industrial iot system designers

Abstract: Network slicing is a key enabler for the coexistence of ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC) and enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) in 5G networks. However, allocating limited radio resources to heterogeneous slices while satisfying stringent quality-of-service (QoS) requirements remains challenging, particularly in the ultra-reliable regime where conventional effective-capacity-based approaches may lead to excessive resource allocation. To address this issue, this paper proposes a martingale-based resource block (RB) allocation framework for coexisting URLLC and eMBB slices. By constructing exponential martingale processes using the moment generating functions (MGFs) of the arrival and service processes and applying Doob's maximal inequality, explicit non-asymptotic upper bounds are derived for the URLLC delay violation probability and the eMBB backlog violation probability. Based on the resulting theoretical stability conditions, a low-complexity bisection algorithm is developed to determine the optimal martingale parameters, followed by a deterministic search algorithm to obtain the minimum RB requirements for both slices. Numerical results show that the analytical bounds effectively upper-bound the Monte Carlo simulation results. At a target violation probability of $10^{-6}$ for each slice, the proposed framework requires 44 RBs in total, satisfying the system capacity constraint of 50 RBs. Compared with the conventional effective-capacity baseline requiring 64 RBs, the proposed framework reduces total RB consumption by approximately 31.2% relative to the conventional effective-capacity baseline.

Abstract: We study joint recovery of the load (the number of active users) and message-count vector in type-based unsourced random access with very short messages. Each user's $k$-bit message activates one of $M=2^k$ orthogonal resources; coherent collisions therefore produce a noisy, unnormalized histogram of the transmitted messages. For arbitrary load and message priors, we propose an exact joint maximum-a-posteriori (MAP) decoder. Known-load allocation is separable and convex; our contribution is to show that the solutions for all candidate loads are nested prefixes of one greedy chain. Scoring these prefixes with the Bayesian posterior terms jointly estimates the load and message-count vector in $O(M+K_{\max}\log M)$ time. We compare the proposed joint MAP decoder with marginal MAP, three scalar-count two-stage receivers, oracle-load MAP, a sum-only receiver, and a soft-pilot receiver. For $K\sim\operatorname{Unif}\{0{:}60\}$ at 2 dB, the proposed decoder cuts the no-activity false-alarm probability from $25.9\%$ to $3.5\%$ relative to the Bayesian-count two-stage receiver and, conditioned on $K\ge1$, reduces normalized count error by $21.4\%$. The advantage concentrates under idle or sparse uncertain activity, whereas support-count processing approaches joint MAP when the possible loads are well separated. We also prove that the sum-only statistic is insufficient and quantify prior and amplitude mismatch. The model targets synchronized, power-controlled, very-short payloads rather than general URA.

Abstract: This letter investigates age-of-information (AoI) minimization in multi-user wireless networks operating in the finite-blocklength (FBL) regime, which is critical for low-latency transmission of short state-update packets. While rate-splitting multiple access (RSMA) provides a powerful and flexible framework for interference management in multi-user FBL systems, the joint optimization of its parameters, such as precoding vectors, power allocation, and rate-splitting ratios, to guarantee information freshness results in analytically intractable complexity. To address this challenge, we propose an actor--critic deep reinforcement learning (DRL) framework to learn dynamic resource-allocation policies in multi-user multiple-input single-output (MU-MISO) broadcast channels. Simulation results show that the proposed RSMA-RL framework achieves consistently lower AoI than the state-of-the-art benchmarks, with substantial gains observed at low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and short blocklengths, while matching benchmark performance at high SNR with significantly lower online complexity via a single neural-network forward pass at execution.

Abstract: Goal-oriented sensing, estimation, and control benefit from prompt, regular access to task-relevant updates. Although 1-persistent age-threshold slotted ALOHA (1-pTSA) can self-organize into a periodic collision-free schedule, its acquisition transient can dominate finite-horizon performance. We propose role-protected counter-threshold slotted ALOHA (RP--CTSA), which separates reservation memory from the age of information (AoI). A scheduled singleton retains its phase after colliding with active contenders, whereas a collision involving multiple scheduled nodes releases them immediately; AoI resets only after a decoded update. The protocol requires individual acknowledgments and a binary RELEASE/HOLD indication, but no centralized phase assignment or identification of colliders. Let $n$ denote the number of nodes and $Γ_n$ the counter threshold. Under inverse-population access scaling, the acquisition dynamics admit an exact pure-death representation. When $Γ_n=n$, the acquisition time is $O(n^2)$; when $Γ_n\sim(1+θ)n$, with $θ>0$, it is $O(n\log n)$. Simulations confirm both regimes and show substantial finite-horizon AoI gains over 1-pTSA while preserving every collision-free schedule.