Programmable wireless environments (PWEs) have emerged as a key paradigm for next-generation communication networks, aiming to transform wireless propagation from an uncontrollable phenomenon into a reconfigurable process that can adapt to diverse service requirements. In this framework, pinching-antenna systems (PASs) have recently been proposed as a promising enabling technology, as they allow the radiation location and effective propagation distance to be adjusted by selectively exciting radiating points along a dielectric waveguide. However, most existing studies on PASs rely on the idealized assumption that pinching-antenna (PA) positions can be continuously adjusted along the waveguide, while realistically only a finite set of pinching locations is available. Motivated by this, this paper analyzes the performance of two-state PASs, where the PA positions are fixed and only their activation state can be controlled. By explicitly accounting for the spatial discreteness of the available pinching points, closed-form analytical expressions for the outage probability and the ergodic achievable data rate are derived. In addition, we introduce the pinching discretization efficiency to quantify the performance gap between discrete and continuous pinching configurations, enabling a direct assessment of the number of PAs required to approximate the ideal continuous case. Finally, numerical results validate the analytical framework and show that near-continuous performance can be achieved with a limited number of PAs, offering useful insights for the design and deployment of PASs in PWEs.

With the rapid growth of high-speed rail (HSR) networks, reliable communication is increasingly challenging due to complex terrain and coverage gaps in remote areas. Uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs), with their mobility and flexibility, provide aerial relay support to bridge these gaps, enhance signal strength, and improve HSR communication reliability. However, their performance in millimeter-wave (mmWave) systems is significantly degraded by mechanical jitter caused by environmental factors such as wind and turbulence, which adversely affects beam alignment and overall communication quality. To address these challenges, this work introduces a comprehensive analytical framework. We first develop a statistical model that characterizes the relationship between beam gain and jitter intensity. Subsequently, closed-form expressions are derived for the outage probability and ergodic data rate of UAV-assisted HSR mmWave systems under jitter influence, taking into account both co-located (CA) and distributed antenna (DA) configurations. Furthermore, we propose an adaptive beamwidth design that maximizes the average ergodic rate by adjusting the beamwidth according to UAV jitter severity. Numerical simulations verify that this approach significantly improves system capacity and robustness compared with conventional static beamforming, confirming its effectiveness.

One of the main goals of the upcoming sixth-generation (6G) wireless networks is the ability to support higher network density, while ensuring a high quality of service for each user. In this paper, we introduce distributed uplink rate-splitting multiple access (DU-RSMA), define its basic principles, and provide insights into its advantages. Specifically, a system with two remote radio heads (RRHs) and two users is investigated. To improve the performance of the system, we consider that the RRHs can communicate through a feedback link, and thus they are able to decode the received messages either independently or with the assistance of the other RRH, since the decoded information can be shared through the feedback link. It should be noted that this scheme increases the achievable capacity region compared to the known multiple access schemes, which is also evaluated by a novel metric termed “fill factor”. Both the case of adaptive transmission rates and the case of fixed transmission rates are investigated. To this end, the ergodic rate is investigated to cover the former case, while the outage probability is studied for the latter. Closed-form expressions are derived for both metrics. Finally, the analytical expressions are validated by simulation results, which explicitly show the impact of each parameter on the performance of the system, and prove that the proposed scheme outperforms the corresponding benchmarks.

One of the main goals of the upcoming sixthgeneration (6G) wireless networks is the ability to support higher network density, while ensuring a high quality of service for each user. To this end, we introduce distributed uplink ratesplitting multiple access (DU-RSMA), define its basic principles, and provide insights into its benefits. DU-RSMA allows multiple users to efficiently share the same resource block through message splitting and the use of remote radio heads that independently decode incoming messages and exchange the decoded information through a feedback link. It should be noted that this scheme increases the achievable capacity region, compared to the known multiple access schemes, which is also evaluated through a novel metric, termed as “fill factor”. Since adaptive transmission rates are considered, the performance of the proposed scheme is investigated in terms of the ergodic rate of both users, for which we derive closed-form expressions. Simulation results illustrate the performance gains of DU-RSMA over corresponding benchmarks and investigate the effect of system parameters on its performance.

To meet the requirements of the artificial internet of things (AIoT), decentralization is essential to provide wide coverage, trustworthiness, and low-latency communication. For this purpose, decentralized federated learning (DFL) has rapidly evolved and gained popularity in recent years by reducing reliance on a central server and promoting a more robust, scalable, and privacy-preserving system. Nevertheless, the exchange of model updates and gradients in peer-to-peer (P2P) wireless communication systems introduces new vulnerabilities that threaten both model performance and data security, while frequent P2P communication among clients can lead to high communication costs. To address these issues, in this work, we develop a communicationefficient and security-enhanced DFL algorithm, which integrates the fast incremental alternating direction method of multipliers (FI-ADMM) algorithm with parameter-selective additively homomorphic encryption. Additionally, by introducing a first-order approximation for primal updates and rearranging the update order in FI-ADMM, the proposed method is superior to the other benchmarks in terms of computational and time complexity, which is validated by theoretical analysis and simulations.

The emergence of new application scenarios, such as mobile edge computing (MEC) and the industrial internet of things (IIoT), places new demands on next-generation communication systems to support green and sustainable machine-to-machine communications, posing new challenges for wireless network resource allocation. In this paper, the problem of time resource allocation in wireless networks with periodic packet transmission is studied to achieve collision-free transmission. Based on the Diophantine equation, the effect of initial timeslot allocation on transmission collision is analyzed, and the timeslot collision graph (TCG) is constructed. The TCG is then used for timeslot allocation in two wireless communication scenarios. First, a maximum independent set timeslot allocation (MIS-TA) algorithm is proposed for the design of pre-deployed wireless networks. Given multiple packet periods, by finding the maximum independent set in the TCG, we can obtain the number combinations of all devices without transmission collisions and the corresponding timeslot allocation scheme. In addition, for dynamic networks, a dynamic weighted collision graph timeslot allocation (DWCG-TA) scheme is proposed to minimize the number of packet collisions with the given number of devices and transmission periods. We evaluate the DWCG-TA with simulations, which show that it effectively reduces the average transmission collision compared to carrier sense multiple access.

The advent of sixth-generation (6G) wireless communication systems represents a transformative leap in global connectivity, moving from traditional internet of things (IoT) frameworks to an advanced artificial intelligence of things (AIoT) paradigm. This evolution presents significant challenges, primarily due to exponential growth in data volume, complexity, and latency requirements. To address these challenges, over-the-air (OTA) computation has emerged as a breakthrough approach by integrating computational processes directly into the communication framework, overcoming the inefficiencies of traditional separate designs. In this study, we explore the integration of OTA computation with reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) within multi-cell multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) networks. RIS technology enhances signal propagation, mitigates interference, and optimizes wireless coverage, thereby complementing the OTA computation paradigm’s ability to facilitate real-time data aggregation and processing. Specifically, we propose a novel joint optimization framework aimed at minimizing the mean squared error (MSE) in multi-cell environments. This framework addresses the complexity of beamforming design through an innovative power-iteration-based majorization-minimization approach and a successive alignment technique. In addition, we perform asymptotic analysis to elucidate the performance benefits of large-scale MIMO and RIS configurations. We also consider the fairness of MSE computation throughout the multi-cell system. Finally, numerical simulations validate the effectiveness of the proposed methods and provide additional insights based on the asymptotic analysis.

A primary objective of the forthcoming sixth generation (6G) of wireless networking is to support demanding applications, while ensuring energy efficiency. Programmable wireless environments (PWEs) have emerged as a promising solution, leveraging reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs), to control wireless propagation and deliver exceptional quality-of-service. In this paper, we analyze the performance of a network supported byzero-energy RISs (zeRISs), which harvest energy for their operation and contribute to the realization of PWEs. Specifically, we investigate joint energy-data rate outage probability and the energy efficiency of a zeRIS-assisted communication system by employing three harvest-and-reflect (HaR) methods, i) power splitting, ii) time switching, and iii) element splitting. Furthermore, we consider two zeRIS deployment strategies, namely BS-side zeRIS and UE-side zeRIS. Simulation results validate the provided analysis and examine which HaR method performs better depending on the zeRIS placement. Finally, valuable insights and conclusions for the performance of zeRIS-assisted wireless networks are drawn from the presented results.

A hybrid downlink system that simultaneously uses visible light communication (VLC) and radio frequency (RF) is investigated, assuming that only one of the two considered users is capable of receiving information over the optical band. In order to facilitate information transmissions from the VLC access point to the RF user, mixed VLC/RF relaying and simultaneous lightwave information and power transfer (SLIPT) are utilized. Moreover, a cognitive-based resource allocation policy and tractable bounds for the harvested energy are introduced. Furthermore, by taking into account the random location of the VLC and RF user terminals, the closed-form outage probability for the VLC user is given, while for the RF user, the outage probability is derived in terms of infinite-series, which is also approximated by a tractable closed-form expression. In addition, the outage probability of the RF user is minimized by optimizing the direct current (DC) component. Finally, simulations are provided to verify the accuracy of the theoretical analysis and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed optimization framework.

We propose an indoor lightwave downlink wireless communication network with the non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) technology, that consists of one visible light communication (VLC) access point (AP) and a pair of randomly located users. Although both users can directly receive information from the AP, the performance of the far user is degraded compared to the near one due to the asymmetrical channel gains. Thus, the user cooperation strategy is proposed to improve the performance of the far user by using mixed VLC/RF relaying technique in parallel with the wireless optical direct link. To efficiently exploit the available heterogeneous links, the concept of cross-band selection combining (CBSC) is introduced, according to which the far user is continuously served by either the mixed VLC/RF or the direct VLC link. Meanwhile, the performance of the proposed scheme is thoroughly investigated and compared to appropriate baselines. To this end, we derive closed-form expressions for the outage probability of each user as well as the system sum throughput. Finally, simulation results are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme and the accuracy of the corresponding analysis.

Power domain non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), which multiplexes multiple users in power domain to achieve high spectrum efficiency, is a promising technology for the fifth-generation (5G) wireless networks and beyond. In this work, we study time and power allocation for two-hop NOMA relaying with decode-and-forward (DF) protocol, to satisfy two NOMA users' different quality of service (QoS) requirements. The performance metrics of outage probability and ergodic capacity are used to evaluate two NOMA users, respectively. The closedform expression for outage probability is also derived. Furthermore, to obtain optimal time allocation factor to achieve the minimum outage probability, we formulate it as one optimization problem and develop a golden section search (GSS)-based algorithm to solve it. Also, the tradeoff between time and power allocation is further analysed to improve the system performance. Numerical and simulation results show that the proposed time and power allocation DF-NOMA behaves better than the traditional equal-time slot cooperative NOMA.

Millimeter wave (mmWave) wireless networks can operate in single-cell point-to-multipoint mode to provide local multicast services efficiently. In this paper, the performance of multicast mmWave wireless networks is studied, through stochastic geometry. Then, the use of power domain non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) for enhancing mmWave multicasting is also investigated. Furthermore, we study multicasting in two-tier mmWave heterogeneous networks, and propose a novel cooperative NOMA multicast scheme. Analytical expressions for the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio coverage probability, the average number of served users, and the sum multicast rate are derived, in order to assess the performance of these schemes. Finally, we discuss the maximum sum multicast rates, by formulating them as optimization problems, and also develop efficient golden section search algorithms to solve them. The offered solutions reveal the impact of data transmission rate and power allocation on the sum multicast rate. Both analytical and numerical results demonstrate that NOMA can significantly improve the mmWave multicasting, while the proposed cooperative NOMA mmWave multicast scheme can further improve the NOMA mmWave multicasting.