Graph neural network-based scheduling for multi-UAV-enabled communications in D2D networks

In this paper,we jointly design the power control and position dispatch for Multi-Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(UAV)-enabled communication in Device-to-Device(D2D)networks.Our objective is to maximize the total transmission rate of Downlink Users(DUs).Meanwhile,the Quality of Service(QoS)of all D2D users must be satisfied.We comprehensively considered the interference among D2D communications and downlink transmissions.The original problem is strongly non-convex,which requires high computational complexity for traditional optimization methods.And to make matters worse,the results are not necessarily globally optimal.In this paper,we propose a novel Graph Neural Networks(GNN)based approach that can map the considered system into a specific graph structure and achieve the optimal solution in a low complexity manner.Particularly,we first construct a GNN-based model for the proposed network,in which the transmission links and interference links are formulated as vertexes and edges,respectively.Then,by taking the channel state information and the coordinates of ground users as the inputs,as well as the location of UAVs and the transmission power of all transmitters as outputs,we obtain the mapping from inputs to outputs through training the parameters of GNN.Simulation results verified that the way to maximize the total transmission rate of DUs can be extracted effectively via the training on samples.Moreover,it also shows that the performance of proposed GNN-based method is better than that of traditional means.

Space-Air-Ground Integrated Network (SAGIN) for 6G: Requirements, Architecture and Challenges

As the fifth-generation(5G)mobile communication network may not meet the requirements of emerging technologies and applications,including ubiquitous coverage,industrial internet of things(IIoT),ubiquitous artificial intelligence(AI),digital twins(DT),etc.,this paper aims to explore a novel space-air-ground integrated network(SAGIN)architecture to support these new requirements for the sixth-generation(6G)mobile communication network in a flexible,low-latency and efficient manner.Specifically,we first review the evolution of the mobile communication network,followed by the application and technology requirements of 6G.Then the current 5G non-terrestrial network(NTN)architecture in supporting the new requirements is deeply analyzed.After that,we proposes a new flexible,low-latency and flat SAGIN architecture,and presents corresponding use cases.Finally,the future research directions are discussed.

面向航空6G的频谱认知智能管控

随着空天地信息网络一体化的发展,卫星网络与地面移动网络作为常态化基础网络存在,而以无人机为代表的各类空中平台组成了天地之间的机动网络。航空6G作为6G的一种重要形态将包含空—空、空—地与空—天等新型通信与组网技术,需要解决的一个重要问题是如何高效利用频谱资源。基于航空6G与电磁频谱空间所面临的挑战,提出了面向航空6G的频谱认知智能管控体系架构,阐述了体系架构中频谱云、频谱控制链、设备用频软件定义、频谱传感网4个主要模块的功能作用。分析探讨了面向航空6G的频谱认知智能管控的3个关键技术,即三维频谱空间数字孪生、3D频谱智能决策、频谱图谱化快速协同学习,以期为后续航空6G与频谱智能管控的研究提供一些指导和建议。

Joint 3D Trajectory and Resource Optimization for A UAV Relay-Assisted Cognitive Radio Network

In this paper,we consider a new spectrum sharing scenario for a cognitive relay network,where a secondary unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)relay receives information from the ground secondary base station(SBS)and transmits information to the ground secondary user(SU),coexisting with the primary users(PUs)at the same wireless frequency band.We investigate the optimization of the UAV relay’s three-dimensional(3D)trajectory to improve the communication throughput performance of the secondary network subject to the interference constraints of the PUs.The information throughput maximization problem is studied by jointly optimizing the UAV relay’s 3D trajectory and the transmit power of the SBS and the UAV,subject to the constraints on the velocity and elevation of the UAV relay,the maximum and average transmit power,and the information causality,as well as a set of interference temperature(IT)constraints.An efficient algorithm is proposed to solve the admittedly challenging non-convex problem by using the path discretization technique,the successive convex approximation technique and the alternating optimization method.Finally,simulation results are provided to show that our proposed design outperforms other benchmark schemes in terms of the throughput。

User Association and Power Allocation for UAV-Assisted Networks: A Distributed Reinforcement Learning Approach

Unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)can be employed as aerial base stations(BSs)due to their high mobility and flexible deployment.This paper focuses on a UAV-assisted wireless network,where users can be scheduled to get access to either an aerial BS or a terrestrial BS for uplink transmission.In contrast to state-of-the-art designs focusing on the instantaneous cost of the network,this paper aims at minimizing the long-term average transmit power consumed by the users by dynamically optimizing user association and power allocation in each time slot.Such a joint user association scheduling and power allocation problem can be formulated as a Markov decision process(MDP).Unfortunately,solving such an MDP problem with the conventional relative value iteration(RVI)can suffer from the curses of dimensionality,in the presence of a large number of users.As a countermeasure,we propose a distributed RVI algorithm to reduce the dimension of the MDP problem,such that the original problem can be decoupled into multiple solvable small-scale MDP problems.Simulation results reveal that the proposed algorithm can yield lower longterm average transmit power consumption than both the conventional RVI algorithm and a baseline algorithm with myopic policies.

Joint Task Scheduling, Resource Allocation, and UAV Trajectory under Clustering for FANETs

This paper establishes a new layered flying ad hoc networks(FANETs) system of mobile edge computing(MEC) supported by multiple UAVs,where the first layer of user UAVs can perform tasks such as area coverage, and the second layer of MEC UAVs are deployed as flying MEC sever for user UAVs with computing-intensive tasks. In this system, we first divide the user UAVs into multiple clusters, and transmit the tasks of the cluster members(CMs) within a cluster to its cluster head(CH). Then, we need to determine whether each CH’ tasks are executed locally or offloaded to one of the MEC UAVs for remote execution(i.e., task scheduling), and how much resources should be allocated to each CH(i.e., resource allocation), as well as the trajectories of all MEC UAVs.We formulate an optimization problem with the aim of minimizing the overall energy consumption of all user UAVs, under the constraints of task completion deadline and computing resource, which is a mixed integer non-convex problem and hard to solve. We propose an iterative algorithm by applying block coordinate descent methods. To be specific, the task scheduling between CH UAVs and MEC UAVs, computing resource allocation, and MEC UAV trajectory are alternately optimized in each iteration. For the joint task scheduling and computing resource allocation subproblem and MEC UAV trajectory subproblem, we employ branch and bound method and continuous convex approximation technique to solve them,respectively. Extensive simulation results validate the superiority of our proposed approach to several benchmarks.

Frequency-Hopping Frequency Reconnaissance and Prediction for Non-cooperative Communication Network

The continuous change of communica-tion frequency brings difficulties to the reconnaissance and prediction of non-cooperative communication net-works.Since the frequency-hopping(FH)sequence is usually generated by a certain model with certain regularity,the FH frequency is thus predictable.In this paper,we investigate the FH frequency reconnais-sance and prediction of a non-cooperative communi-cation network by effective FH signal detection,time-frequency(TF)analysis,wavelet detection and fre-quency estimation.With the intercepted massive FH signal data,long short-term memory(LSTM)neural network model is constructed for FH frequency pre-diction.Simulation results show that our parameter es-timation methods could estimate frequency accurately in the presence of certain noise.Moreover,the LSTM-based scheme can effectively predict FH frequency and frequency interval.

Routing Protocol for Heterogeneous FANETs with Mobility Prediction

In recent years,with the growth in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs),UAV-based systems have become popular in both military and civil applications.In these scenarios,the lack of reliable communication infrastructure has motivated UAVs to establish a network as flying nodes,also known as Flying Ad Hoc Networks(FANETs).However,in FANETs,the high mobility degree of flying and terrestrial users may be responsible for constant changes in the network topology,making end-to-end connections in FANETs challenging.Mobility estimation and prediction of UAVs can address the challenge mentioned above since it can provide better routing planning and improve overall FANET performance in terms of continuous service availability.We thus develop a Software Defined Network(SDN)-based heterogeneous architecture for reliable communication in FANETs.In this architecture,we apply an Extended Kalman Filter(EKF)for accurate mobility estimation and prediction of UAVs.In particular,we formulate the routing problem in SDN-based Heterogeneous FANETs as a graph decision problem.As the problem is NP-hard,we further propose a Directional Particle Swarming Optimization(DPSO)approach to solve it.The extensive simulation results demonstrate that the proposed DPSO routing can exhibit superior performance in improving the goodput,packet delivery ratio,and delay.

A Game-Theoretic Perspective on Resource Management for Large-Scale UAV Communication Networks

As a result of rapid development in electronics and communication technology,large-scale unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)are harnessed for various promising applications in a coordinated manner.Although it poses numerous advantages,resource management among various domains in large-scale UAV communication networks is the key challenge to be solved urgently.Specifically,due to the inherent requirements and future development trend,distributed resource management is suitable.In this article,we investigate the resource management problem for large-scale UAV communication networks from game-theoretic perspective which are exactly coincident with the distributed and autonomous manner.By exploring the inherent features,the distinctive challenges are discussed.Then,we explore several gametheoretic models that not only combat the challenges but also have broad application prospects.We provide the basics of each game-theoretic model and discuss the potential applications for resource management in large-scale UAV communication networks.Specifically,mean-field game,graphical game,Stackelberg game,coalition game and potential game are included.After that,we propose two innovative case studies to highlight the feasibility of such novel game-theoretic models.Finally,we give some future research directions to shed light on future opportunities and applications.

Edge Semantic Cognitive Intelligence for 6G Networks:Novel Theoretical Models,Enabling Framework,and Typical Applications

Edge intelligence is anticipated to underlay the pathway to connected intelligence for 6G networks,but the organic confluence of edge computing and artificial intelligence still needs to be carefully treated.To this end,this article discusses the concepts of edge intelligence from the semantic cognitive perspective.Two instructive theoretical models for edge semantic cognitive intelligence(ESCI)are first established.Afterwards,the ESCI framework orchestrating deep learning with semantic communication is discussed.Two representative applications are present to shed light on the prospect of ESCI in 6G networks.Some open problems are finally listed to elicit the future research directions of ESCI.

Adaptive 3D Routing Protocol for Flying Ad Hoc Networks Based on Prediction-Driven Q-Learning

The routing protocols are paramount to guarantee the Quality of Service(QoS)for Flying Ad Hoc Networks(FANETs).However,they still face several challenges owing to high mobility and dynamic topology.This paper mainly focuses on the adaptive routing protocol and proposes a Three Dimensional Q-Learning(3DQ)based routing protocol to guarantee the packet delivery ratio and improve the QoS.In 3DQ routing,we propose a Q-Learning based routing decision scheme,which contains a link-state prediction module and routing decision module.The link-state prediction module allows each Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(UAV)to predict the link-state of Neighboring UAVs(NUs),considering their Three Dimensional mobility and packet arrival.Then,UAV can produce routing decisions with the help of the routing decision module considering the link-state.We evaluate the various performance of 3DQ routing,and simulation results demonstrate that 3DQ can improve packet delivery ratio,goodput and delay of baseline protocol at most 71.36%,89.32%and 83.54%in FANETs over a variety of communication scenarios.

Resource Allocation and Trajectories Design for UAV-Assisted Jamming Cognitive UAV Networks

Unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)communications are subject to the severe spectrum scarcity problem.Cognitive UAV networks are promising to tackle this issue while the confidential information is susceptible to be eavesdropped.A UAV jamming assisted scheme is proposed.A joint resource allocation and trajectories optimization problem is formulated in a UAV-assisted jamming cognitive UAV network subject to diverse power and trajectory constraints.An alternative optimization algorithm is proposed to solve the challenging non-convex joint optimization problem.Extensive simulation results demonstrate the superiority of our proposed scheme and many meaningful insights are obtained for the practical design of cognitive UAV networks.

Guarding Legal Communication with Smart Jammer:Stackelberg Game Based Power Control Analysis

This paper investigates a power control problem in a jamming system,where a separate smart jammer is deployed to ensure the communication security of the legal user.However,due to power leakage,the smart jammer may incur unintentional interference to legal users.The key is how to suppress illegal communication while limit the negative impact on legal user.A jamming counter measure Stackelberg game is formulated to model the jamming power control dynamic of the system.The smart jammer acts as a leader to sense and interfere illegal communications of the illegal user,while the illegal user acts as a follower.In the game,the impact of uncertain channel information is taken into account.According to whether illegal user considers the uncertain channel information,we investigate two scenarios,namely,illegal user can obtain statistical distribution and accurate information of interference channel gain and its own cost,respectively.This work not only proposes a jamming counter measure iterative algorithm to update parameters,but also gives two solutions to obtain the Stackelberg equilibrium(SE).The power convergence behaviours under two scenarios are analyzed and compared.Additionally,brute force is used to verify the accuracy of the SE value further.

NETWORK-CONNECTED UAV COMMUNICATIONS

Unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)have found fast growing applications in recent years,such as for cargo delivery,precision agriculture,aerial monitoring,video streaming,traffic control,rescue and search,and communication relaying.As the number of UAVs and their related applications grow explosively in the com-

Space-Air-Ground Integrated Network with Native Intelligence(NI-SAGIN):Concept,Architecture,Access and Networking

Ubiquitous coverage is one of the most important goals for mobile communication networks.To achieve this,integration of space,air,and ground networks is highly demanded,which expects to become the one of the enabling technologies for 6G networks.

Eliminating Explicit Contention from Channel Access in Distributed Wireless Networks

Emerging techniques such as WiFi direct makes the objective of always-on be true. People can easily chat and share files with nearby friends even without AP(Access Point) or cellular coverage. In this paper, we focus on the channel efficiency issue of APfree Wi-Fi networks, which can be easily constructed in the subway, in a high-speed railway, or when camping in the wild. Today IEEE 802.11 DCF is the most commonly used MAC protocol for Wi-Fi networks, however, due to the control messages and backoff time, channel efficiency in high data rate networks can be extremely low. To solve this, we propose CD-MAC, which allows control messages to be transmitted with data packets concurrently, and thus eliminates the overheads of backoff and explicit contention. To maintain the reception reliability, we redesign the control messages and use signal detection in PHY instead of bits decoding to detect them. In MAC layer, CD-MAC is built upon our Correlation Detection based PHY. We have implemented and evaluated CD-MAC using USRP N210. Evaluation results show that CD-MAC can achieve over 95.5% channel efficiency and provide throughput gains of up to 80%, 60%, and 29.1% compared with DCF, 802.11 ec, and back2F, respectively.

Dynamic Spectrum Anti-Jamming with Distributed Learning and Transfer Learning

Physical-layer security issues in wireless systems have attracted great attention.In this paper,we investigate the spectrum anti-jamming(AJ)problem for data transmissions between devices.Considering fast-changing physical-layer jamming attacks in the time/frequency domain,frequency resources have to be configured for devices in advance with unknown jamming patterns(i.e.the time-frequency distribution of the jamming signals)to avoid jamming signals emitted by malicious devices.This process can be formulated as a Markov decision process and solved by reinforcement learning(RL).Unfortunately,stateof-the-art RL methods may put pressure on the system which has limited computing resources.As a result,we propose a novel RL,by integrating the asynchronous advantage actor-critic(A3C)approach with the kernel method to learn a flexible frequency pre-configuration policy.Moreover,in the presence of time-varying jamming patterns,the traditional AJ strategy can not adapt to the dynamic interference strategy.To handle this issue,we design a kernelbased feature transfer learning method to adjust the structure of the policy function online.Simulation results reveal that our proposed approach can significantly outperform various baselines,in terms of the average normalized throughput and the convergence speed of policy learning.

Optimal Deployment Density for Maximum Coverage of Drone Small Cells

With the proliferation of small and mini drones, Drone Small Cells(DSCs) can cooperative multiple drones to provide communication service for ground users as emergency means or supplementary ones of traditional terrestrial cellular networks. In this paper, we study the fundamental problem of optimizing the deployment density of DSCs to achieve the maximum coverage performance. Most related works do not consider cumulative inter-cell interference when studying the coverage performance of DSCs. First, we derive an approximate and closed-form expression of the cumulative inter-cell interference which comes from both probabilistic Line-of-Sight(Lo S) and Non-Line-of-Sight(NLo S) links. Then, we analyze the coverage performance of DSCs and derive the transcendental function of optimal deployment density to obtain the maximum coverage. Last, we propose an algorithm to get the optimal deployment density with low complexity. We conduct both field experiments and Matlab simulations to verify the correctness of theoretical analysis. In addition, we show the impact of some factors on the relation between the deployment density and coverage performance through extensive numerical simulations.

Outage Performance of Cognitive Relay Networks with Best Relay Selection in Nakagami-m Channels

This paper investigates the outage performance of a cognitive relay network considering best relay selection in Nakagami-m fading environment. The secondary user is allowed to use the spectrum when it meets the interference constraints predefined by primary user. Due to deep fading, cognitive source is unable to communicate directly with cognitive destination. As such, multiple relays are ready to deliver the signal from the cognitive source to cognitive destination. We select a single best relay and the selected relay uses decode-and-forward protocol. Specifically, we derive the exact outage probability expression, which provides an efficient means to evaluate the effects of several parameters. Finally, numerical simulation results are presented, which validate the correctness of the analytical analysis.

Privacy-preserving location authentication for low-altitude UAVs:A blockchain-based approach

Efficient and trusted regulation of unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)is an essential but challenging issue in the future era of the Internet of Low-altitude Intelligence,due to the difficulties in UAVs'identity recognition and location matching,potential for falsified information reporting,etc.To address this challenging issue,in this paper,we propose a blockchain-based UAV location authentication scheme,which employs a distance bounding protocol to establish a location proof,ensuring the authenticity of UAV positions.To preserve the privacy of UAVs,anonymous certificates and zero-knowledge proof are used.The security of the proposed scheme is analyzed.Experiments demonstrate the efficiency and feasibility of the proposed scheme.