Online Machine Learning for Wireless Communications: Channel Estimation, Receive Processing, and Resource Allocation

Machine learning (ML) has shown its success in many areas such as computer vision, natural language processing, robot control, and gaming. ML also draws significant attention in the wireless communication society. However, applying ML schemes to wireless communication networks is not straightforward, there are several challenges need to addressed: 1). Training data in communication networks, especially in physical and MAC layer, are extremely limited; 2). The high-dynamic wireless environment and fast changing transmission schemes in communication networks make offline training impractical; 3). ML tools are treated as black boxes, which lack of explainability. This dissertation tries to address those challenges by selecting training-efficient neural networks, devising online training frameworks for wireless communication scenarios, and incorporating communication domain knowledge into the algorithm design. Training-efficient ML algorithms are customized for three communication applications: 1). Symbol detection, where real-time online learning-based symbol detection algorithms are designed for MIMO-OFDM and massive MIMO-OFDM systems by utilizing reservoir computing, extreme learning machine, multi-mode reservoir computing, and StructNet; 2) Channel estimation, where residual learning-based offline method is introduced for WiFi-OFDM systems, and a StructNet-based online method is devised for MIMO-OFDM systems; 3) Radio resource management, where reinforcement learning-based schemes are designed for dynamic spectrum access, as well as ORAN intelligent network slicing management. All algorithms introduced in this dissertation have demonstrated outstanding performance in their application scenarios, which paves the path for adopting ML-based solutions in practical wireless networks.