ABSTRACT The digital landscape and rapid advancement of Information and Communication Technology have significantly increased social interactions, but it has also led to a rise in harmful behaviours such as offensive language, cyberbullying, and HS. Addressing online harassment is critical due to its severe consequences. This study offers a comprehensive evaluation of existing studies that employed metaheuristic optimization algorithms for detecting textual harassment content across social media platforms, highlighting their strengths and limitations. Using the PRISMA methodology, we reviewed and analysed 271 research papers, ultimately narrowing down the selection to 36 papers based on specific inclusion and exclusion criteria. By analysing key factors such as optimization techniques, feature engineering strategies, and dataset characteristics, we identify crucial trends and challenges in the field. Finally, we offer practical recommendations to improve the accuracy of predictive models, including adopting hybrid approaches, enhancing multilingual capabilities, and expanding models to operate effectively across various social media platforms.

Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT) is increasingly gathering attention with the aim of monitoring sea life and deep ocean environment, underwater surveillance as well as maintenance of underwater installments. However, conventional IoUT devices, reliant on battery power, face limitations in lifespan and pose environmental hazards upon disposal. This article introduces a sustainable approach for simultaneous information uplink from the IoUT devices and acoustic energy transfer (AET) to the devices via an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), potentially enabling them to operate indefinitely. To tackle the time-sensitivity, we adopt age of information (AoI), and Jain’s fairness index. We develop two deep-reinforcement learning (DRL) algorithms, offering a high-complexity, high-performance frequency division duplex (FDD) solution and a low-complexity, medium-performance time division duplex (TDD) approach. The results elucidate that the proposed FDD and TDD solutions significantly reduce the average AoI and boost the harvested energy as well as data collection fairness compared to baseline approaches.

Federated learning is a machine learning approach where multiple devices collaboratively learn with the help of a parameter server by sharing only their local updates. While gradient-based optimization techniques are widely adopted in this domain, the curvature information that second-order methods exhibit is crucial to guide and speed up the convergence. This paper introduces a scalable second-order method, allowing the adoption of curvature information in federated large models. Our method, coined Fed-Sophia, combines a weighted moving average of the gradient with a clipping operation to find the descent direction. In addition to that, a lightweight estimation of the Hessian's diagonal is used to incorporate the curvature information. Numerical evaluation shows the superiority, robustness, and scalability of the proposed Fed-Sophia scheme compared to first and second-order baselines.

The age of information (AoI) is used to measure the freshness of the data. In IoT networks, the traditional resource management schemes rely on a message exchange between the devices and the base station (BS) before communication which causes high AoI, high energy consumption, and low reliability. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as flying BSs have many advantages in minimizing the AoI, energy-saving, and throughput improvement. In this paper, we present a novel learning-based framework that estimates the traffic arrival of IoT devices based on Markovian events. The learning proceeds to optimize the trajectory of multiple UAVs and their scheduling policy. First, the BS predicts the future traffic of the devices. We compare two traffic predictors: 1) the forward algorithm (FA) and 2) the long short-term memory (LSTM). Afterward, we propose a deep reinforcement learning (DRL) approach to optimize the optimal policy of each UAV. Finally, we manipulate the optimum reward function for the proposed DRL approach. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the random-walk (RW) baseline model regarding the AoI, scheduling accuracy, and transmission power.

In many massive IoT communication scenarios, the IoT devices require coverage from dynamic units that can move close to the IoT devices and reduce the uplink energy consumption. A robust solution is to deploy a large number of UAVs (UAV swarm) to provide coverage and a better line of sight (LoS) for the IoT network. However, the study of these massive IoT scenarios with a massive number of serving units leads to high dimensional problems with high complexity. In this paper, we apply multi-agent deep reinforcement learning to address the high-dimensional problem that results from deploying a swarm of UAVs to collect fresh information from IoT devices. The target is to minimize the overall age of information in the IoT network. The results reveal that both cooperative and partially cooperative multi-agent deep reinforcement learning approaches are able to outperform the high-complexity centralized deep reinforcement learning approach, which stands helpless in large-scale networks.

Ultrareliable low-latency communication (URLLC) constitutes a key service class of the fifth generation (5G) and beyond cellular networks. Notably, designing and supporting URLLC pose a herculean task due to the fundamental need to identify and accurately characterize the underlying statistical models in which the system operates, e.g., interference statistics, channel conditions, and the behavior of protocols. In general, multilayer end-to-end approaches considering all the potential delay and error sources and proper statistical tools and methodologies are inevitably required for providing strong reliability and latency guarantees. This article contributes to the body of knowledge in the latter aspect by providing a tutorial on several statistical tools and methodologies that are useful for designing and analyzing URLLC systems. Specifically, we overview the frameworks related to the following: 1) reliability theory; 2) short packet communications; 3) inequalities, distribution bounds, and tail approximations; 4) rare-events simulation; 5) queuing theory and information freshness; and 6) large-scale tools, such as stochastic geometry, clustering, compressed sensing, and mean-field (MF) games. Moreover, we often refer to prominent data-driven algorithms within the scope of the discussed tools/methodologies. Throughout this article, we briefly review the state-of-the-art works using the addressed tools and methodologies, and their link to URLLC systems. Moreover, we discuss novel application examples focused on physical and medium access control layers. Finally, key research challenges and directions are highlighted to elucidate how URLLC analysis/design research may evolve in the coming years.

The current random access (RA) allocation techniques suffer from congestion and high signaling overhead while serving massive machine-type communication (mMTC) applications. To this end, third-generation partnership project introduced the need to use fast uplink grant (FUG) allocation in order to reduce latency and increase reliability for smart Internet of Things (IoT) applications with strict Quality-of-Service constraints. We propose a novel FUG allocation based on support vector machine (SVM). First, machine-type communication (MTC) devices are prioritized using an SVM classifier. Second, a long short-term memory architecture is used for traffic prediction and correction techniques to overcome prediction errors. Both results are used to achieve an efficient resource scheduler in terms of the average latency and total throughput. A coupled Markov modulated Poisson process (CMMPP) traffic model with mixed alarm and regular traffic is applied to compare the proposed FUG allocation to other existing allocation techniques. In addition, an extended traffic model-based CMMPP is used to evaluate the proposed algorithm in a more dense network. We test the proposed scheme using real-time measurement data collected from the Numenta anomaly benchmark (NAB) database. Our simulation results show the proposed model outperforms the existing RA allocation schemes by achieving the highest throughput and the lowest access delay of the order of 1 ms by achieving prediction accuracy of 98 % when serving the target massive and critical MTC applications with a limited number of resources.

In this work, we present a novel traffic prediction and fast uplink (FU) framework for IoT networks controlled by binary Markovian events. First, we apply the forward algorithm with hidden Markov models (HMMs) in order to schedule the available resources to the devices with maximum likelihood activation probabilities via the FU grant. In addition, we evaluate the regret metric as the number of wasted transmission slots to evaluate the performance of the prediction. Next, we formulate a fairness optimization problem to minimize the Age of Information (AoI) while keeping the regret as minimum as possible. Finally, we propose an iterative algorithm to estimate the model hyperparameters (activation probabilities) in a real-time application and apply an online-learning version of the proposed traffic prediction scheme. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithms outperform baseline models, such as time-division multiple access (TDMA) and grant-free (GF) random-access in terms of regret, the efficiency of system usage, and AoI.

In this article, we evaluate the effective energy efficiency (EEE) and propose delay-outage aware resource allocation strategies for energy-limited Internet of Things (IoT) devices under the finite blocklength (FBL) regime. The EEE is a cross-layer model, measured by the ratio of effective capacity to the total consumed power. To maximize the EEE, there is a need to optimize transmission parameters, such as transmission power and rate efficiently. Whereas it is quite complex to study the impact of transmission power, or rate alone, the complexity is aggravated by the simultaneous consideration of both variables. Hence, we formulate power allocation (PA) and rate allocation (RA) optimization problems individually and jointly to maximize EEE. Furthermore, we investigate the performance of the EEE under constant and random arrivals, where statistical QoS constraints are imposed on buffer overflow probability. Using effective bandwidth and effective capacity theories, we determine the arrival rate and the required service rate that satisfy the QoS constraints. After that, we compare the performance of different iterative algorithms, such as Dinkelbach’s and cross entropy, which guarantee the convergence for the optimal solution. By numerical analysis, the influence of source characteristics, fixed transmission rate, error probability, coding blocklength, and QoS constraints on the throughput are identified. Our analysis reveals that the joint PA and RA is the optimal resources allocation strategy for maximizing the EEE in the presence of constant and random data arrivals. Finally, the results illustrate that modified Dinkelbach’s algorithm has high performance and low complexity compared to others.

The Internet of Things (IoT) brings connectivity to a massive number of devices that demand energy-efficient solutions to deal with limited battery capacities, uplink-dominant traffic, and channel impairments. In this work, we explore the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) equipped with configurable antennas as a flexible solution for serving low-power IoT networks. We formulate an optimization problem to set the position and antenna beamwidth of the UAV, and the transmit power of the IoT devices subject to average-signal-to-average-interference-plus-noise ratio ($\bar {\text {S}}\overline {\text {IN}}\text {R}$) Quality-of-Service (QoS) constraints. We minimize the worst case average energy consumption of the latter, thus targeting the fairest allocation of the energy resources. The problem is nonconvex and highly nonlinear; therefore, we reformulate it as a series of three geometric programs that can be solved iteratively. Results reveal the benefits of planning the network compared to a random deployment in terms of reducing the worst case average energy consumption. Furthermore, we show that the target$\bar {\text {S}}\overline {\text {IN}}\text {R}$is limited by the number of IoT devices, and highlight the dominant impact of the UAV hovering height when serving wider areas. Our proposed algorithm outperforms other optimization benchmarks in terms of minimizing the average energy consumption at the most energy-demanding IoT device, and convergence time.

Effective capacity (EC) defines the maximum communication rate subject to a specific delay constraint, while effective energy efficiency (EEE) indicates the ratio between EC and power consumption. We analyze the EEE of ultrareliable networks operating in the finite-blocklength regime. We obtain a closed-form approximation for the EEE in quasistatic Nakagami- m (and Rayleigh as subcase) fading channels as a function of power, error probability, and latency. Furthermore, we characterize the quality-of-service constrained EEE maximization problem for different power consumption models, which shows a significant difference between finite and infinite-blocklength coding with respect to EEE and optimal power allocation strategy. As asserted in the literature, achieving ultrareliability using one transmission consumes a huge amount of power, which is not applicable for energy limited Internet-of-Things devices. In this context, accounting for empty buffer probability in machine-type communication (MTC) and extending the maximum delay tolerance jointly enhances the EEE and allows for adaptive retransmission of faulty packets. Our analysis reveals that obtaining the optimum error probability for each transmission by minimizing the nonempty buffer probability approaches EEE optimality, while being analytically tractable via Dinkelbach's algorithm. Furthermore, the results illustrate the power saving and the significant EEE gain attained by applying adaptive retransmission protocols, while sacrificing a limited increase in latency.

This paper presents a novel framework for traffic prediction of IoT devices activated by binary Markovian events. First, we consider a massive set of IoT devices whose activation events are modeled by an On-Off Markov process with known transition probabilities. Next, we exploit the temporal correlation of the traffic events and apply the forward algorithm in the context of hidden Markov models (HMM) in order to predict the activation likelihood of each IoT device. Finally, we apply the fast uplink grant scheme in order to allocate resources to the IoT devices that have the maximal likelihood for transmission. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme, we define the regret metric as the number of missed resource allocation opportunities. The proposed fast uplink scheme based on traffic prediction outperforms both conventional random access and time division duplex in terms of regret and efficiency of system usage, while it maintains its superiority over random access in terms of average age of information for massive deployments.

In this paper, we present a finite-block-length comparison between the orthogonal multiple access (OMA) scheme and the non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) for the uplink channel. First, we consider the Gaussian channel, and derive the closed form expressions for the rate and outage probability. Then, we extend our results to the quasi-static Rayleigh fading channel. Our analysis is based on the recent results on the characterization of the maximum coding rate at finite block-length and finite block-error probability. The overall system throughput is evaluated as a function of the number of information bits, channel uses and power. We find what would be the respective values of these different parameters that would enable throughput maximization. Furthermore, we analyze the system performance in terms of reliability and throughput when applying the type-I ARQ protocol with limited number of retransmissions. The throughput and outage probability are evaluated for different blocklengths and number of information bits. Our analysis reveals that there is a trade-off between reliability and throughput in the ARQ. While increasing the number of retransmissions boosts reliability by minimizing the probability of reception error, it results in more delay which decreases the throughput. Nevertheless, the results show that NOMA always outperforms OMA in terms of throughput, reliability and latency regardless of the users priority or the number of retransmissions in both Gaussian and fading channels.

This paper presents a novel opportunistic spectrum sharing scheme that applies ARQ protocol to achieve ultra reliability in the finite blocklength regime. A primary user shares its licensed spectrum to a secondary user, where both communicate to the same base station. The base station applies ARQ with the secondary user, which possess a limited number of trials to transmit each packet. We resort to the interweave model in which the secondary user senses the primary user activity and accesses the channel with access probabilities which depend on the primary user arrival rate and the number of available trials. We characterize the secondary user access probabilities and transmit power in order to achieve target error constraints for both users. Furthermore, we analyze the primary user performance in terms of outage probability and delay. The results show that our proposed scheme outperforms the open loop and non-opportunistic scenarios in terms of secondary user transmit power saving and primary user reliability.