We generalize the type-based multiple access framework proposed by Mergen and Tong (2006) to the case of unsourced multiple access. In the proposed framework, each device tracks the state of a physical/digital process, quantizes this state, and communicates it to a common receiver through a shared channel in an uncoordinated manner. The receiver aims to estimate the type of the states, i.e., the set of states and their multiplicity in the sequence of states reported by all devices. We measure the type estimation error using the Wasserstein distance. Considering an example of multi-target position tracking, we show that type estimation can be performed effectively via approximate message passing. Furthermore, we determine the quantization resolution that minimizes the type estimation error by balancing quantization distortion and communication error.

翻译：我们将Mergen与Tong（2006）提出的基于类型的多址接入框架推广至非正交多址接入场景。在该框架中，每个设备跟踪物理/数字过程的状态，对该状态进行量化，并通过共享信道以无协调方式将其传输至公共接收端。接收端的目标是估计状态的类型，即所有设备上报状态序列中的状态集合及其重复次数。我们采用Wasserstein距离度量类型估计误差。通过多目标位置跟踪实例，我们证明近似消息传递算法可有效实现类型估计。进一步地，我们通过平衡量化失真与通信误差，确定了使类型估计误差最小化的量化精度。