| Instructor: | Yin Sun, 213 Broun Hall |
| Class Time & Place: | TR 8:00 AM - 9:15 AM, 107 Broun Hall |
| Office Hours: | Wed 3 - 5PM and by appointment |
The concept of information freshness is of fundamental importance in networked monitoring and cyber-physical systems such as sensor networks, caching, airplane/vehicular control, robotic networks, and the Internet of Things, as well as in information-update and data analytics applications such as crowdsourcing, financial trading, social networks, and machine learning. It has become known as the Age of Information (AoI), which has developed over the last few years into an active and rapidly growing area of research. Recent research advances on AoI suggest that many well-known design principles (e.g., for providing high throughput and low delay) of traditional data networks need to be re-examined for enhancing information freshness in emerging real-time applications. This course will explain the fundamental concept of information freshness, introduce cutting-edge research topics in the AoI area, and illustrate the applications of information freshness in robotic control and machine learning. The students will have opportunities to learn and explore new research ideas based on the concept of information freshness. Topics to be covered include:
There will be both written problem assignments and labs (programming assignments). Graduate students will be given extra questions that require advanced algorithmic/analytic techniques. Specific instructions will be given in each assignment. All the assignments will be posted on the course webpage.
Acknowledgment: Lectures 6-13 are based on the Age of Information course taught by Roy D. Yates in 2018.
| Lecture | Date | Topic | Lecture Topic | Reading | Assignments |
| 1 | Jan 12 (T) |
Introduction |
Logistics; Intro [pdf] | ||
| 2 |
Jan 14 (R) |
Discrete-time Queues |
Discrete-time Markov chain [pdf] | SY 3.3 | |
| 3 |
Jan 19 (T) |
Little's law; Geo/Geo/1 queue [pdf] |
SY 3.4 | ||
| 4 |
Jan 21 (R) | Continuous-time Queues |
Continuous-time Markov Chains [pdf] | SY 9.1 | |
| 5 |
Jan 26 (T) |
Little’s Law; M/M/1 Queue [pdf] | SY 9.2-9.3 | ||
| 6 |
Jan 28 (R) |
Graphical Decomposition Method for AoI Analysis |
AoI in M/M/1 Queue | Kaul, Yates, Gruteser'INFOCOM12 | |
| 7 |
Feb 2 (T) |
PASTA property; AoI in M/M/1 LCFS Queue |
SY 9.4; Yates, Kaul'TIT19 |
Homework 1 (see lecture notes) | |
| 8 |
Feb 4 (R) |
AoI in M/M/1 LCFS Queue (2) | Yates, Kaul'TIT19 | ||
| 9 |
Feb 9 (T) |
Stochastic Hybrid Systems Method for AoI Analysis |
SHS | Hespanha'06; Yates, Kaul'TIT19 |
|
| 10 |
Feb 11 (R) |
Basic Stochastic Calculus |
Hespanha'06; Yates, Kaul'TIT19 |
||
| 11 |
Feb 18 (R) |
SHS for AoI | Hespanha'06; Yates, Kaul'TIT19; Yates'TIT20 |
||
| 12 |
Feb 22 (T) |
SHS for AoI (2) | Hespanha'06; Yates, Kaul'TIT19; Yates'TIT20 |
||
| 13 |
Feb 25 (R) |
SHS for AoI (3) | Yates'AoI Workshop18; Yates'TIT20 |
Homework 2 (see lecture notes) | |
| 14 |
Mar 2 (T) |
Age-optimal Sample-path Scheduling |
basic concepts in scheduling theory; stochastic orders [pdf] |
SKTM Chapter 2 | |
| 15 |
Mar 4 (R) |
Single-source queueing networks with exponential service times [pdf] | SKTM Chapter 2 | ||
| 16 |
Mar 9 (T) | Sample-path methods; Single-source queueing networks with NBU service times [pdf] |
SKTM Chapter 2 | Homework 3 (see lecture notes) |
|
| 17 |
Mar 11 (R) | Multiple-source queueing networks; sources with multiple priority levels [pdf] |
SKTM Chapter 2; Sun, Uysal, Kompella'18; Maatouk, Sun, Ephremides, Assaad'20 |
||
| 18 |
Mar 16 (T) |
Age of Information and Sampling |
Sampling in status update systems; information freshness metrics [pdf] |
Wait or Update'TIT17; AoI Survey'21; Sun, Cyr'19; Ornee, Sun'ToN21; SKTM Chapter 5 |
|
| 19 |
Mar 23 (T) | Age-optimal Sampling [pdf] | |||
| 20 |
Mar 25 (R) |
Age-optimal Sampling (2) [pdf] | |||
| 21 |
Mar 30 (T) |
Calculation of Threshold; Remote estimation [pdf] |
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| 22 |
Apr 13 (T) |
Age of Information in Supervised Learning |
ERM algorithms; Information theoretic tools [pdf] |
Shisher et al'AoI Workshop 21 | |
| 23 |
Apr 15 (T) |
Information theoretic tools; Data Processing Inequality [pdf] |
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| 24 |
Apr 20 (T) |
Student
presentations |
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| 25 |
Apr 22 (R) |
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