Chirp spread spectrum (CSS) modulation-based long-range (LoRa) communication has attracted widespread attention owing to its long-range coverage and low-power consumption. However, the inherent trade-off between communication range and data rate in CSS modulation creates a throughput bottleneck, significantly limiting LoRa’s applicability in practical scenarios. To enhance the uplink data rate and reliability in LoRa communications, this paper proposes novel schemes that integrate reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) and index modulation (IM). Specifically, we develop comprehensive transmission and detection mechanisms for both single-node and multi-node scenarios. To improve the performance of single-node transmission, we introduce an IM scheme based on receiving antenna selection combined with RIS-assisted beamforming, and design a low-complexity sequential detector that exploits unique signal characteristics. To address the multi-node scenario with the co-spreading-factor (co-SF) interference, we propose a power control scheme at transmitters inspired by non-orthogonal access principles, and develop an asymptotically optimal RIS beamforming strategy. We further design an efficient demodulation scheme that leverages statistical features of the received signals across selected antennas. Extensive simulation results demonstrate that our proposed schemes effectively improve both bit error rate and data rate performance compared to conventional LoRa systems and related prior art.

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) is emerging as a key enabler for sixth-generation (6G) wireless systems, unifying communication, sensing, and control within a reconfigurable electromagnetic (EM) environment. This article presents a comprehensive review that integrates theoretical foundations, signal processing methodologies, and experimental implementations of RIS-ISAC. It first summarizes core principles of channel modeling, waveform design, and sensing parameter estimation across near-field, broadband, and multihop propagation regimes. Building on these foundations, the article surveys advances in hardware architectures, testbeds, and prototype demonstrations spanning sub-6 GHz to millimeter-wave and terahertz bands. Cross-cutting insights are drawn on system tradeoffs, performance bounds, and learning-aided adaptation. Finally, unified benchmarking metrics and open challenges are identified, covering synchronization, scalability, and standardization, to guide the evolution of RIS-ISAC from conceptual frameworks to practical 6G network deployments.

Due to discrepancies in clock oscillators between transmitter and receiver, bistatic sensing in integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) systems suffers from the clock asynchronism issue. Previous research has demonstrated that these offsets can be effectively mitigated through cross-antenna techniques. However, such techniques may not always be preferred due to the side effects of restricted spatial degrees of freedom or complicated signal models. In this paper, we introduce cross-frequency techniques to address the clock asynchrony issue for line-of-sight (LOS) dominant bistatic sensing. We begin by uncovering the rotational invariance properly inherent in a time-frequency-domain signal matrix that is typically constructed for bistatic sensing. We then propose two novel methods, i.e., cross-frequency cross-correlation and cross-frequency signal ratio, to effectively suppress clock asynchronism without compromising spatial sensing ability. Furthermore, we evaluate the performance of these methods using key metrics, including the maximum unambiguous delay, delay resolution, and analytical target SNRs. Extensive simulation and experimental results are provided, verifying the effectiveness of the proposed methods and their superiority versus efficiency over prior art in sensing accuracy.

Accurate water level sensing is essential for flood monitoring, agricultural irrigation, and water resource optimization. Traditional methods require dedicated sensor deployments, leading to high costs, vulnerability to interference, and limited resolution. In this work, we proposes PMN-WaterSense, a novel scheme that leverages Channel State Information (CSI) from existing communication networks to sense water level variations. We employ a CSI power method to mitigate phase offsets from clock asynchrony in bi-static systems, followed by multi-domain filtering to extract phase features that captures the variations in the reflection path over the water surface. A Kalman filter-based unwrapping technique resolves the phase ambiguity, while transceiver geometry converts the path variations into water level height estimates. The indoor experiments with 28 GHz mmWave and 3.1 GHz LTE testbeds achieve 0.025 cm and 0.198 cm height estimation errors, respectively. Real-world outdoor testing with 2.6 GHz LTE signals yields a 4.8 cm error for a 1-meter water level change, demonstrating practical effectiveness.

In the Internet of Vehicles (IoV), safeguarding service privacy and communication efficiency is critical due to the vast exchange of sensitive data among connected entities. Federated Learning (FL) has emerged as a privacy-preserving paradigm for collaborative model training without exposing raw data. However, a fundamental trade-off arises between the level of differential privacy (DP) protection and the number of communication rounds required. To address this, we propose the Unified State-Space Feedback Control Framework (USFCF), which introduces a dynamic feedback regulation mechanism that adaptively balances privacy protection and communication overhead. Roadside units (RSUs) serve as distributed coordinators, monitoring the evolving system state and adjusting the model aggregation frequency accordingly. When the system detects excessive privacy noise, it suppresses redundant communication; conversely, if privacy weakens, it increases update rounds to reinforce protection. The derivation of an optimization-driven update policy is constructed to realize the privacy-communication of the FL-DP system. Experimental evaluations on diverse datasets demonstrate that our method enhances privacy adaptability, reduces communication cost, and ensures robust performance for privacy-sensitive vehicular intelligence.

With integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) and reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) emerging as critical enablers for future mobile communications, their combination has attracted increasing attention lately. To effectively utilize RIS for improving ISAC, we propose two novel designs targeting different scenarios. The first design strikes for a spectral-efficient ISAC by seeking to maximize the weighted sum rate (WSR) of communications and minimize sensing radiation pattern approximation error. The second design aims to achieve an energy-efficient ISAC by optimizing the power allocation between communications and sensing subject to communication quality of service (QoS) constraints. Different optimization problems are formulated for the two designs, with practical constraints of RIS considered, including unit modulus and discrete phase shift. Efficient solutions are developed for the non-convex optimization problems by adeptly employing techniques including weighted minimum mean squared error (WMMSE), fractional programming (FP), second-order cone programming (SOCP), semi-definite relaxing (SDR), and feasibility check. Simulation results demonstrate the non-trivial improvements of WSR, communication energy efficiency and sensing radiation patterns achieved by the proposed designs, also highlighting their superiority over the conventional methods.

Uplink sensing in integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) systems, such as Perceptive Mobile Networks, is challenging due to the clock asynchronism between transmitter and receiver. Existing solutions typically require the presence of a line-of-sight path and the knowledge of the transmitter’s location. In this paper, these requirements, we propose a novel uplink sensing scheme to relieve these requirements by introducing static anchor points for the first time. The scheme consists of two efficient algorithms. The first algorithm estimates the relative timing and carrier frequency offsets, with respect to a randomly selected reference snapshot. Its estimation performance is analyzed with closed-form bias and root mean squared error derived. The estimates from the first algorithm are then used to eliminate clock offsets, enabling the construction of angle-Doppler maps. Using the maps, the second algorithm is developed to identify anchor points and then locate the transmitter and dynamic targets. The impact of the locations of the transmitter and anchor points is also analytically illustrated. Extensive simulation results are provided, demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed sensing scheme in practical 5G communication setups and its superiority over prior art in terms of noise resilience and asymptotic performances.

Future mobile networks are projected to support integrated sensing and communications in high-speed communication scenarios. Nevertheless, large Doppler shifts induced by time-varying channels may cause severe inter-carrier interference (ICI). Frequency domain shows the potential of reducing ISAC complexity as compared with other domains. However, parameter mismatching issue still exists for such sensing. In this paper, we develop a novel sensing scheme based on sparse Bayesian framework, where the delay and Doppler estimation problem in time-varying channels is formulated as a 3D multiple measurement-sparse signal recovery (MM-SSR) problem. We then propose a novel two-layer variational Bayesian inference (VBI) method to decompose the 3D MM-SSR problem into two layers and estimate the Doppler in the first layer and the delay in the second layer alternatively. Subsequently, as is benefited from newly unveiled signal construction, a simplified two-stage multiple signal classification (MUSIC)-based VBI method is proposed, where the delay and the Doppler are estimated by MUSIC and VBI, respectively. Additionally, the Cramér-Rao bound (CRB) of the considered sensing parameters is derived to characterize the lower bound for the proposed estimators. Corroborated by extensive simulation results, our proposed method can achieve improved mean square error (MSE) than its conventional counterparts and is robust against the target number and target speed, thereby validating its wide applicability and advantages over prior arts.

Joint communications and sensing (JCAS) have the potential to improve the overall energy, cost and frequency efficiency of Internet-of-Things (IoT) systems. As a first effort, we propose to optimize the MIMO-OFDM data symbols carried by sub-carriers for better time-and spatial-domain signal orthogonality. This can reduce inter-target and inter-antenna interference, enabling high-quality sensing. We establish an optimization problem that modifies data symbols on sub-carriers to enhance the above-mentioned signal orthogonality. We also develop an efficient algorithm to solve the problem based on the majorization-minimization framework. Moreover, we discover unique signal structures and features from the newly modeled problem, which substantially reduce the complexity of majorizing the objective function. We also develop new projectors to enforce the feasibility of the obtained solution. Simulations show that to achieve the same sensing performance, the optimized waveform can reduce the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) requirement by 3~4.5 dB compared with the original waveform, while the SNR loss for the uncoded bit error rate is only 1~1.5 dB.

Bi-static sensing is crucial for exploring the potential of networked sensing capabilities in integrated sensing and communications (ISAC). However, it suffers from the challenging clock asynchronism issue. Channel state information (CSI) ratio-based sensing is an effective means to address the issue. Its performance bounds, particular for Doppler sensing, have not been fully understood yet. This work endeavors to fill the research gap. Focusing on a single dynamic path in high-SNR scenarios, we derive the closed-form Cramér-Rao bounds (CRB). Then, through analyzing the mutual interference between dynamic and static paths, we simplify the CRB results by deriving close approximations, further unveiling new insights of the impact of numerous physical parameters on Doppler sensing. Moreover, utilizing the new CRB and analyses, we propose novel waveform optimization strategies for noise- and interference-limited sensing scenarios, which are also empowered by closed-form and efficient solutions. Extensive simulation results are provided to validate the preciseness of the derived CRB results and analyses, with the aid of the maximum-likelihood estimator. The results also demonstrate the substantial enhanced Doppler sensing accuracy and the sensing capabilities for low-speed target achieved by the proposed waveform design.

Integrating sensing into wifi platforms, referred to as wifi sensing, provides an efficient and device-free means for indoor monitoring/localization with low cost. Clock asynchrony is one of the most challenging issues in wifi sensing. A mainstream solution to date employs cross-antenna processing to suppress the clock offsets that are common to all antennas. Such methods, however, may suffer from issues such as mirrored targets and noise enhancement etc. This paper develops a novel wifi sensing scheme. It embodies accurate and low-complexity methods for estimating the timing and frequency offsets as well as the angle-of-arrival (AoA), all from the LoS path. It also involves a coherent Doppler processing method which effectively suppresses static paths and accurately estimates the Doppler by enjoying the coherent processing gain. Corroborated by experimental results using open Widar2.0 data, the proposed design is able to precisely recover the velocity traces in various indoor scenarios.

Relational databases have gone through a phase of architectural transition from a monolithic to a distributed architecture to take full advantage of cloud technology. These distributed databases can leverage remote storage to maintain larger amounts of data than monolithic databases at the cost of increased latency. At ByteDance, we have built a distributed database called veDB based on the popular compute-storage separation architecture, however we have observed the system is unable to provide both low latency and high throughput required by some business critical applications, such as batched order processing.In this paper we present our novel approaches to tackle this problem. We have modified our system’s storage to utilize persistent memory (PMem) coupled with a remote direct memory access (RDMA) network to reduce read/write latency and increase the throughput. We also propose a query push-down framework to push partial computations to the PMem storage layer to accelerate analytical queries and reduce the impact of the transaction workload in the computation layer. Our experiments show that our methods improve the throughput by up to 1.5× and reduce latency by up to 20× for standard benchmarks and real-world applications.

Effective wireless communications are increasingly important in maintaining the successful closed-loop operation of mission-critical Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) applications. To meet the ever-increasing demands on better wireless communications for IIoT, we propose an orthogonal time-frequency space (OTFS) waveform-based joint communication and radio sensing (JCAS) scheme—an energy-efficient solution for not only reliable communications but also high-accuracy sensing. OTFS has been demonstrated to have higher reliability and energy efficiency than the currently popular IIoT communication waveforms. JCAS has also been highly recommended for IIoT, since it saves cost, power, and spectrum compared to having two separate radio frequency systems. Performing JCAS based on OTFS, however, can be hindered by a lack of effective OTFS sensing. This article is dedicated to filling this technology gap. We first design a series of echo preprocessing methods that successfully remove the impact of communication data symbols in the time-frequency domain, where major challenges, such as intercarrier and intersymbol interference and noise amplification, are addressed. Then, we provide a comprehensive analysis of the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) for sensing and optimize a key parameter of the proposed method to maximize the SINR. The extensive simulations show that the proposed sensing method approaches the maximum-likelihood estimator with respect to the estimation accuracy of target parameters and manifests applicability to wide ranges of key system parameters. Notably, the complexity of the proposed method is only dominated by a 2-D Fourier transform.

The spectrally efficient multicarrier faster-than-Nyquist (MFTN) signaling provides an efficient and robust solution for enhancing transmission rate and resisting channel impairments. In this paper, an evolutionary non-orthogonal physical waveform is proposed for simultaneously achieving high spectral and energy efficiency via combining MFTN signaling with index modulation (IM). Exploiting the implicit transmission of IM, the inactivated subcarriers alleviate the inherent two-dimensional interferences imposed by time-frequency packing in MFTN. Then, we develop a pair of iterative equalization algorithms based on vector approximate message passing (VAMP). For the first time-domain equalization (TDE), an extended constellation set is constructed for uniformly characterizing the activated and inactivated subcarriers. To further reducing the computational complexity, we establish a subcarrier-based segment-wise frequency-domain received signal model and accordingly develop low-complexity VAMP-based frequency-domain equalization (FDE) combined with interference elimination. Corroborated by simulations, the novel MFTN-IM waveform achieves superior bit error rate (BER) performance over benchmark waveforms in the high signal noise ratio (SNR) regions. Interestingly, while the proposed VAMP-TDE outperforms the proposed VAMP-FDE in BER performance, the latter is more competitive in balancing demodulation performance and computational complexity.

Full-duplex (FD) integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) has great potential in future vehicular networks. However, the FD requirement and the ISAC functions make the receiver processing extremely complicated, particularly when multiple transmissions are uncoordinated. In this paper, we study frequency-hopping (FH) based receivers in an FD ISAC system, where the arrivals of backscattered signals from one node may overlap with those of signals from another node. To mitigate the interferences caused by the overlapping signals, we consider two receiver options based on either conventional communications or frequency-modulated continuous-wave radars, and two signal modulations based on either fast FH or un-slotted ALOHA FH. Based on the different signal modulations, we develop two parameter estimation schemes via using FH-decoding and de-chirp operations, respectively. To further improve the sensing accuracy, we proceed to propose an iterative algorithm, which refines the estimates of all parameters via using short-time-Fourier transform and maximizing the received power in desired frequency bands. After obtaining all channel parameters in sensing, bilateral communications between two nodes are realized by differential phase-shift keying. Finally, simulation results are provided and verify that the proposed FD ISAC can obtain parameters in high resolution and realize robust communication links.

Beamspace millimeter-wave (mmWave) and terahertz (THz) massive MIMO constitute attractive schemes for next-generation communications, given their abundant bandwidth and high throughput. However, their user and beam selection problem has not been efficiently addressed yet. Inspired by this challenge, we develop low-complexity solutions explicitly. In contrast to the zero forcing in the prior art, we introduce the dirty paper coding (DPC) into the joint user and beam selection problem. We unveil the compelling properties of the DPC sum rate in beamspace massive MIMO, showing its monotonic evolution against the number of users and beams selected. We then exploit its beneficial properties for substantially simplifying the joint user and beam selection problem. Furthermore, we develop a set of algorithms striking unique trade-offs for solving the simplified problem, facilitating simultaneous user and beam selection based on partial beamspace channels for the first time. Additionally, we derive the sum rate bound of the algorithms and analyze their complexity. Our simulation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed design and analysis, confirming their superiority over prior solutions.

Multitask Gaussian process (MTGP) is a well-known nonparametric Bayesian model for learning correlated tasks effectively by transferring knowledge across tasks. But current MTGPs are usually limited to the multitask scenario defined in the same input domain, leaving no space for tackling the heterogeneous case, i.e., the features of input domains vary over tasks. To this end, this article presents a novel heterogeneous stochastic variational linear model of coregionalization (HSVLMC) model for simultaneously learning the tasks with varied input domains. Particularly, we develop the stochastic variational framework with Bayesian calibration that: 1) infers posterior domain mappings to consider the effect of dimensionality reduction raised by domain mappings for achieving effective input alignment and 2) employs a residual modeling strategy to leverage the inductive bias brought by prior domain mappings for better-model inference. Finally, the superiority of the proposed model against existing heterogeneous LMC models has been extensively verified on diverse heterogeneous multitask cases and a practical multifidelity steam turbine exhaust case.

Employing cyclic prefixed OFDM (CP-OFDM) communication waveform for sensing has attracted extensive attention in vehicular integrated sensing and communications (ISAC). A unified sensing framework is developed recently, greatly extending the ranging capability of CP-OFDM sensing. However, a false target issue still remains unsolved. In this paper, we investigate and solve this issue. Specifically, we unveil that false targets are caused by periodic cyclic prefixes (CPs) in CP-OFDM waveform. We also derive the relation between the locations of false and true targets, and other features, e.g., strength, of false targets. Moreover, we develop an effective solution to removing false targets. Simulations are provided to confirm the validity of our analysis and the effectiveness of the proposed solution.

Integrating sensing into standardized communication systems can potentially benefit many consumer applications that require both radio frequency functions. However, without an effective sensing method, such integration may not achieve the expected gains of cost and energy efficiency. Existing sensing methods, which use communication payload signals, either have limited sensing performance or suffer from high complexity. In this paper, we develop a novel and flexible sensing framework which has a complexity only dominated by a Fourier transform and also provides the flexibility in adapting to different sensing needs. We propose to segment a whole block of echo signal evenly into sub-blocks; adjacent ones are allowed to overlap. We design a virtual cyclic prefix (VCP) for each sub-block that allows us to employ two common ways of removing communication data symbols and generate two types of range-Doppler maps (RDMs) for sensing. We perform a comprehensive analysis of the signal components in the RDMs, proving that their interference-plus-noise (IN) terms are approximately Gaussian distributed. The statistical properties of the distributions are derived, which leads to the analytical comparisons between the two RDMs as well as between the prior and our sensing methods. Moreover, the impact of the lengths of sub-block, VCP and overlapping signal on sensing performance is analyzed. Criteria for designing these lengths for better sensing performance are also provided. Extensive simulations validate the superiority of the proposed sensing framework over prior methods in terms of signal-to-IN ratios in RDMs, detecting performance and flexibility.

In recent years, at ByteDance, we see more and more business scenarios that require performing complex analysis over freshly imported data, together with transaction support and strong data consistency. In this paper, we describe our journey of building ByteHTAP, an HTAP system with high data freshness and strong data consistency. It adopts a separate-engine and shared-storage architecture. Its modular system design fully utilizes an existing ByteDance's OLTP system and an open source OLAP system. This choice saves us a lot of resources and development time and allows easy future extensions such as replacing the query processing engine with other alternatives. ByteHTAP can provide high data freshness with less than one second delay, which enables many new business opportunities for our customers. Customers can also configure different data freshness thresholds based on their business needs. ByteHTAP also provides strong data consistency through global timestamps across its OLTP and OLAP system, which greatly relieves application developers from handling complex data consistency issues by themselves. In addition, we introduce some important performance optimizations to ByteHTAP, such as pushing computations to the storage layer and using delete bitmaps to efficiently handle deletes. Lastly, we will share our lessons and best practices in developing and running ByteHTAP in production.

Tube internal erosion, which corresponds to its wall thinning process, is one of the major safety concerns for tubes. Many sensing technologies have been developed to detect a tube wall thinning process. Among them, fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors are the most popular ones due to their precise measurement properties. Most of the current works focus on how to design different types of FBG sensors according to certain physical laws and only test their sensors in controlled laboratory conditions. However, in practice, an industrial system usually suffers from harsh and dynamic environmental conditions, and FBG signals are affected by many unpredictable factors. Consequently, the FBG signals have more fluctuations and are polluted by noises. Hence, the signals no longer directly follow the assumed physical laws and their proposed thinning detection mechanisms no longer work. Targeting at this, this article develops a data-driven model for FBG signal feature extraction and tube wall thickness monitoring using data analytic techniques. In particular, we develop a spatiotemporal model to describe dynamic FBG signals and extract features related to thickness. By taking physical law as guideline, we trace the relationship between the extracted features and the tube wall thickness, based on which we construct an online statistical monitoring scheme for tube wall thinning process. We use both laboratory test and field trial experiment to demonstrate the efficacy and efficiency of the proposed scheme.Note to Practitioners—This article is motivated by the real industrial needs of inner erosion detection of tubes in harsh environment. Most of the current research works focus on designing various sensing apparatuses based on fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors for nondestructive erosion detection. These apparatuses prove to be able to collect signals reflecting tube wall thickness in static and controllable laboratory environment qualitatively. However, in reality, the industrial environment, which is impacted by many changing factors, is dynamic and uncontrollable. Consequently, the signals collected by these FBG apparatuses would have larger variations that mask the signals related to thickness. Furthermore, current methods have neither mentioned how to process their collected data to capture the unnoticeably slow but accumulative erosion information efficiently nor constructed online monitoring algorithms to detect the tube wall thinning process based on the collected signals quantitatively. Built upon their apparatuses but targeting at their unsolved challenges, we propose a novel data-driven approach for FBG signal analysis that can remove the environmental influence and extract features only related to tube wall thickness, and using the extracted features, we construct a statistical process control scheme to monitor tube wall thickness and detect erosion in real time efficiently.

Dual-function radar-communication (DFRC) based on frequency hopping (FH) MIMO radar (FH-MIMO DFRC) achieves symbol rate much higher than radar pulse repetition frequency. Such DFRC, however, is prone to eavesdropping due to the spatially uniform illumination of an FH-MIMO radar. In this paper, we reveal the potential of using permutations of hopping frequencies to achieve secure and high-speed FH-MIMO DFRC. Specifically, we identify the angle-dependent issue in detecting permutations and develop an element-wise phase compensation (EPC) to solve the issue for a legitimate user (Bob). EPC makes the demodulation at an eavesdropper (Eve) conditioned on knowing the angle-of-departure (AoD) of Bob. We also propose the random sign reversal (RSR) technique which randomly selects several antennas over hops and reverses their signs. Owing to EPC, there is a sign rule available for Bob. We employ the rule and develop a low-complexity algorithm for Bob to remove RSR. We further prove that, given the same signal-to-noise ratio, RSR plus EPC make the demodulation performance of Eve inferior to that of Bob in most angular regions. Confirmed by simulation, our design achieves substantially high physical layer security for FH-MIMO DFRC, improves demodulation performance compared with existing designs, and reduces mutual interference among radar targets.

Frequency-hopping (FH) MIMO radar-based dual-function radar communication (FH-MIMO DFRC) enables communication symbol rate to exceed radar pulse repetition frequency, which requires accurate estimations of timing offset and channel parameters. The estimations, however, are challenging due to unknown, fast-changing hopping frequencies and the multiplicative coupling between timing offset and channel parameters. In this article, we develop accurate methods for a single-antenna communication receiver to estimate timing offset and channel for FH-MIMO DFRC. First, we design a novel FH-MIMO radar waveform, which enables a communication receiver to estimate the hopping frequency sequence (HFS) used by radar, instead of acquiring it from radar. Importantly, the novel waveform incurs no degradation to radar ranging performance. Then, via capturing distinct HFS features, we develop two estimators for timing offset and derive mean squared error lower bound of each estimator. Using the bounds, we design an HFS that renders both estimators applicable. Furthermore, we develop an accurate channel estimation method, reusing the single hop for timing offset estimation. Validated by simulations, the accurate channel estimates attained by the proposed methods enable the communication performance of DFRC to approach that achieved based on perfect timing and ideal knowledge of channel.

Frequency-hopping (FH) MIMO radar is recently introduced as an underlying system for realizing dual-function radar-communication (DFRC), increasing communication symbol rates to multiples of the radar pulse repetition frequency. As a newly conceived DFRC system, many realistic issues, such as channel estimation and synchronization, are not effectively solved yet. In this paper, we develop a multi-antenna receiver-based downlink communication scheme for the FH-MIMO DFRC, addressing the above issues in multi-path channels. By exploring the unique FH-MIMO radar waveform, we suppress both inter-antenna and inter-hop interference, and introduce minimal constraints on the radar waveform to facilitate DFRC. We then develop accurate estimation methods for timing offset and channel parameters. These methods are further employed to design reliable demodulation methods. We also derive performance bounds for the proposed estimation methods and embedded communications. Simulation results validate the efficacy of our receiving scheme, showing that the performance of estimators and data communications approaches analytical bounds.

Angle-of-arrival (AoA) estimation is a challenging problem for analog antenna arrays. Typical schemes use time-consuming beam scanning, and the resolution is limited to the scanning beam width. In this paper, we propose a virtual-subarray based AoA (ViSA) estimation scheme, which divides an analog array into two virtual subarrays and exploits phase difference between one pair of measurements for AoA estimation. The basic ViSA algorithm can obtain a direct AoA estimate from every two temporal measurements. We propose different subarray constructions which can lead to different accuracy of estimation. We provide closed-form expressions for the statistics of the estimation error. Based on the basic ViSA estimator, we develop two methods to combine multiple pairs of measurements, when they are obtained via sequential and multi-resolution scanning, respectively. Near-optimal estimators are derived for both methods, employing the maximum likelihood principle. Novel techniques are also proposed to address the typical phase ambiguity problem due to the periodic phase function. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme significantly outperforms existing ones.

Antenna design and angle-of-arrival (AoA) estimation are critical to the efficiency of wireless information and power transfer. The AoA estimation is challenging for energy-efficient lens antenna arrays (LAAs), due to discrete sets of fixed discrete Fourier transform (DFT) beams. This paper presents a novel fast and accurate approach for the AoA estimation of LAAs. The key idea is that we prove the two differential outputs of three adjacent lens beams, referred to as “DFT beam differences (DBDs),” that are the strongest at the two sides of an AoA. They are easy to identify and robust to noises, and their powers are proved to provide an accurate estimate of the AoA. Another important aspect is a new beam synthesis technique which produces different beam widths based on DFT beams and practical 1-bit phase shifts in real time. As a result, the angular region containing the AoA can exponentially narrow down, and the two strongest DBDs can be quickly identified. The proposed approach can operate in coupling with successive interference cancellation to estimate the AoAs of multiple paths. Simulations show that the proposed approach is able to outperform the state of the art by orders of magnitude in terms of accuracy. The power transfer efficiency can be dramatically improved.

Arrays of Butler matrices provide a promising front-end design for massive MIMO transceivers with low cost and low complexity. However, this advanced design does not necessarily translate to effective applications, unless the angle-of-arrival (AoA) of signals avails to the Butler matrices. This paper presents an efficient approach to the unprecedented AoA estimation for the arrays of Butler matrices. Specifically, we design a new beam synthesis method to recursively narrow down and increasingly focus on the angular region of interest, and hence achieving robust estimation of the phase offset between Butler matrices. With the phase offset canceled in the received signals, we are able to identify the set of critical Butler beams with the dominating effect on the AoA estimation, and estimate the AoA accordingly with minimum signaling. The mean squared error of the proposed estimation is analyzed in the presence of non-negligible noises, with closed-form lower bounds derived. Validated by simulations, the proposed algorithm is able to indistinguishably approach the lower bounds, and significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art developed for discrete antenna arrays by orders of magnitude in terms of accuracy, especially in low signal-to-noise regimes.

Accurate estimation of angle-of-arrival (AoA) is critical to wideband satellite communications, but is susceptible to receive noises and can be ambiguous due to space/cost-effective hybrid antenna array designs with localized analog phased subarrays. As a matter of fact, there has yet to be an unambiguous estimator even for narrow-band systems. This paper proposes a new design of subarray-specific time-varying phase shifts, which enables unambiguous and noise-tolerant estimation of AoA in localized hybrid arrays. Particularly, the new phase shifts deliver deterministic phase changes in the cross-correlations of receive signals between subarrays, and enable the cross-correlations to be coherently accumulated across subarrays and sub-carriers to eliminate ambiguities and tolerate noises. Another important contribution of the paper is that we optimize the frequency interval for coherent accumulation across sub-carriers, leveraging between estimation errors, and accumulation gains. Evident from simulations, our approach is able to dramatically improve the estimation accuracy by orders of magnitudes with significantly reduced requirements of complexities and training symbols, as compared with the state of the art. The approach is robust against noises, with estimation errors asymptotically achieving a rigorously developed lower bound.

Hybrid array is able to leverage array gains, transceiver sizes, and costs for massive multiple-input-multiple-output systems in millimeter-wave frequencies. Challenges arise from the estimation of angle-of-arrival (AoA) in localized hybrid arrays, due to the array structure and the resultant estimation ambiguities and susceptibility to noises. This paper eliminates the ambiguities and enhances the tolerance to the noises based on our new discoveries. Particularly, by designing new subarray-specific time-varying phase shifts, we discover that the cross-correlations between the gains of consecutive subarrays have consistent signs except the strongest. This enables the cross-correlations to be deterministically calibrated and constructively combined for the noise-tolerant estimation of the propagation phase offset between adjacent subarrays. Given the phase offset, the AoA can be estimated unambiguously with few training symbols. We also derive a closed-form lower bound for the mean square error of AoA estimation. Corroborated by simulations, our approach is able to dramatically improve estimation accuracy by orders of magnitude while reducing complexity and training symbols, as compared to the state of the art. With the ambiguities eliminated, the estimation errors of our method asymptotically approach the lower bound, as training symbols increase.