This letter addresses the problem of estimating block sparse signal with unknown group partitions in a multiple measurement vector (MMV) setup. We propose a Bayesian framework by applying an adaptive total variation (TV) penalty on the hyper-parameter space of the sparse signal. The main contributions are two-fold. 1) We extend the TV penalty beyond the immediate neighbor, thus enabling better capture of the signal structure. 2) A dynamic framework is provided to learn the regularization weights for the TV penalty based on the statistical dependencies between the entries of tentative blocks, thus eliminating the need for fine-tuning. The superior performance of the proposed method is empirically demonstrated by extensive computer simulations with the state-of-art benchmarks. The proposed solution exhibits both excellent performance and robustness against sparsity model mismatch.

This paper addresses the joint user identification and channel estimation (JUICE) problem in machine-type communications under the practical spatially correlated channels model with unknown covariance matrices. Furthermore, we consider an MTC network with hierarchical user activity patterns following an event-triggered traffic mode. Therein the users are distributed over clusters with a structured sporadic activity behavior that exhibits both cluster-level and intra-cluster sparsity patterns. To solve the JUICE problem, we first leverage the concept of strong priors and propose a hierarchical-sparsity-inducing spike-and-slab prior to model the structured sparse activity pattern. Subsequently, we derive a Bayesian inference scheme by coupling the expectation propagation (EP) algorithm with the expectation maximization (EM) framework. Second, we reformulate the JUICE as a maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimation problem and propose a computationally-efficient solution based on the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM). More precisely, we relax the strong spike-and-slab prior with a cluster-sparsity-promoting prior based on the long-sum penalty. We then derive an ADMM algorithm that solves the MAP problem through a sequence of closed-form updates. Numerical results highlight the significant performance gains obtained by the proposed algorithms, as well as their robustness against various assumptions on the sparse activity behavior of the users.

Compressed sensing multi-user detection (CS-MUD) algorithms play a key role in optimizing grant-free (GF) non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) for massive machine-type communications (mMTC). However, current CS-MUD algorithms cannot be efficiently parallelized, leading to computationally expensive implementations of joint activity detection and channel estimation (JADCE) as the number of deployed machine-type devices (MTDs) increases. To address this, the present work proposes novel JADCE algorithms that can be applied in parallel for different clusters of MTDs by exploiting the structure of the pilot sequences. These are the approximation error method (AEM)-alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM), and AEM-sparse Bayesian learning (SBL). Results presented in terms of the normalized mean square error and the probability of miss detection show comparable performance to the conventional algorithms. However, both AEM-ADMM and AEM-SBL algorithms have significantly reduced computational complexity and run times, thus, facilitating network scalability.

This paper considers joint user identification and channel estimation (JUICE) in grant-free access with a clustered user activity pattern. In particular, we address the JUICE in massive machine-type communications (mMTC) network under correlated Rayleigh fading channels with unknown channel covariance matrices. We formulate the JUICE problem as a maximum a posteriori probability (MAP) problem with properly chosen priors to incorporate the partial knowledge of the UEs’ clustered activity and the unknown covariance matrices. We derive a computationally-efficient algorithm based on alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) to solve the MAP problem iteratively via a sequence of closed-form updates. Numerical results highlight the significant improvements brought by the proposed approach in terms of channel estimation and activity detection performances for clustered user activity patterns.

Cellular networks that are traditionally designed for human-type communication (HTC) have the potential to provide cost effective connectivity to machine-type communication (MTC). However, MTC is characterized by unprecedented traffic in cellular networks, thus posing a challenge to its successful incorporation. In this work, we propose a unified framework for amicable coexistence of MTC and HTC. We consider a heterogeneous network where machine-type devices coexist with enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) devices and propose transceiver techniques that promote efficient signal recovery from these devices. For this, we present an eMBB pilot and MTC data generation strategy that facilitates joint coherent decoding of eMBB data and non-coherent decoding of MTC data. Furthermore, we assess the feasibility of coexistence using receiver operating characteristics, outage probability, and normalized mean square error (NMSE). Our numerical results reveal that a harmonious coexistence of the heterogeneous services can be achieved with properly configured average signal-to-noise ratios and pilot length.

Grant-free access is considered as a key enabler for massive machine-type communications (mMTC) as it promotes energy-efficiency and small signalling overhead. Due to the sporadic user activity in mMTC, joint user identification and channel estimation (JUICE) is a main challenge. This paper addresses the JUICE in single-cell mMTC with single-antenna users and a multi-antenna base station (BS) under spatially correlated fading channels. In particular, by leveraging the sporadic user activity, we solve the JUICE in a multi measurement vector compressed sensing (CS) framework under two different cases, with and without the knowledge of prior channel distribution information (CDI) at the BS. First, for the case without prior information, we formulate the JUICE as an iterative reweighted$\ell _{2,1}$-norm minimization problem. Second, when the CDI is known to the BS, we exploit the available information and formulate the JUICE from a Bayesian estimation perspective as a maximuma posterioriprobability (MAP) estimation problem. For both JUICE formulations, we derive efficient iterative solutions based on the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM). The numerical experiments show that the proposed solutions achieve higher channel estimation quality and activity detection accuracy with shorter pilot sequences compared to existing algorithms.

Joint user identification and channel estimation (JUICE) is a main challenge in grant-free massive machine-type communications (mMTC). The sparse pattern in users’ activity allows to solve the JUICE as a compressed sensing problem in a multiple measurement vector (MMV) setup. This paper addresses the JUICE under the practical spatially correlated fading channel. We formulate the JUICE as an iterative reweighted ℓ2,1-norm optimization. We develop a computationally efficient alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) approach to solve it. In particular, by leveraging the second-order statistics of the channels, we reformulate the JUICE problem to exploit the covariance information and we derive its ADMM-based solution. The simulation results highlight the significant improvements brought by the proposed approach in terms of channel estimation and activity detection performances.

Typical real-time remote health monitoring architectures consist of wearable medical devices continuously transmitting physiological signals to a nearby gateway which routes the data to an remote internet of things (IoT)-platform. Unfortunately, this model falls-short under the strict requirements of healthcare systems. Wearable medical devices have short battery lifespans, the system reliance on a cloud makes it vulnerable to connectivity and latency issues, and there are privacy concerns related to streaming sensitive medical data to remote servers. The compressive sensing (CS) scheme has been explored in the context of bio-signals to reduce the energy consumption of wearable sensors. However, CS does not address the other limitations caused by the model's reliance on cloud-computing but exacerbates the associated computing latency by requiring a computationally complex reconstruction process. In our remote elderly monitoring system, we attempt to address this weakness by developing a gateway-centric connected health system, where most signal processing and analysis occurs locally on heterogeneous multicore edge-devices. This paper explores the efficacy of real-time reconstruction of ECG signals, compressed under the CS scheme, on an IoT-gateway powered by ARM's big. LITTLE multicore solution at different signal dimension and allocated computational resources. Experimental results show the gateway's capability to reconstruct ECG signals in real-time, even when considering dimensionally large windows and minimum computational resources. Moreover, they demonstrate that utilizing more cores for the reconstruction process has a higher impact on execution time and is more energy efficient than increasing the cores' frequency. The optimal resource allocation for the majority of cases is a single big (A15) core at minimum frequency as it provides extreme fast reconstruction while consuming less or slightly more energy than its LITTLE (A7) counterpart. Heterogeneous multicore devices have the computational capacity and energy efficiency to elevate some of the limitations of a cloud-based remote health monitoring and can help create a more sustainable IoT-based connected health.

The last decade has witnessed tremendous efforts to shape the Internet of things (IoT) platforms to be well suited for healthcare applications. These platforms are comprised of a network of wireless sensors to monitor several physical and physiological quantities. For instance, long-term monitoring of brain activities using wearable electroencephalogram (EEG) sensors is widely exploited in the clinical diagnosis of epileptic seizures and sleeping disorders. However, the deployment of such platforms is challenged by the high power consumption and system complexity. Energy efficiency can be achieved by exploring efficient compression techniques such as compressive sensing (CS). CS is an emerging theory that enables a compressed acquisition using well-designed sensing matrices. Moreover, system complexity can be optimized by using hardware friendly structured sensing matrices. This paper quantifies the performance of a CS-based multichannel EEG monitoring. In addition, the paper exploits the joint sparsity of multichannel EEG using subspace pursuit (SP) algorithm as well as a designed sparsifying basis in order to improve the reconstruction quality. Furthermore, the paper proposes a modification to the SP algorithm based on an adaptive selection approach to further improve the performance in terms of reconstruction quality, execution time, and the robustness of the recovery process.