End-to-end learning in communication systems

Abstract

An apparatus and method is described including obtaining or generating a transmitter-training sequence of messages for a transmission system, wherein the transmission system includes a transmitter, a channel and a receiver, wherein the transmitter includes a transmitter algorithm having at least some trainable weights and the receiver includes a receiver algorithm having at least some trainable weights; transmitting perturbed versions of the transmitter-training sequence of messages over the transmission system; receiving first receiver loss function data at the transmitter, the first receiver loss function data being generated based on a received-training sequence as received at the receiver and knowledge of the transmitter training sequence of messages for the transmission system; and training at least some weights of the transmitter algorithm based on first receiver loss function data and knowledge of the transmitter-training sequence of messages and the perturbed versions of the transmitter-training sequence of messages.

1 . An apparatus comprising:
 at one processor; and   at least one memory including computer program code;   the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform,   obtaining or generating a transmitter-training sequence of messages for a transmission system, wherein the transmission system comprises a transmitter, a channel and a receiver, wherein the transmitter includes a transmitter algorithm having at least some trainable weights and the receiver includes a receiver algorithm having at least some trainable weights;   transmitting perturbed versions of the transmitter-training sequence of messages over the transmission system;   receiving first receiver loss function data at the transmitter, the first receiver loss function data being generated based on a received-training sequence as received at the receiver and knowledge of the transmitter training sequence of messages for the transmission system; and   training at least some weights of the transmitter algorithm based on the first receiver loss function data and knowledge of the transmitter-training sequence of messages and the perturbed versions of the transmitter-training sequence of messages.   
     
     
         2 . An apparatus as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the training the at least some weights of the transmitter algorithm makes use of a distribution to generate the perturbations applied to the transmitter-training sequence of messages. 
     
     
         3 . An apparatus as claimed in claim i wherein the perturbations are zero-mean Gaussian perturbations. 
     
     
         4 . An apparatus as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the first loss function data is related to one or more of block error rate, bit error rate and categorical cross-entropy. 
     
     
         5 . An apparatus as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform repeating the training of the at least some weights of the transmitter algorithm until a first condition is reached. 
     
     
         6 . An apparatus as claimed in  claim 5 , wherein the first condition is a defined number of iterations and/or a defined performance level. 
     
     
         7 . An apparatus as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the training further comprises optimising one or more of a batch size of the transmitter-training sequence of messages, a learning rate, and a distribution of the perturbations applied to the perturbed versions of the transmitter-training sequence of messages. 
     
     
         8 . An apparatus as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform obtaining or generating a receiver-training sequence of messages for transmission over the transmission system;
 transmitting the receiver-training sequence of messages over the transmission system;   generating or obtaining second receiver loss function data, the second receiver loss function data being generated based on a received-training sequence as received at the receiver and knowledge of the transmitted receiver-training sequence; and   training at least some weights of the receiver algorithm based on the second receiver loss function data.   
     
     
         9 . An apparatus as claimed  claim 8 , wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform repeating the training of the at least some weights of the receiver algorithm until a second condition is reached. 
     
     
         10 . An apparatus as claimed in  claim 9 , wherein the second condition is a defined number of iterations and/or a defined performance level. 
     
     
         11 . An apparatus as claimed in  claim 8 , wherein the second loss function is related to one or more of block error rate, bit error rate and categorical cross-entropy. 
     
     
         12 . An apparatus as claimed in  claim 8 , wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform repeating both the training of the at least some weights of the transmitter algorithm and repeating the training of the at least some weights of the transmitter algorithm until a third condition is reached. 
     
     
         13 . An apparatus as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein said at least some weights of the transmit and receive algorithms are trained using stochastic gradient descent. 
     
     
         14 . An apparatus comprising:
 at least one processor; and   at least one memory including computer program code;   the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform,   obtaining or generating a receiver-training sequence of messages for transmission over a transmission system, wherein the transmitter includes a transmitter algorithm having at least some trainable weights and the receiver includes a receiver algorithm having at least some trainable weights;   transmitting the receiver-training sequence of messages over the transmission system;   generating or obtaining second receiver loss function data, the second receiver loss function data being generated based on a receiver-training sequence as received at the receiver and knowledge of the transmitted receiver-training sequence;   training at least some weights of the receiver algorithm based on the second receiver loss function data;   obtaining or generating a transmitter-training sequence of messages for the transmission system;   transmitting perturbed versions of the transmitter-training sequence of messages over the transmission system;   receiving first receiver loss function data at the transmitter, the first receiver loss function data being generated based on a received-training sequence as received at the receiver and knowledge of the transmitter training sequence of messages for the transmission system; and   training at least some weights of the transmitter algorithm based on the first receiver loss function data and knowledge of the transmitter-training sequence of messages and the perturbed versions of the transmitter-training sequence of messages.   
     
     
         15 . An apparatus as claimed in  claim 14 , wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform repeating the training of the at least some weights of the transmitter algorithm until a first condition is reached and means for repeating the training of the at least some weights of the receiver algorithm until a second condition is reached. 
     
     
         16 . An apparatus as claimed in  claim 15 , wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform repeating both the training of the at least some weights of the transmitter algorithm and repeating the training of the at least some weights of the transmitter algorithm until a third condition is reached. 
     
     
         17 . An apparatus as claimed in  claim 14 , wherein the transmitter algorithm comprises a transmitter neural network and/or the receiver algorithm comprises a receiver neural network. 
     
     
         18 . A method comprising:
 obtaining or generating a transmitter-training sequence of messages for a transmission system, wherein the transmission system comprises a transmitter, a channel and a receiver, wherein the transmitter includes a transmitter algorithm having at least some trainable weights and the receiver includes a receiver algorithm having at least some trainable weights;   transmitting perturbed versions of the transmitter-training sequence of messages over the transmission system;   receiving first receiver loss function data at the transmitter, the first receiver loss function data being generated based on a received-training sequence as received at the receiver and knowledge of the transmitter training sequence of messages for the transmission system; and   training at least some weights of the transmitter algorithm based on first receiver loss function data and knowledge of the transmitter-training sequence of messages and the perturbed versions of the transmitter-training sequence of messages.   
     
     
         19 . A method as claimed in  claim 18 , further comprising:
 obtaining or generating a receiver-training sequence of messages for transmission over the transmission system;   transmitting the receiver-training sequence of messages over the transmission system;   generating or obtaining a second receiver loss function data, the second receiver loss function data being generated based on received-training sequence as received at the receiver and knowledge of the transmitted receiver-training sequence; and   training at least some weights of the receiver algorithm based on the second receiver loss function data.   
     
     
         20 . A method comprising:
 obtaining or generating a receiver-training sequence of messages for transmission over a transmission system, wherein the transmitter includes a transmitter algorithm having at least some trainable weights and the receiver includes a receiver algorithm having at least some trainable weights;   transmitting the receiver-training sequence of messages over the transmission system;   generating or obtaining second receiver loss function data, the second receiver loss function data being generated based on a receiver-training sequence as received at the receiver and knowledge of the transmitted receiver-training sequence;   training at least some weights of the receiver algorithm based on the second loss function;   obtaining or generating a transmitter-training sequence of messages for transmission over the transmission system;   transmitting perturbed versions of the transmitter-training sequence of messages over the transmission system;   receive first receiver loss function data at the transmitter, the first receiver loss function data being generated based on a received-training sequence as received at the receiver and knowledge of the transmitter training sequence of messages for the transmission system; and   training at least some weights of the transmitter algorithm based on the first receiver loss function data and knowledge of the transmitter-training sequence of messages and the perturbed versions of the transmitter-training sequence of messages.   
     
     
         21 . A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program comprising instructions, which when executed by a processor, cause an apparatus including the processor to perform the following:
 obtaining or generating a transmitter-training sequence of messages for a transmission system, wherein the transmission system comprises a transmitter, a channel and a receiver, wherein the transmitter includes a transmitter algorithm and the receiver includes a receiver algorithm;   transmitting perturbed versions of the transmitter-training sequence of messages over the transmission system;   receiving first receiver loss function data at the transmitter, the first receiver loss function data being generated based on a received-training sequence as received at the receiver and knowledge of the transmitter training sequence of messages for the transmission system; and   training at least some weights of the transmitter algorithm based on first receiver loss function data and knowledge of the transmitter-training sequence of messages and the perturbed versions of the transmitter-training sequence of messages.   
     
     
         22 . A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program comprising instructions, which when executed by a processor, cause an apparatus including the processor to perform the following:
 obtaining or generating a receiver-training sequence of messages for transmission over a transmission system, wherein the transmitter includes a transmitter algorithm having at least some trainable weights and the receiver includes a receiver algorithm having at least some trainable weights;   transmitting the receiver-training sequence of messages over the transmission system;   generating or obtaining a second receiver loss function data, the second receiver loss function data being generated based on a receiver-training sequence as received at the receiver and knowledge of the transmitted receiver-training sequence;   training at least some weights of the receiver algorithm based on the second loss function;   obtaining or generating a transmitter-training sequence of messages for transmission over the transmission system;   transmitting perturbed versions of the transmitter-training sequence of messages over the transmission system;   receive first receiver loss function data at the transmitter, the first receiver loss function data being generated based on a received-training sequence as received at the receiver and knowledge of the transmitter training sequence of messages for the transmission system; and   training at least some weights of the transmitter algorithm based on the first receiver loss function data and knowledge of the transmitter-training sequence of messages and the perturbed versions of the transmitter-training sequence of messages.