Sandeep Singh

Vangara Saiprudhvi, Sandeep Singh, Keshav Singh et al.

Integrated terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks (ITNTNs) are regarded as a key architectural paradigm for sixth-generation (6G) wireless systems. This paper investigates a dual-aerial reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted ITNTN, where a terrestrial base station (TBS) and a satellite (SAT) jointly serve terrestrial and satellite users with the aid of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-mounted RIS and a high-altitude platform (HAP)-mounted RIS. We formulate an average sum-rate maximization problem by jointly optimizing the TBS and SAT precoders, the RIS phase shift matrices, and the three-dimensional trajectories of the UAV and the HAP, subject to transmit power, unit-modulus, and mobility constraints. The resulting optimization problem is highly non-convex due to the strong coupling among the transmit precoders, RIS phase shifts, and aerial platform mobility. To efficiently address this challenge, we propose a block coordinate descent (BCD) framework that integrates weighted minimum mean square error (WMMSE) optimization for precoder design, a manifold-based Riemannian conjugate gradient (RCG) method for RIS phase-shift optimization, and successive convex approximation (SCA) for trajectory optimization. The proposed algorithm is shown to converge to a stationary point. The simulation results show that the proposed joint design achieves an approximately $7.05 \%$ higher average sum-rate compared to the random RIS scheme, highlighting the effectiveness of dual-aerial RIS deployment and joint communication-mobility optimization in ITNTNs.

Shreyas Subramanian, Adewale Akinfaderin, Yanyan Zhang et al.

While Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) has proven effective for generating accurate, context-based responses based on existing knowledge bases, it presents several challenges including retrieval quality dependencies, integration complexity and cost. Recent advances in agentic-RAG and tool-augmented LLM architectures have introduced alternative approaches to information retrieval and processing. We question how much additional value vector databases and semantic search bring to RAG over simple, agentic keyword search in documents for question-answering. In this study, we conducted a systematic comparison between RAG-based systems and tool-augmented LLM agents, specifically evaluating their retrieval mechanisms and response quality when the agent only has access to basic keyword search tools. Our empirical analysis demonstrates that tool-based keyword search implementations within an agentic framework can attain over $90\%$ of the performance metrics compared to traditional RAG systems without using a standing vector database. Our approach is simple to implement, cost effective, and is particularly useful in scenarios requiring frequent updates to knowledge bases.

Sandeep Singh, Christian Wiles, Ahmed Bilal

Building structures detection and information about these buildings in aerial images is an important solution for city planning and management, land use analysis. It can be the center piece to answer important questions such as planning evacuation routes in case of an earthquake, flood management, etc. These applications rely on being able to accurately retrieve up-to-date information. Being able to accurately detect buildings in a bounding box centered on a specific latitude-longitude value can help greatly. The key challenge is to be able to detect buildings which can be commercial, industrial, hut settlements, or skyscrapers. Once we are able to detect such buildings, our goal will be to cluster and categorize similar types of buildings together.

Nitish Salwan, Sandeep Singh, Suket Arora et al.

This paper presents an overview of different concepts regarding covert channels. It discusses the various classifications and the detailing of various fields used to manipulate for the covert channel execution.Different evaluation criterias are presented for measuring the strength of covert channels. The defenses and prevention schemes for this covert channel will also be discussed. This paper also discuss about an advanced timing channel i.e.Temperature Based Covert Channel.