7.1LGJun 30
Multi-Timescale Latent-Action DRL for Joint Optimization in Edge-Cloud NetworksVo Phi Son, Van-Dinh Nguyen, Ngoc Hung Nguyen et al.
Load imbalance across edge and cloud layers degrades latency performance in hierarchical edge-cloud computing (HECC) systems under dynamic task arrivals and heterogeneous resources, leading to severe queuing delays and inefficient resource utilization. To address this challenge, we study a joint service placement, computational delegation, and power control (JSCP) problem to minimize the average end-to-end (e2e) latency. The resulting JSCP problem is a mixed-integer nonconvex and NP-hard optimization problem due to the strong coupling between discrete and continuous variables. To enable tractable optimization and stable system adaptation, we exploit the inherent difference in decision dynamics and decompose the problem into long-term system configuration and short-term resource allocation subproblems. Based on this formulation, we propose a two-timescale multi-layer deep reinforcement learning framework with a latent action space (2T-MDRL-LA) to jointly optimize service placement, user association, computational delegation, task offloading, and user transmit power. A latent action representation based on a variational autoencoder is introduced to efficiently compress the high-dimensional combinatorial action space. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed framework effectively adapts to dynamic network conditions and achieves near-optimal performance compared to branch-and-bound solutions. It achieves up to a 20.8% reduction in average e2e latency and a 13% improvement in resource utilization over the scheme without the computational delegation, while converging approximately 50% faster than conventional proximal policy optimization.
1.2NIJan 29
Securing SIM-Assisted Wireless Networks via Quantum Reinforcement LearningLe-Hung Hoang, Quang-Trung Luu, Dinh Thai Hoang et al.
Stacked intelligent metasurfaces (SIMs) have recently emerged as a powerful wave-domain technology that enables multi-stage manipulation of electromagnetic signals through multilayer programmable architectures. While SIMs offer unprecedented degrees of freedom for enhancing physical-layer security, their extremely large number of meta-atoms leads to a high-dimensional and strongly coupled optimization space, making conventional design approaches inefficient and difficult to scale. Moreover, existing deep reinforcement learning (DRL) techniques suffer from slow convergence and performance degradation in dynamic wireless environments with imperfect knowledge of passive eavesdroppers. To overcome these challenges, we propose a hybrid quantum proximal policy optimization (Q-PPO) framework for SIM-assisted secure communications, which jointly optimizes transmit power allocation and SIM phase shifts to maximize the average secrecy rate under power and quality-of-service constraints. Specifically, a parameterized quantum circuit is embedded into the actor network, forming a hybrid classical-quantum policy architecture that enhances policy representation capability and exploration efficiency in high-dimensional continuous action spaces. Extensive simulations demonstrate that the proposed Q-PPO scheme consistently outperforms DRL baselines, achieving approximately 15% higher secrecy rates and 30% faster convergence under imperfect eavesdropper channel state information. These results establish Q-PPO as a powerful optimization paradigm for SIM-enabled secure wireless networks.
6.2ITMay 23
Joint Service Placement and Resource Optimization in Hierarchical Edge-Cloud NetworksVo Phi Son, Van-Dinh Nguyen, Minh-Tuong Nguyen et al.
Hierarchical edge-cloud computing-aided Internet of Things (IoT) networks offer low-latency and cost-efficient services to a growing number of data-intensive IoT devices. However, optimizing service placement, which involves determining the most suitable locations within a network to deploy various services, is critical to balancing workloads dynamically and ensuring efficient resource utilization. In this paper, we jointly optimize service placement, edge/cloud cooperation, task offloading, and bandwidth allocation to enhance processing efficiency and response times. The main objective is to minimize both the overall end-to-end latency and the system cost, including service deployment and operational costs. The formulated problem belongs to the class of non-convex mixed-integer nonlinear programming, where finding a feasible solution is already challenging. Towards a stable system, we first transform the original problem into a more tractable form and then decompose it into sub-problems which are solved at different timescales. Combining tools from relaxation and the successive convex approximation method, we develop iterative algorithms to solve these problems efficiently. With an appropriate penalty parameter, the proposed algorithms guarantee convergence to at least a local optimum. We produce extensive numerical results to demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed algorithms over benchmark schemes as well as emphasize the significance of the joint service placement and resource allocation in enhancing system performance and efficiency.
1.5CVJan 22
TinySense: Effective CSI Compression for Scalable and Accurate Wi-Fi SensingToan Gian, Dung T. Tran, Viet Quoc Pham et al.
With the growing demand for device-free and privacy-preserving sensing solutions, Wi-Fi sensing has emerged as a promising approach for human pose estimation (HPE). However, existing methods often process vast amounts of channel state information (CSI) data directly, ultimately straining networking resources. This paper introduces TinySense, an efficient compression framework that enhances the scalability of Wi-Fi-based human sensing. Our approach is based on a new vector quantization-based generative adversarial network (VQGAN). Specifically, by leveraging a VQGAN-learned codebook, TinySense significantly reduces CSI data while maintaining the accuracy required for reliable HPE. To optimize compression, we employ the K-means algorithm to dynamically adjust compression bitrates to cluster a large-scale pre-trained codebook into smaller subsets. Furthermore, a Transformer model is incorporated to mitigate bitrate loss, enhancing robustness in unreliable networking conditions. We prototype TinySense on an experimental testbed using Jetson Nano and Raspberry Pi to measure latency and network resource use. Extensive results demonstrate that TinySense significantly outperforms state-of-the-art compression schemes, achieving up to 1.5x higher HPE accuracy score (PCK20) under the same compression rate. It also reduces latency and networking overhead, respectively, by up to 5x and 2.5x. The code repository is available online at here.
4.6CVMay 11
ChronoSC: Task-Oriented Semantic Communication via Temporal-to-Color EncodingPhuc H. Nguyen, Trung T. Nguyen, Quy N. Duong et al.
Semantic communication (SC) aims to reduce transmission overhead by conveying task-relevant information rather than raw data. However, existing SC approaches for video largely focus on pixel-level reconstruction or rely on complex spatiotemporal pipelines, leading to excessive bandwidth usage and latency that are unsuitable for low-resource deployments. In this paper, we propose ChronoSC, a task-oriented semantic communication framework for Video Question Answering (VideoQA). ChronoSC introduces Chrono-Color Stacking, a lightweight and lossless projection scheme that encodes temporal video dynamics into a single static image, enabling extreme temporal compression before transmission. This compact semantic representation is transmitted using a lightweight Deep Joint Source-Channel Coding (DeepJSCC) transceiver and explicitly reconstructed at the receiver. Unlike latent-space methods, explicit visual reconstruction enables the direct reuse of pre-trained vision-language models; specifically, a pre-trained BLIP model is employed to infer answers from noisy, reconstructed chrono-images. Experiments on the CLEVRER dataset show that ChronoSC achieves up to 192 times bandwidth reduction compared to raw video transmission while maintaining high VideoQA accuracy.
1.4LGMar 5
Deep Learning-Driven Friendly Jamming for Secure Multicarrier ISAC Under Channel UncertaintyBui Minh Tuan, Van-Dinh Nguyen, Diep N. Nguyen et al.
Integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) systems promise efficient spectrum utilization by jointly supporting radar sensing and wireless communication. This paper presents a deep learning-driven framework for enhancing physical-layer security in multicarrier ISAC systems under imperfect channel state information (CSI) and in the presence of unknown eavesdropper (Eve) locations. Unlike conventional ISAC-based friendly jamming (FJ) approaches that require Eve's CSI or precise angle-of-arrival (AoA) estimates, our method exploits radar echo feedback to guide directional jamming without explicit Eve's information. To enhance robustness to radar sensing uncertainty, we propose a radar-aware neural network that jointly optimizes beamforming and jamming by integrating a novel nonparametric Fisher Information Matrix (FIM) estimator based on f-divergence. The jamming design satisfies the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) constraints even in the presence of noisy AoA. For efficient implementation, we introduce a quantized tensor train-based encoder that reduces the model size by more than 100 times with negligible performance loss. We also integrate a non-overlapping secure scheme into the proposed framework, in which specific sub-bands can be dedicated solely to communication. Extensive simulations demonstrate that the proposed solution achieves significant improvements in secrecy rate, reduced block error rate (BLER), and strong robustness against CSI uncertainty and angular estimation errors, underscoring the effectiveness of the proposed deep learning-driven friendly jamming framework under practical ISAC impairments.