

title: Distributive subband allocation, power and rate control for relay-assisted OFDMA cellular system with imperfect system state knowledge
abstract: In this paper, we consider distributive subband, power and rate allocation for a two-hop downlink transmission in an orthogonal frequency-division multiple-access (OFDMA) cellular system with fixed relays which operate in decode-and-forward strategy. We take into account of the penalty of packet errors due to imperfect CSIT and system fairness by considering weighted sum goodput as our optimization objective. Based on the cluster-based architecture, we obtain a fast-converging distributive solution with only local imperfect CSIT by using decomposition of the optimization problem. To further reduce the signaling overhead and computational complexity, we propose a reduced feedback distributive solution, which can achieve asymptotically optimal performance for large number of users with arbitrarily small feedback overhead per user.We also derive asymptotic average system throughput so as to obtain useful design insights.

title: Combined cross-layer design and HARQ for multiuser systems with outdated channel state information at transmitter (CSIT) in slow fading channels
abstract: Cross-layer scheduling and hybrid ARQ (HARQ) are effective means to improve the spectral efficiency of wireless systems. However, most of the existing works handle HARQ and cross-layer scheduling in a decoupled manner based on heuristic approaches. In this paper, we propose an integrated design framework for cross-layer scheduling and HARQ design in multiuser systems with slow fading channel and outdated knowledge of channel state information at the base station (CSIT). We consider both the chase combining and incremental redundancy in HARQ. We define the average system goodput (which measures the average bits successfully delivered to the receiver) as the measure of system performance. Based on information theoretical approach, we derive the asymptotically optimal cross-layer policy (power allocation, rate allocation and user selection policies) to optimize the average system goodput with HARQ. In addition, we derive analytically the closed-form expression of the average system goodput, from which we can obtain useful design insights such as the role of HARQ in the overall cross-layer gain, the tradeoff between the system goodput and the HARQ delay as well as the sensitivity of the average system goodput with respect to the CSIT quality.

title: Joint cross-layer scheduling and spectrum sensing for OFDMA cognitive radio systems
abstract: In most of the existing works on cognitive radio (CR) systems, the spectrum sensing and the cross-layer scheduling are designed separately. Specifically, the sensing module first determines whether or not a channel resource is available for the CR system based on the sensing information. The scheduling module then schedules the data transmission of different users on the available channels based on the hard-decision sensing information (HSI). In this paper, we shall propose a joint crosslayer and sensing design and study its performance advantages over the aforementioned traditional decoupled approaches. We shall consider the downlink transmission of an OFDMA-based secondary system sharing the spectrum with primary users using cognitive radio technology. We shall rely on the joint design framework to optimize a system utility, which adapts the power allocation and the subcarrier assignment across the secondary users (under a average interference constraint to the primary users) based on both the channel state information (CSI) and the raw sensing information (RSI). In addition, we shall also propose a distributed implementation for the cross-layer sensing and scheduling design using primal-dual decomposition approach. Simulation results reveals the substantial performance gain of the proposed joint design over the conventional CR systems.

title: Combined Cross Layer Design and HARQ for TDD Multiuser Systems with Outdated CSIT
abstract: Cross-layer scheduling and hybrid ARQ (HARQ) are effective means to improve the spectral efficiency of wireless systems and have been widely adopted in next generation wireless systems. However, most of the existing works handle HARQ and cross-layer scheduling in a decoupled manner based on heuristic approach. In this paper, we propose an integrated design framework for cross-layer scheduling and HARQ design in TDD multiuser systems with outdated knowledge of channel state information at the base station (CSIT). We focus on incremental redundancy in HARQ and derive the asymptotically optimal cross-layer policy (power allocation, rate allocation and user selection policies) to optimize the system goodput. In addition, we derive analytically closed-form expressions for the average system goodput where we can obtain useful design insights. For instance, the average system goodput scales in the order of O(In L) where L is the maximum transmission number of a packet, illustrating how the HARQ can enhance the cross-layer system goodput gain.

title: User-Centered Design and Visualization of Service Oriented Recommender Agents: An Approach to Achieve Better Consumers' Involvement in E-Commerce Systems
abstract: This paper identifies some issues related to consumers’ involvement in current e-commerce systems and presents a possible solution. In this paper, it is assumed that adopting user-centered design concept to establish service oriented recommender agents and visualizing those agents into human-look-alike avatars in virtual environments (VEs) could be a proper concept and approach to increase consumers’ involvement. This paper develops a conceptual model of how consumers’ involvement could be increased to a higher level by adopting those design concepts. The proposed experimentation that could test this model is also illustrated.

title: Formal semantics and communication strategies for proactive information delivery among team-based agents
abstract: Effective human teams often benefit from proactivity through members' capability of anticipating different needs of teammates. In this paper, we focus on three issues related to the behavior of proactive information delivery. Two types of information needs are identified, the intentional semantics of ProInform is given, and priliminary experiments are carried out to study how different strategies for choosing ProInform impact team performance. The work presented in this paper provide a sound and practical framework that enables further studies regarding proactive information delivery.

title: Ontology-based Query Construction for GeoCLEF
abstract: This paper describes experiments with geographical information retrieval (GIR). Being different from the traditional information IR, we focus more on the query expansion instead of document ranking. We parse each topic into the event part and the geographic part and use different ontologies to expand both parts respectively. The results show promising results of our strategy for this task.

title: A Spatial Faithful Cooperative System Based on Mixed Presence Groupware Model
abstract: Traditional groupware platforms are found restrained and cumbersome for supporting geographically dispersed design collaboration. This paper starts with two groupware models, which are Single Display Groupware and Mixed Presence Groupware, and then discusses some of the limitations and argues how these limitations could possibly impair efficient communication among remote designers. Next, it suggests that the support for spatial faithfulness and Tangible User Interface (TUI) could help fill the gap between Face-to-Face (F2F) collaboration and computer-mediated remote collaboration. A spatial faithful groupware with TUI support is then developed to illustrate this concept.

title: Motivated learning agent model for distributed collaborative systems
abstract: The paper develops and discusses a conceptual model for a Mixed Reality-based remote collaborative system (MR-Collab) based on motivated learning Agents. The proposed MR-Collab system is described in details as well to help better understand this model. Self-Development Agent based on previous work is an intelligent Agent, which not only receives information from sensors in the environment, but also gives valuable suggestions that could help to improve the system. The model is not limited to this specific system, but could be adapted to other collaboration systems as well.