  We present a new method of identifying a specific module in a dynamic
network, possibly with feedback loops. Assuming known topology, we express the
dynamics by an acyclic network composed of two blocks where the first block
accounts for the relation between the known reference signals and the input to
the target module, while the second block contains the target module. Using an
empirical Bayes approach, we model the first block as a Gaussian vector with
covariance matrix (kernel) given by the recently introduced stable spline
kernel. The parameters of the target module are estimated by solving a marginal
likelihood problem with a novel iterative scheme based on the
Expectation-Maximization algorithm. Additionally, we extend the method to
include additional measurements downstream of the target module. Using Markov
Chain Monte Carlo techniques, it is shown that the same iterative scheme can
solve also this formulation. Numerical experiments illustrate the effectiveness
of the proposed methods.
