Graph filters are one of the core tools in graph signal processing. A central aspect of them is their direct distributed implementation. However, the filtering performance is often traded with distributed communication and computational savings. To improve this tradeoff, this paper generalizes state-of-the-art distributed graph filters to filters where every node weights the signal of its neighbors with different values while keeping the aggregation operation linear. This new implementation, labeled as edge-variant graph filter, yields a significant reduction in terms of communication rounds while preserving the approximation accuracy. In addition, we characterize a subset of shift-invariant graph filters that can be described with edge-variant recursions. By using a low-dimensional parameterization, these shift-invariant filters provide new insights in approximating linear graph spectral operators through the succession and composition of local operators, i.e., fixed support matrices. A set of numerical results shows the benefits of the edge-variant graph filters over current methods and illustrates their potential to a wider range of applications than graph filtering.

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The necessity to process signals living in non-Euclidean domains, such as signals defined on the top of a graph, has led to the extension of signal processing techniques to the graph setting. Among different approaches, graph signal processing distinguishes itself by providing a Fourier analysis of these signals. Analogously to the Fourier transform for time and image signals, the graph Fourier transform decomposes the graph signals decomposes in terms of the harmonics provided by the underlying topology. For instance, a graph signal characterized by a slow variation between adjacent nodes has a low frequency content. Along with the graph Fourier transform, graph filters are the key tool to alter the graph frequency content of a graph signal. This thesis focuses on graph filters that are performed distributively in the node domain–that is, each node needs to exchange information only within its neighbor to perform a given filtering operation. Similarly to the classical filters, we propose ways to design and implement distributed finite impulse response and infinite impulse response graph filters. One of the key contributions of this thesis is to bring the temporal dimension to graph signal processing and build upon a graph-time signal processing framework. This is done in different ways. First, we analyze the effects that the temporal variations on the graph signal and graph topology have on the filtering output. Second, we introduce the notion of joint graph-time filtering. Third, we presentpr a statistical analysis of the distributed graph filtering when the graph signal and the graph topology change randomly in time. Finally, we extend the sampling framework from the reconstruction of graph signals to the observation and tracking of time-varying graph processes. We characterize the behavior of the distributed autoregressivemoving average (ARMA) graph filters when the graph signal and the graph topology are time-varying. The latter analysis is exploited in two ways: i ) to quantify the limitations of graph filters in a dynamic environment, such as a moving sensors processing a time-varying signal in a sensor network; and i i ) to provide ways for filtering with low computation and communication complexity time-varying graph signals. We develop the notion of distributed graph-time filtering, which is an operation that jointly processes the graph frequencies of a time-varying graph signal on one hand and its temporal frequencies on the other hand. We propose distributed finite impulse response and infinite impulse response recursions to implement a two-dimensional graphtime filtering operation. Finally, we propose design strategies to find the filter coefficients that approximate a desired two-dimensional frequency response. We extend the analysis of graph filters to a stochastic environment, i.e., when the graph topology and the graph signal change randomly over time. By characterizing the first and second order moments of the filter output, we quantify the impact of the graph signal and the graph topology randomness into the distributed filtering operation. The latter allows us to develop the notion of graph filtering in the mean, which is also used to ease the computational burden of classical graph filters. Finally, we propose a sampling framework for time-varying graph signals. Particularly, when the graph signal changes over time following a state-space model, we extend the graph signal sampling theory to the tasks of observing and tracking the time-varying graph signal froma few relevant nodes. The latter theory considers the graph signal sampling as a particular case and shows that tools from sparse sensing and sensor selection can be used for sampling. @en

The goal of this paper is to propose novel strategies for adaptive learning of signals defined over graphs, which are observed over a (randomly) time-varying subset of vertices. We recast two classical adaptive algorithms in the graph signal processing framework, namely, the least mean squares (LMS) and the recursive least squares (RLS) adaptive estimation strategies. For both methods, a detailed mean-square analysis illustrates the effect of random sampling on the adaptive reconstruction capability and the steady-state performance. Then, several probabilistic sampling strategies are proposed to design the sampling probability at each node in the graph, with the aim of optimizing the tradeoff between steady-state performance, graph sampling rate, and convergence rate of the adaptive algorithms. Finally, a distributed RLS strategy is derived and is shown to be convergent to its centralized counterpart. Numerical simulations carried out over both synthetic and real data illustrate the good performance of the proposed sampling and reconstruction strategies for (possibly distributed) adaptive learning of signals defined over graphs.

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In this work, we jointly exploit tools from graph signal processing and control theory to drive a bandlimited graph signal that is being diffused on a random time-varying graph from a subset of nodes. As our main contribution, we rely only on the statistics of the graph to introduce the concept of controllability in the mean, and therefore drive the signal on the expected graph to a desired bandlimited state. A mean-square error (MSE) analysis is performed for two main tasks: i) to highlight the role played by the signal bandwidth and the control nodes to the deviation from the mean signal of a particular realization; and ii) to select the control nodes and design the control signal that minimize this MSE. Numerical results validate the introduced controllability in the mean framework and show its ability to cope with time-varying topologies.

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This letter investigates methods to detect graph topological changes without making any assumption on the nature of the change itself. To accomplish this, we merge recently developed tools in graph signal processing with matched subspace detection theory and propose two blind topology change detectors. The first detector exploits the prior information that the observed signal is sparse w.r.t. the graph Fourier transform of the nominal graph, while the second makes use of the smoothness prior w.r.t. the nominal graph to detect topological changes. Both detectors are compared with their respective nonblind counterparts in a synthetic scenario that mimics brain networks. The absence of information about the alternative graph, in some cases, might heavily influence the blind detector's performance. However, in cases where the observed signal deviates slightly from the nonblind model, the information about the alternative graph turns out to be not useful.

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In the field of signal processing on graphs, graph filters play a crucial role in processing the spectrum of graph signals. This paper proposes two different strategies for designing autoregressive moving average (ARMA) graph filters on both directed and undirected graphs. The first approach is inspired by Prony's method, which considers a modified error between the modeled and the desired frequency response. The second technique is based on an iterative approach, which finds the filter coefficients by iteratively minimizing the true error (instead of the modified error) between the modeled and the desired frequency response. The performance of the proposed algorithms is evaluated and compared with finite impulse response (FIR) graph filters, on both synthetic and real data. The obtained results show that ARMA filters outperform FIR filters in terms of approximation accuracy and they are suitable for graph signal interpolation, compression and prediction.

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In graph signal processing, signals are processed by explicitly taking into account their underlying structure, which is generally characterized by a graph. In this field, graph filters play a major role to process such signals in the so-called graph frequency domain. In this paper, we focus on the design of autoregressive moving average (ARMA) graph filters and basically present two design approaches. The first approach is inspired by Prony's method, which considers a modified error between the modeled and the desired frequency response. The second approach is based on an iterative method, which finds the filter coefficients by iteratively minimizing the true error (instead of the modified error) between the modeled and the desired frequency response. The performance of the proposed design algorithms is evaluated and compared with finite impulse response (FIR) graph filters. The obtained results show that ARMA filters outperform FIR filters in terms of approximation accuracy even for the same computational cost.

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This paper proposes strategies for distributed Wiener-based reconstruction of graph signals from subsampled measurements. Given a stationary signal on a graph, we fit a distributed autoregressive moving average graph filter to a Wiener graph frequency response and propose two reconstruction strategies: i) reconstruction from a single temporal snapshot; ii) recursive signal reconstruction from a stream of noisy measurements. For both strategies, a mean square error analysis is performed to highlight the role played by the filter response and the sampled nodes, and to propose a graph sampling strategy. Our findings are validated with numerical results, which illustrate the potential of the proposed algorithms for distributed reconstruction of graph signals.

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The main challenges distributed graph filters face in practice are the communication overhead and computational complexity. In this work, we extend the state-of-the-art distributed finite impulse response (FIR) graph filters to an edge-variant (EV) version, i.e., a filter where every node weights the signals from its neighbors with different values. Besides having the potential to reduce the filter order leading to amenable communication and complexity savings, the EV graph filter generalizes the class of classical and node-variant FIR graph filters. Numerical tests validate our findings and illustrate the potential of the EV graph filters to (i) approximate a user-provided frequency response; and (ii) implement distributed consensus with much lower orders than its direct contenders.

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We present a novel implementation strategy for distributed autoregressive moving average (ARMA) graph filters. Differently from the state of the art implementation, the proposed approach has the following benefits: (i) the designed filter coefficients come with stability guarantees, (ii) the linear convergence time can now be controlled by the filter coefficients, and (iii) the stable filter coefficients that approximate a desired frequency response are optimal in a least squares sense. Numerical results show that the proposed implementation outperforms the state of the art distributed infinite impulse response (IIR) graph filters. Further, even at fixed distributed costs, compared with the popular finite impulse response (FIR) filters, at high orders our method achieves tighter low-pass responses, suggesting that it should be preferable in accuracy-demanding applications.

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This work proposes distributed recursive least squares (RLS) strategies for adaptive reconstruction and learning of signals defined over graphs. First, we introduce a centralized RLS estimation strategy with probabilistic sampling, and we propose a sparse sensing method that selects the sampling probability at each node in the graph in order to guarantee adaptive signal reconstruction and a target steady-state performance. Then, a distributed RLS strategy is derived and is shown to be convergent to its centralized counterpart. The performed numerical tests show the performance of the proposed adaptive method for distributed learning of graph signals.@en

One of the cornerstones of the field of signal processing on graphs are graph filters, direct analogs of classical filters, but intended for signals defined on graphs. This paper brings forth new insights on the distributed graph filtering problem. We design a family of autoregressive moving average (ARMA) recursions, which are able to approximate any desired graph frequency response, and give exact solutions for specific graph signal denoising and interpolation problems. The philosophy to design the ARMA coefficients independently from the underlying graph renders the ARMA graph filters suitable in static and, particularly, time-varying settings. The latter occur when the graph signal and/or graph topology are changing over time. We show that in case of a time-varying graph signal, our approach extends naturally to a two-dimensional filter, operating concurrently in the graph and regular time domain. We also derive the graph filter behavior, as well as sufficient conditions for filter stability when the graph and signal are time varying. The analytical and numerical results presented in this paper illustrate that ARMA graph filters are practically appealing for static and time-varying settings, as predicted by theoretical derivations.

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Generally in distributed signal processing, and specifically in distributed graph filters, reducing the communication and computational complexity plays a key role in the network lifetime. In this work we present a novel algorithm to sparsify the graph filtering operation in a random way, where each node decides locally with a certain probability with which of its neighbors to communicate. We show that, if the filter coefficients are changed accordingly, the first and second order moment of the stochastic output are identical to the deterministic filter output and bounded, respectively. We apply our idea on the tasks of signal denoising and diffusion. Numerical results show that the distributed implementation costs of the filter can be reduced up to 95% with a variance of 10-3 from the deterministic output.@en

Graph filters play a key role in processing the graph spectra of signals supported on the vertices of a graph. However, despite their widespread use, graph filters have been analyzed only in the deterministic setting, ignoring the impact of stochasticity in both the graph topology and the signal itself. To bridge this gap, we examine the statistical behavior of the two key filter types, finite impulse response and autoregressive moving average graph filters, when operating on random time-varying graph signals (or random graph processes) over random time-varying graphs. Our analysis shows that 1) in expectation, the filters behave as the same deterministic filters operating on a deterministic graph, being the expected graph, having as input signal a deterministic signal, being the expected signal, and 2) there are meaningful upper bounds for the variance of the filter output. We conclude this paper by proposing two novel ways of exploiting randomness to improve (joint graph-time) noise cancellation, as well as to reduce the computational complexity of graph filtering. As demonstrated by numerical results, these methods outperform the disjoint average and denoise algorithm and yield a (up to) four times complexity reduction, with a very little difference from the optimal solution.

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To accurately match a finite-impulse response (FIR) graph filter to a desired response, high filter orders are generally required leading to a high implementation cost. Autoregressive moving average (ARMA) graph filters can alleviate this problem but their design is more challenging. In this paper, we focus on ARMA graph filter design for a known graph. The fundamental aim of our ARMA design is to create a good match to the desired response but with less coefficients than a FIR filter. Our design methods are inspired by Prony’s method but using proper modifications to fit the design to the graph context. Compared with FIR graph filters, our ARMA graph filters show better results for the same number of coefficients.@en

We have recently seen a surge of work on distributed graph filters, extending classical results to the graph setting. State of the art filters have however only been examined from a deterministic standpoint, ignoring the impact of stochasticity in the computation (e.g., temporal fluctuation of links) and input (e.g., the value of each node is a random process). Initiating the study of stochastic graph signal processing, this paper shows that a prominent class of graph filters, namely autoregressive moving average (ARMA) filters, are suitable for the stochastic setting. In particular, we prove that an ARMA filter that operates on a stochastic signal over a stochastic graph is equivalent, in the mean, to the same filter operating on the expected signal over the expected graph. We also characterize the variance of the output and we provide an upper bound for its average value among different nodes. Our results are validated by numerical simulations.@en

Finite impulse response (FIR) graph filters play a crucial role in the field of signal processing on graphs. However, when the graph signal is time-varying, the state of the art FIR graph filters do not capture the time variations of the input signal. In this work, we propose an extension of FIR graph filters to capture also the signal variations over time. By considering also the past values of the graph signal, the proposed FIR graph filter extends naturally to a 2-dimensional filter, capturing jointly the signal variations over the graph and time. As a particular case of interest we focus on 2-dimensional separable graph-temporal filters, which can be implemented in a distributed fashion at the price of higher communication costs. This allows us to give filter specifications and perform the design independently in the graph and temporal domain. The work is concluded by analyzing the proposed approach for stochastic graph signals, where the first and second order moments of the output signal are characterized.

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Despite their widespread use for the analysis of graph data, current graph filters are designed for graph signals that do not change over time, and thus they cannot simultaneously process time and graph frequency content in an adequate manner. This work presents ARMA2D, an autoregressive moving average graph-temporal filter that captures jointly the signal variations over the graph and time. By its unique nature, this filter is able to achieve a separable 2-dimensional frequency response, making it possible to approximate the filtering specifications along both the graph and temporal frequency domains. Numerical results show that the proposed solution outperforms the state of the art graph filters when the graph signal is time-varying.@en

Flooding-based protocols are a reliable solution to deliver packets in underwater sensor networks. However, these protocols potentially involve all the nodes in the forwarding process. Thus, the performance and energy efficiency are not optimal. In this work, we propose some advances of a flooding-based protocol with the goal to improve the performance and the energy efficiency. The first idea considers the node position information in order to reduce the number of relays that may apply flooding. Second, a network coding-based protocol is proposed in order to make a better use of the duplicates. With network coding, each node in the network recombines a certain number of packets into one or more output packets. This may give good results in flooding-based protocols considering the high amount of packets that are flooded in the network. Finally, a fusion of both ideas is considered in order to exploit the benefits of both of them.@en