Fluid antenna (FA) is an emerging technology in recent years to switch physical locations of antennas in a predetermined small space. This paper proposes a reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS)-cooperative framework with FA-assisted non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) system, namely FA-RIS-NOMA. Targeting multi-interference scenarios in urban environments, the considered system incorporates a base station (BS) equipped with a conventional antenna and users each equipped with an FA. Additionally, the RIS is utilized to forward signals between BS and users blocked by obstacles. The non-line-of-sight multipath fading characteristics of the RIS-assisted link are modeled as a Nakagami-mchannel. To overcome the multiuser interference and improve the system performance, we develop the NOMA technique for resource allocation. Meanwhile, to reduce the signal processing complexity at the receiver, a group optimization greedy detection method is proposed. To evaluate the system’s reliability, the outage probability for each user is analyzed by using the copula function. This method enables the derivation of the cumulative distribution and probability density functions for the equivalent user-side channel, from which closed-form outage probability expressions are obtained. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed framework achieves signal-to-noise ratio gains of approximately 9 dB and 8 dB over fixed-antenna and relay-assisted systems, respectively. Furthermore, the proposed detection method reduces computational complexity by over 75% with less than 0.5 dB performance degradation.

As the sixth-generation (6G) networks evolve towards a deep integration of communication and computation (ICC), they face challenges of inherent interference and resource competition between heterogeneous services. To address this issue, this paper investigates an uplink ICC system enhanced by a stacked intelligent metasurface (SIM), where SIM’s unique multi-layer structure transforms the wireless channel into a controllable, task-oriented medium. The system is designed to support the coexistence of over-the-air computation (AirComp) tasks, which require high-precision results, and traditional tasks that demand high-quality communication. To this end, we formulate a joint optimization framework aiming to minimize the total mean squared error (MSE) of all computation tasks while strictly guaranteeing the communication quality of service (QoS). To solve the highly non-convex problem of synergistically designing the system resources, we propose an efficient alternating optimization (AO) algorithm. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm not only converges rapidly but also achieves up to a 95.2% reduction in total computation MSE compared to an ICC system without SIM, while also significantly outperforming other benchmark schemes, validating the great potential of SIM in proactively managing multi-service conflicts and enabling efficient ICC.

In this paper, we investigate an uplink multi-modal probabilistic semantic communication (PSCom) system based on probability graph in the satellite scenario. The system consists of both: semantic computation and traditional communication. Firstly, at the user end, the transmitted data is compressed based on the probabilistic graph. Then, the compressed data is transmitted to the satellite, which uses the same probabilistic graph to recover the received data. In the considered model, this paper addresses an optimization problem for multi-modal multi-user semantic communication across multiple time slots. An optimization problems formulated aiming to minimize the total energy consumption of the PSCom system, with satisfying the transmission time, transmission power, transmission bandwidth, local computation frequency, and transmission data requirements. To solve this problem, the Lyapunov drift-plus-penalty function based on online optimization is first used to transform the multi-slot problem into a stochastic single-slot problem, thereby converting the optimization problem into a trade-off between system energy consumption and queue length. Subsequently, an alternating algorithm is proposed to iteratively optimize, semantic compression rate, local computation frequency, transmission bandwidth, transmission power, and time allocation variables. Finally, simulation experiments demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

Multimodal learning emerges as a promising solution for high-precision localization, a cornerstone of 6G integrated sensing and communications (ISAC), by integrating measurements from different data sources. Yet its real-world deployment remains challenging because(i)the quality and relevance of different modalities fluctuate with frequency, noise, and antenna heterogeneity and(ii)spatial and fingerprint ambiguities under non-line-of-sight (NLOS) propagation obscure the mapping between channel measurements and positions. To overcome these challenges, we propose a spatial-context-aware dynamicfusion architecture built on the mixture-of-experts (SCADF-MoE) backbone. We first construct a million-scale comprehensive ray-tracing dataset measuring synchronized angle, distance, gain, and channel across diverse carrier frequencies, antenna geometries, and noise levels. A three-stage pre-processing pipeline then clusters neighboring points into short trajectories, enriching data samples with spatial context information. The resulting sequences are fed into SCADF-MoE: first, multimodal soft MoE blocks with learnable routing matrices dynamically fuse heterogeneous inputs according to their modality relevance in different environmental contexts; second, a modality-task MoE formulates position estimation as a multi-objective problem, simultaneously predicting coordinates of neighboring points to leverage their shared spatial correlations. Additionally, we introduce a regularization loss that enforces expert diversity and mitigates gradient conflicts during multi-task optimization. Simulations across three environments (dense-urban, suburban, canyon) and three heterogeneity dimensions (frequency, noise, antenna) demonstrate that SCADF-MoE achieves consistent sub-meter accuracy in all conditions, reducing overall MSE by 63%, and cuts unseen-NLOS error by 55% compared to state-of-the-art methods. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that leverages large-scale multimodal MoEs for high-precision ISAC localization.

The communication performance of traditional two-dimensional (2D) antenna arrays is approaching its theoretical limit under constraints of physical size and hardware costs, thus failing to meet the escalating demands of wireless communications. While double-layer three-dimensional (3D) antenna arrays presents a breakthrough for overcoming this bottleneck by exploiting the additional degrees of freedom, its implementation is hindered by several challenges, notably the issues of codebook design. In this paper, we propose a novel codebook scheme tailored for 3D antenna array structures. Specifically, an angle-distance-aware codebook for 3D antenna arrays is designed to cater to both near-field and far-field scenarios by minimizing inter-beam interference, with proven asymptotic orthogonality. Furthermore, evanescent codewords for both regions are effectively eliminated to improve codebook construction efficiency. Simulation results illustrate the superior performance of the proposed codebook over 2D baselines, with a 29% and 12% narrower angular and distance beamwidth ofh=λ, and a 27% gain in spectral efficiency ofh=0.5λ, owing to the vertical dimension. Moreover, practical mutual coupling that manifests as beam deviations and broadening is analyzed to establish a basis for future work.

Spectral efficiency (SE) and energy efficiency (EE) are two major challenges faced by the sixth-generation wireless communication systems. In this paper, we propose a reconfigurable intelligent surfaces-assisted simultaneous wireless information and power transfer scheme based on fluid antenna port grouping index modulation (RIS-FA-PGIM). The flexible port switching capability of FA overcomes the spatial limitations of traditional antennas, significantly improving the SE. Further-more, in order to improve the SE and EE of the system, this paper jointly optimizes the beamforming matrix at the base station and RIS. Due to the coupling relationship between variables, the optimization problem is non-convex and difficult to solve. In order to solve this problem, an alternating optimization algorithm is proposed, which gradually approaches the global optimal solution through an iterative optimization process. Simulation results show that the system not only achieves outstanding SE performance but also realizes low energy consumption, which verifies the effectiveness and superiority of the scheme.

Wireless federated analytics face two critical challenges: data privacy and communication efficiency, since the local data may contain sensitive information and the users may be equipped with limited communication capability. Existing methods often adopt a direct combination of privacy-preservation schemes and compression mechanisms but overlook the privacy amplification effect from errors introduced in compression and wireless communication. With such consideration, a Differentially Private Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (DP-QAM) scheme, which leverages privacy amplification from both compression and noisy wireless channels, is proposed. The privacy guarantee is established in terms of the emergingf-DP, and the trade-off between privacy, communication cost, and accuracy in terms of mean square error (MSE) is characterized in the fundamental use cases of distributed mean estimation and frequency estimation, which outperforms the state-of-the-art methods. Moreover, the advantage of the proposed method over the classic Gaussian mechanism is further demonstrated from a rate-distortion perspective. Finally, extensive simulation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed mechanism.

In this paper, we focus on beamforming optimization for a multiuser and multi-target integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) system with non-ideal hardware at both the base station (BS) and the users. Specifically, by taking into account the impact of hardware impairments encountered in practice, we jointly optimize the transmit and receive beamforming at the ISAC BS to maximize the minimum radar output signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) for the multi-target sensing, subject to the constraints of multiuser communication requirements and transmit power limit. The formulated joint optimization is nonconovex and challenging to solve. To address this intricate optimization task, we start with a single-target scenario, for which we propose an optimal solution. In particular, we prove in theory that, even in the presence of general additive Gaussian distortions caused by transceiver hardware impairments, a matched filter (MF) radar receiver and a transmit beamforming determined through beampattern gain maximization criterion are optimal, which follow the same strategies as an ideal scenario with perfect hardware. Subsequently, for a general multi-target scenario, we derive a series of closed-form optimal radar receive beamforming. By substituting these solutions, we achieve an equivalent problem reformulation with respect to the transmit beamforming and propose an iterative algorithm to solve it. We also extend the optimization method to cases involving more realistic hardware impairments. Finally, we evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms and highlight their notable advantages compared to existing approaches through simulation results.

Artificial noise (AN) has been recognized as an effective physical-layer security scheme impairing the eavesdropper (Eve). Recently, artificial noise elimination (ANE) has emerged as a promising strategy to mitigate the impact of AN at Eves. However, conventional ANE schemes rely on prior knowledge, such as legitimate channel state information (CSI) or classification information, which may limit their practical applicability. To address these practical challenges, we propose an ANE scheme beyond prior knowledge (BPK) by leveraging machine learning algorithms. Firstly, a coarse projection is applied to partially eliminate the impact of AN using maximum likelihood estimation on the equivalent AN matrix. Secondly, a density clustering algorithm is introduced to obtain classification information based on the coarsely-projected observed vectors. Thirdly, a generalized principal component analysis (PCA)-based ANE algorithm is developed to effectively mitigate the residual AN using the obtained classification information. Furthermore, the artificial-noise-to-signal ratio (ANSR) and computational complexity are analyzed for performance revaluation, and a redefinition of several AN design principles is provided for scenarios involving a powerful Eve equipped with the BPK-ANE scheme by deriving the validity boundary. Finally, numerical results reveal key insights into four principles of AN: 1) Allocating less power to AN; 2) Reducing the randomness of AN; 3) Increasing the number of transmit antennas; and 4) Increasing the modulation order.

The rapid proliferation of the Internet of Things has given rise to a multitude of real-time applications, which pose significant computing challenges for resource-constrained users. Air-ground collaborative mobile edge computing (AGMEC) emerges as an innovative solution, integrating aerial and terrestrial computing paradigms to provide flexible, efficient services that significantly enhance data processing capabilities. This paper focuses on the freshness of task data in AGMEC networks, characterized by the emerging metric of age of information (AoI). Due to limited spectrum resources and network coverage gaps, we introduce non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) and active reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) technologies to facilitate efficient task offloading. We formulate a joint optimization problem of uncrewed aerial vehicle trajectory, active RIS beamforming, and task offloading strategy to minimize the network’s average AoI under multidimensional constraints. Considering the non-convex nature and the dynamic characteristics of the AGMEC environment, we develop an action adjuster-based deep deterministic policy gradient (AADDPG) algorithm. The innovative design of the action adjuster enables the algorithm to not only achieve efficient processing of hybrid action spaces but also effectively protect UAV battery performance. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed AADDPG algorithm significantly improves AoI performance compared to other benchmark algorithms. Additionally, the results corroborate the efficacy of both NOMA and active RIS in minimizing AoI for AGMEC networks.

Orthogonal delay-Doppler division multiplexing (ODDM) modulation has recently been regarded as a promising technology to provide reliable communications in high-mobility situations. Accurate and low-complexity channel estimation is one of the most critical challenges for massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) ODDM systems, mainly due to the extremely large antenna arrays and high-mobility environments. To overcome these challenges, this paper addresses the issue of channel estimation in downlink massive MIMO-ODDM systems and proposes a low-complexity algorithm based on memory approximate message passing (MAMP) to estimate the channel state information (CSI). Specifically, we first establish the effective channel model of the massive MIMO-ODDM systems, where the magnitudes of the elements in the equivalent channel vector follow a Bernoulli-Gaussian distribution. Further, as the number of antennas grows, the elements in the equivalent coefficient matrix tend to become completely random. Leveraging these characteristics, we utilize the MAMP method to determine the gains, delays, and Doppler effects of the multi-path channel, while the channel angles are estimated through the discrete Fourier transform method. Finally, numerical results show that the proposed channel estimation algorithm approaches the Bayesian optimal results when the number of antennas tends to infinity and improves the channel estimation accuracy by about 30% compared with the existing algorithms in terms of the normalized mean square error.

In this paper, we investigate the question of which technology, fluid antenna systems (FAS) or active reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (ARIS), plays a more crucial role in FAS-ARIS wireless communication systems. To address this, we develop a comprehensive system model and explore the problem from an optimization perspective. We introduce an alternating optimization (AO) algorithm incorporating majorization-minimization (MM), successive convex approximation (SCA), and sequential rank-one constraint relaxation (SRCR) to tackle the non-convex challenges inherent in single-user scenario. Specifically, for the transmit beamforming of the BS optimization, we propose a closed-form rank-one solution with low-complexity. For the optimization the positions of fluid antennas (FAs) of the BS, the Taylor expansions and MM algorithm are utilized to construct the effective lower bounds and upper bounds of the objective function and constraints, transforming the non-convex optimization problem into a convex one. Furthermore, we use the SCA and SRCR to optimize the reflection coefficient matrix of the ARIS and effectively solve the rank-one constraint. To be more general, the proposed AO algorithm is then extended to multi-user scenario. Simulation results reveal that the relative importance of FAS and ARIS varies depending on the scenario: FAS proves more critical in simpler models with fewer reflecting elements or limited transmission paths, while ARIS becomes more significant in complex scenarios with a higher number of reflecting elements or transmission paths. Ultimately, the integration of both FAS and ARIS creates a win-win scenario, resulting in a more robust and efficient communication system. This study underscores the importance of combining FAS with ARIS, as their complementary use provides the most substantial benefits across different communication environments.

Fine-tuning large language models (LLM) in a distributed manner over edge devices with limited communication and computational resources presents substantial challenges in wireless networks. To tackle these issues, this paper proposes a novel Split Federated Learning framework tailored for LLM (SflLLM), which integrates split federated learning with parameter-efficient fine-tuning techniques. By employing model partitioning and low-rank adaptation (LoRA), SflLLM significantly reduces the computational load on edge devices. Moreover, the introduction of the federated server not only facilitates parallel training but also enhances privacy preservation. To accommodate the heterogeneous communication conditions and diverse computational capacities of edge devices—while accounting for the influence of LoRA rank selection on model convergence and training overhead—we formulate a joint optimization problem. This problem simultaneously optimizes subchannel allocation, power control, model split point selection, and LoRA rank configuration, with the objective of minimizing the overall training latency. An alternating optimization algorithm is developed to efficiently solve the proposed problem and accelerate the training process. Simulation results demonstrate that, compared to conventional methods, the proposed resource allocation scheme and adaptive LoRA rank selection strategy significantly reduce training latency.

Large language models (LLMs) face significant challenges in specialized domains like telecommunication (Tele-com) due to technical complexity, specialized terminology, and rapidly evolving knowledge. Traditional methods, such as scaling model parameters or retraining on domain-specific corpora, are computationally expensive and yield diminishing returns, while existing approaches like retrieval-augmented generation, mixture of experts, and fine-tuning struggle with accuracy, efficiency, and coordination. To address this issue, we propose Telecom mixture of models (TeleMoM), a consensus-driven ensemble framework that integrates multiple LLMs for enhanced decision-making in Telecom. TeleMoM employs a two-stage process: proponent models generate justified responses, and an adjudicator finalizes decisions, supported by a quality-checking mechanism. This approach leverages strengths of diverse models to improve accuracy, reduce biases, and handle domain-specific complexities effectively. Evaluation results demonstrate that TeleMoM achieves a 9.7% increase in answer accuracy, highlighting its effectiveness in Telecom applications.

Abstract With the growing demand for seamless connectivity and intelligent communication, the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and sixth-generation (6G) communication networks has emerged as a transformative paradigm. By embedding AI capabilities across various network layers, this integration enables optimized resource allocation, improved efficiency, and enhanced system robust performance. This paper presents a comprehensive overview of AI and communication for 6G networks, with a focus on their foundational principles, inherent challenges, and future research opportunities. We first review the integration of AI and communications in the context of 6G, exploring the driving factors behind incorporating AI into wireless communications, as well as the vision for the convergence of AI and 6G. The discourse then transitions to a detailed exposition of the envisioned integration of AI within 6G networks, divided into three progressive stages. The first stage, AI for network, focuses on employing AI to augment network performance, optimize efficiency, and enhance user service experiences. The second stage, network for AI, highlights the role of the network in facilitating and buttressing AI operations and presents key enabling technologies. We compare wireless network large models with conventional large language models (LLMs), and identify key design principles and components for building wireless network architectures. In the final stage, AI as a service, it is anticipated that future 6G networks will innately provide AI functions as services, supporting application scenarios like immersive communication and intelligent industrial robots. Specifically, we define the quality of AI service, which refers to a framework for measuring AI services within the network. We further summarize the standardization process of AI for wireless networks, highlighting key milestones and ongoing efforts. In addition, we analyze the critical challenges faced by the integration of AI and communications in 6G. Finally, we outline promising future research opportunities that are expected to drive the development and refinement of AI and 6G communications.

Urban air mobility (UAM) relies on developing aerospace industries, where safe aviation and efficient communication are critical features of aircraft. However, it is challenging for aircraft to sustain efficient air-ground communication in urban circumstances. Without continuous air-ground communication, aircraft may experience course deviation and safety accidents. To address these problems, a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-aided trajectory optimization scheme is proposed enabling efficient air-ground communication and safe aviation in UAM with a layered airspace structure. This article first devises a dual-plane RIS communication scheme for layered airspace. It fully engages the omnidirectional and directional signal attributes to reduce the transmission delay of the air-ground communication. Based on the dual-plane RIS configuration, we jointly develop the intra- and interlayer trajectory scheme to optimize communication and safe aviation. In the intralayer trajectory optimization, we propose a dual-time-scale flight scheme to improve communication capacity and horizontal flight safety. Meanwhile, we propose a safe layer-switching method to ensure collision avoidance during vertical flight in the interlayer trajectory optimization. The communication load of the proposed scheme can be improved 40% and the time of safe separation restoration can be lessened 66% compared with the benchmarks in the layered airspace.

Real-time and contactless monitoring of vital signs, such as respiration and heartbeat, alongside reliable communication, is essential for modern healthcare systems, especially in remote and privacy-sensitive environments. Traditional wireless communication and sensing networks fall short in meeting all the stringent demands of eHealth, including accurate sensing, high data efficiency, and privacy preservation. To overcome the challenges, we propose a novel integrated sensing, computing, and semantic communication (ISCSC) framework. In the proposed system, a service robot utilises radar to detect patient positions and monitor their vital signs, while sending updates to the medical devices. Instead of transmitting raw physiological information, the robot computes and communicates semantically extracted health features to medical devices. This semantic processing improves data throughput and preserves the clinical relevance of the messages, while enhancing data privacy by avoiding the transmission of sensitive data. Leveraging the estimated patient locations, the robot employs an interacting multiple model (IMM) filter to actively track patient motion, thereby enabling robust beam steering for continuous and reliable monitoring. We then propose a joint optimisation of the beamforming matrices and the semantic extraction ratio, subject to computing capability and power budget constraints, with the objective of maximising both the semantic secrecy rate and sensing accuracy. Simulation results validate that the ISCSC framework achieves superior sensing accuracy, improved semantic transmission efficiency, and enhanced privacy preservation compared to conventional joint sensing and communication methods.

With the development of communication technology, the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) is becoming increasingly important, enabling vehicle-to-everything communication for real-time information exchange and processing, thereby significantly enhancing traffic efficiency and safety. In this article, we consider a joint beamforming design problem in IoV, where the objective is to minimize transmission power, computation rate, and communication rate within the integrated sensing, communication, and computation (ISCC) framework. Moreover, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) can provide additional spatial degrees of freedom to enhance the performance of ISCC systems in IoV within limited spectrum, energy resources, and complex interference management. To address the joint beamforming design problem, we present a cooperative beamforming algorithm called weight performance optimization (WPO), which explores three single-objective optimization problems in sensing, computation, and communication within the IoV context, using alternating optimization (AO) to simplify and solve these foundational elements of the WPO framework within limited resources and vehicle mobility, enhancing resource distribution while maintaining a balance between power efficiency and system performance. Numerical results demonstrate the efficiency and potential advantages of our proposed algorithms. Specifically, the results show that the sensing error of the WPO algorithm is reduced by up to 92.2% compared to existing popular algorithms, while the computation rate and communication rate are increased by more than 29.5% and 23.9%, respectively.

This paper investigates a multi-user uplink mobile edge computing (MEC) network, where the users offload partial tasks securely to an access point under the non-orthogonal multiple access policy with the aid of a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) against a multi-antenna eavesdropper. We formulate a non-convex optimization problem of minimizing the total energy consumption subject to secure offloading requirement, and we build an efficient block coordinate descent framework to iteratively optimize the number of local computation bits and transmit power at the users, the RIS phase shifts, and the multi-user detection matrix at the access point. Specifically, we successively adopt successive convex approximation, semi-definite programming, and semidefinite relaxation to solve the problem with perfect eavesdropper’s channel state information (CSI), and we then employ S-procedure and penalty convex-concave to achieve robust design for the imperfect CSI case. We provide extensive numerical results to validate the convergence and effectiveness of the proposed algorithms. We demonstrate that RIS plays a significant role in realizing a secure and energy-efficient MEC network, and deploying a well-designed RIS can save energy consumption by up to 60% compared to that without RIS. We further reveal impacts of various key factors on the secrecy energy efficiency, including RIS element number and deployment position, user number, task scale and duration, and CSI imperfection.

How to reduce the pilot overhead required for channel estimation? How to deal with the channel dynamic changes and error propagation in channel prediction? To jointly address these two critical issues in next-generation transceiver design, in this paper, we propose a novel framework named channel deduction for high-dimensional channel acquisition in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO)-orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. Specifically, it makes use of the outdated channel information of past time slots, performs coarse estimation for the current channel with a relatively small number of pilots, and then fuses these two information to obtain a complete representation of the present channel. The rationale is to align the current channel representation to both the latent channel features within the past samples and the coarse estimate of current channel at the pilots, which, in a sense, behaves as a complementary combination of estimation and prediction and thus reduces the overall overhead. To fully exploit the highly nonlinear correlations in time, space, and frequency domains, we resort to learning-based implementation approaches. By using the highly efficient complex-domain multilayer perceptron (MLP)-mixer for across-space-frequency-domain representation and the recurrence-based or attention-based mechanisms for the past-present interaction, we respectively design two different channel deduction neural networks (CDNets). We provide a general procedure of data collection, training, and deployment to standardize the application of CDNets. Comprehensive experimental evaluations in accuracy, robustness, and efficiency demonstrate the superiority of the proposed approach, which reduces the pilot overhead by up to 88.9% compared to state-of-the-art estimation approaches and enables continuous operating even under unknown user movement and error propagation.

Presents corrections to the paper, Coverage Rate Analysis for Integrated Sensing and Communication Networks.

Federated learning (FL) paradigm faces critical challenges in communication efficiency and fault tolerance. Recently, the federated probabilistic mask training (FedPM) proposes to learn a binary pruning mask instead of model parameters, which alleviates the communication overhead issue thanks to the binary nature of pruning masks. However, its robustness against malicious participants remains unexplored. This work proposes federated weighted probabilistic mask aggregation (FedWPMA), which utilizes the maximum likelihood estimation for binary masks and adapts a weighted aggregation strategy to mitigate the impact of adversarial clients that may share falsified pruning masks. A warm-up strategy is further proposed and incorporated to facilitate the training process. Extensive experimental results validate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Simultaneous transmitting and reflecting (STAR) reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) technique has recently received considerable attention due to its omni-directional radiation capability. In this paper, motivated by the interference-mitigation-based (IMB) and signal-enhancement-based (SEB) designs, we introduce an innovative STAR-RIS assisted simultaneous-signal-enhancement-and-interference-mitigation (SSEIM) design in non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) multiple-input single-output cellular communication networks. Our objective is to maximize the system spectral efficiency (SE) by jointly optimizing the reflection and transmission phase shifts at the STAR-RIS, the precoding matrix of BSs, and the power allocation factors of NOMA users. We propose a low-complexity simultaneous enhancement and mitigation algorithm. Furthermore, by exploiting the manifold optimization technique, we introduce the Riemannian conjugate gradient algorithm to solve the non-convex subproblems with unit modulus constraint. Our analysis reveals that the proposed SSEIM design exceeds the traditional RIS-aided SEB and IMB designs.

Although LoRa has emerged as the leading technology among the rapidly developing low-power wide-area networks, the performance of the LoRa system severely deteriorates over fading channels. To address this problem, in this paper, we introduce multiple reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (multi-RISs) into the LoRa system to improve its performance. Our specific focus is on the impact of outdated channel state information (CSI), the imperfection of estimated CSI, and the design of RIS discrete phase shifts on the performance. To this end, we first use the moment-matching method to obtain the end-to-end (E2E) channel coefficient of the joint outdated channels and erroneous channels over Nakagami-m fading. Moreover, the closed-form bit error rates (BERs) of the proposed system with non-coherent and coherent detections are derived. The results reveal that, in the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regime, coherent detection encounters the error floor and performs worse than non-coherent detection. Furthermore, we also analyze delay outage rate, throughput, and achievable diversity order of the proposed system. The results show that, despite the presence of outdated CSI and channel estimation errors, the proposed system is still superior to RIS-aided LoRa systems adopting blind transmission and RIS-free ones. Finally, we also thoroughly investigate the effects of various important factors such as the correlation factor, channel estimation errors, the number of RIS reflecting elements, and the number of quantization bits for RIS discrete phase shifts on the performance.

To overcome the impact of information leakage, obstacle blocking, channel uncertainties, and hardware impairments (HWIs) in wireless communication systems, we design a robust secure transmission strategy for a multi-reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-aided communication system with HWIs and channel uncertainties, where a multi-antenna base station (BS) serves multiple wireless users aided by multiple RISs and overcomes information leakage caused by multiple eavesdroppers. Based on bounded channel uncertainties, a total transmit power minimization problem is investigated subject to the secrecy rates of users, the maximum transmit power of the BS, and the phase shifts of RISs. To deal with the formulated non-convex problem with parameter perturbations, it is transformed into a deterministic problem by using the worst-case approach, S-procedure, and successive convex approximation. Then, the problem is decomposed into an active beamforming and artificial noise subproblem and a passive beamforming subproblem. The subproblems are converted into convex ones via the semi-definite relaxation method, singular value decomposition, penalty function, and eigenvalue decomposition approaches. Finally, an iteration-based robust resource allocation algorithm is proposed. Simulation results verify that by deploying more RISs or increasing the number of reflection elements, the impacts of eavesdroppers and HWIs can be effectively decreased even with channel estimation errors.

In this paper, we consider the simultaneously transmitting and reflecting reconfigurable intelligent surface (STAR-RIS)-assisted THz communications with three-side beam split. Except for the beam split at the base station (BS), we analyze the double-side beam split at the STAR-RIS for the first time. To relieve the double-side beam split effect, we first propose a time delayer (TD)-based fully-connected structure at the STAR-RIS. As a further advance, a low-hardware complexity and low-power consumption sub-connected structure is developed, where multiple STAR-RIS elements share one TD. Meanwhile, considering the practical scenario, we investigate a multi-STAR-RIS and multi-user communication system, and sum rate maximization problem is formulated by jointly optimizing the hybrid analog/digital beamforming, time delays at the BS as well as the double-layer phase shift coefficients, time delays and amplitude coefficients at the STAR-RISs. Based on this, we first allocate users for each STAR-RIS, and then derive the analog beamforming, time delays at the BS, and the double-layer phase shift coefficients, time delays at each STAR-RIS. Next, we develop an alternative optimization algorithm to calculate the digital beamforming at the BS and amplitude coefficients at the STAR-RISs. Finally, the numerical results verify the effectiveness of the proposed schemes.

With the explosive growth of maritime activities, it is expected to provide seamless communications with quality of service (QoS) guarantee over broad sea area. In the context, this paper proposes a space-air-ground-sea integrated maritime communication architecture combining satellite, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), terrestrial base station (TBS) and unmanned surface vessel (USV). Firstly, according to the distance away from the shore, the whole marine space is divided to coastal area, offshore area, middle-sea area and open-sea area, the maritime users in which are served by TBS, USV, UAV and satellite, respectively. Then, by exploiting the potential of integrated maritime communication system, a joint beamforming and trajectory optimization algorithm is designed to maximize the minimum transmission rate of maritime users. Finally, theoretical analysis and simulation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

In this paper, we propose a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-aided wireless powered anti-jamming communication network (WPAJCN), where the RIS is utilized to participate in downlink wireless power transfer (WPT), as well as uplink anti-jamming wireless information transfer (AJ-WIT). To evaluate the network anti-jamming performance, we maximize a sum anti-jamming throughput, with the constraints of downlink WPT and uplink AJ-WIT time scheduling, and unit-modulus RIS phase shifts. The formulated problem is not convex in terms of these two types of coupled variables, which cannot be directly solved. To address this problem, the Lagrange dual method and Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions are presented to transform its sum-of-logarithmic objective function into the logarithmically fractional counterpart, which reformulate the original problem into that with respect to RIS phase shift vectors and WPT time scheduling. Next, we propose to apply the Dinkelback algorithm to solve a non-linear fractional programming with respect to the downlink WPT and uplink AJ-WIT RIS phase shifts in an alternating fashion, each of which is derived into a semi-closed solution by utilizing theRiemannian Manifold Optimization(RMO). In addition, the optimal WPT time scheduling is obtained by numerical search. Finally, the numerical results are demonstrated to confirm the improved performance of the proposed approach compared to the benchmark counterparts, which highlights the that RIS can effectively enhance the uplink anti-jamming WIT capability as well as the downlink WPT efficiency.

In next-generation wireless networks, integrated satellite-terrestrial networks are regarded as a pivotal solution for supporting seamless coverage and elevated data rates, but the physical layer security performances are severely degraded under both jamming and eavesdropping attacks due to wide field of line of sight. Thus, this paper designs an aerial hybrid active-passive reconfigurable intelligent surface (aerial hybrid RIS) communication system to enhance secure and reliable communication for integrated satellite-terrestrial networks, where an active eavesdropper aims to jam legitimate channels and eavesdrop on any data stream from RIS simultaneously. Specifically, we propose a resource scheduling approach that jointly optimizes the position of the aerial RIS, the hybrid beamforming matrix, the satellite beamforming design, and the satellite transmission power to maximize the ground users’ (GUs) secrecy rate under quality of service (QoS) requirements. To address the optimization problem in complex and dynamic communication environments, we reformulate the problem as a reinforcement learning (RL) problem and propose a secure resource scheduling method based on the relay hindsight experience replay-softmax deep double deterministic policy gradients (RHER-SD3) algorithm. The proposed RHER-SD3 algorithm effectively schedules the secure hybrid active-passive beamforming matrix, the aerial position of the RIS, the satellite beamforming vectors, and the satellite power allocation to avoid both jamming and eavesdropping attacks, even though the behavior information of the attacker is imperfect. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms existing approaches in improving system secrecy performance and QoS satisfaction against hybrid attacks.

Urban Air Mobility (UAM), powered by flying cars, is poised to revolutionize urban transportation by expanding vehicle travel from the ground to the air. This advancement promises to alleviate congestion and enable faster commutes. However, the fast travel speeds mean vehicles will encounter vastly different environments during a single journey. As a result, onboard learning systems need access to extensive environmental data, leading to high costs in data collection and training. These demands conflict with the limited in-vehicle computing and battery resources. Fortunately, learning model sharing offers a solution. Well-trained local Deep Learning (DL) models can be shared with other vehicles, reducing the need for redundant data collection and training. However, this sharing process relies heavily on efficient vehicular communications in UAM. To address these challenges, this paper leverages the multi-hop Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS) technology to improve DL model sharing between distant flying cars. We also employ knowledge distillation to reduce the size of the shared DL models and enable efficient integration of non-identical models at the receiver. Our approach enhances model sharing and onboard learning performance for cars entering new environments. Simulation results show that our scheme improves the total reward by 85% compared to benchmark methods.

In the paper, we propose a joint optimization algorithm based on the block coordinate descent (JOABCD) algorithm for reflective intelligent surface (RIS) assisted MEC-MIMO systems. First, we define the delay minimization function for both single user with multi-antenna and multiple users with single-antenna scenarios. Since the optimization function is an NP-hard problem, we decompose it into two subproblems: computing setting and communication setting using the block coordinate descent (BCD) iterative algorithm. The subproblem of resource allocation is solved using a bisection method, while the subproblem of transmit power and phase shift matrix is solved alternately. The optimal simulation results show that the JOABCD algorithm can realize a lower time latency and a higher sum achievable rate compared with the existing methods.

To utilize the limited acoustic spectrum while combating the harsh underwater propagation, we incorporate partial spectrum sharing into an underwater acoustic sensor network and aim to maximize the minimum data collection rate among all underwater sensor nodes through joint power allocation and spectrum assignment. To cope with the non-convex optimization problem, we propose a Hybrid Model-based and Data-based Resource Allocation (HMDRA) scheme: 1) Under any given spectrum assignment strategy, we analyze the impact of the partial spectrum sharing and imperfect successive interference cancellation on baseband signal processing, and formulate a power allocation problem that is solved by the bisection method and Lagrange dual theory. 2) Based on the optimal power allocation strategy, the gradient-free genetic algorithm (GA) is first adopted to approach the optimal solution of the model-less spectrum assignment problem by nearly enumerating the solution space. To reduce complexity, we further propose a deep reinforcement learning (DRL)-based algorithm and obtain an efficient solution by traversing a deep neural network-based policy learned from the training stage. Simulation results show that compared with the GA-based algorithm, the average execution time of the DRL-based algorithm is substantially reduced by 5 orders of magnitude to 0.7076 seconds at the cost of approximately 6 percent performance loss.

Non-coherent chaotic communication has gained increasing attention as it provides an efficient solution for reliable communications without requiring channel state information. In this paper, we propose a non-coherent reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-empowered differential chaos shift keying scheme with two-level nested index modulation (RIS-DCSK-TLNIM). In the proposed RIS-DCSK-TLNIM scheme, the reference index and information index are nested to form two-level nested index modulation. This design enhances both the spectral efficiency and bit error rate (BER) performance of RIS-DCSK-TLNIM, albeit at the expense of slightly increased complexity. Furthermore, we propose a joint detection algorithm to recover the information bits transmitted via the reference index, information index, and two distinct-mode signals. We then extend RIS-DCSK-TLNIM into an enhanced system to achieve higher spectral efficiency. Subsequently, we analyze the BER performance, spectral efficiency, and system complexity of RIS-DCSK-TLNIM, and compare these metrics with those of benchmark systems. Comparison results demonstrate that the proposed RIS-DCSK-TLNIM, when configured with a small number of time slots, can achieve more than twice the spectral efficiency and at least a 6 dB gain in BER performance compared to benchmark systems.

Initial random access is a crucial process in wireless communication networks, which sets up reliable connections between the base station (BS) and multiple active users. In this procedure, useful connection information can be naturally obtained to achieve user positioning, and the channel state information (CSI) of multiple users can be further exploited to realize environment sensing. On the other hand, environment sensing is highly related to user positioning as it requires user-specific CSI and benefits from multi-view observations from different user positions. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a joint initial random access, environment sensing, and user positioning framework. Specifically, oversampled cyclic prefixes (CPs) in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems, which contain rich environmental information, can be exploited to achieve enhanced channel estimation. Environment sensing and user positioning are further implemented based on the channel estimation results, and the scatter points are then clustered to reconstruct the environment objects. The simulation results show that the proposed framework can achieve a decimeter-level accuracy and a reconstruction ratio of about 89% for user positioning and environment sensing.

Integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) has emerged as a promising technology to facilitate high-rate communications and super-resolution sensing, particularly operating in the millimeter wave (mmWave) band. However, the vulnerability of mmWave signals to blockages severely impairs ISAC capabilities and coverage. To tackle this, an efficient and low-cost solution is to deploy distributed reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) to construct virtual links between the base stations (BSs) and users in a controllable fashion. In this paper, we model the generalized RIS-assisted mmWave ISAC networks considering the blockage effect, and examine the beneficial impact of RISs on the coverage rate utilizing stochastic geometry. Based on the proposed beam patterns and user association policies, we derive the conditional coverage probability and ergodic rate of communication and sensing dual functions for two association cases, as well as the marginal coverage rate using the distance-dependent thinning method. Taking into account the coupling effect of ISAC dual functions within the same network topology, we further calculate the joint coverage probability of ISAC performance. Simulation results verify the accuracy of derived theoretical formulations, and illustrate the impact of the RIS aperture, blockage, BS and RIS densities on ISAC coverage rates, which provide valuable guidelines for the practical network deployment. Specifically, our results indicate the superiority of the RIS deployment with the density of 40 km${}^{-2}$BSs, and that the joint coverage rate of ISAC performance exhibits potential growth from 62% to 97% with the deployment of RISs.

In this paper, we investigate reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) systems for robust physical layer security (PLS) schemes. Traditionally, eavesdroppers (Eves) typically avoid interacting with the base station, making it challenging to obtain their relevant information, which limits the implementation of PLS. Fortunately, the sensing information obtained by ISAC can contribute to the design of PLS. Therefore, leveraging imperfect sensing estimation and employing dedicated radar signals as artificial noise, we formulate an RIS-assisted joint active and passive beamforming design problem to maximize the sum secrecy rate while satisfying the user’s quality of service constraints, the transmission power constraints, and the sensing signal strength requirements. To make the problem tractable, we first derive the bound for Eve’s channel state information uncertainty region based on security approximations. Subsequently, we employ the$\mathcal {S}$-procedure and the symbolic-deterministic methods to transform the infinite number of inequalities. We then utilize the first-order Taylor expansion, the second-order cone methods, and the successive convex approximation to address the nonconvexity problem, leading to an efficient suboptimal solution obtained by an iterative algorithm. Finally, the simulation results demonstrate the significant potential of the sensing function in enhancing security and the effectiveness of the proposed robust scheme in flexibly balancing communication and sensing quality.

Movable antennas (MAs) enhance flexibility in beamforming gain and interference suppression by adjusting position within certain areas of the transceivers. In this paper, we propose an MA-assisted integrated sensing and communication framework, wherein MAs are deployed for reconfiguring the channel array responses at both the receiver and transmitter of a base station. Then, we develop an optimization framework aimed at maximizing the sensing signal-to-interference-plus-noise-ratio (SINR) by jointly optimizing the receive beamforming vector, the transmit beamforming matrix, and the positions of MAs while meeting the minimum SINR requirement for each user. To address this nonconvex problem involving complex coupled variables, we devise an alternating optimization-based algorithm that incorporates techniques including the Charnes-Cooper transform, second-order Taylor expansion, and successive convex approximation (SCA). Specifically, the closed form of the received vector and the optimal transmit matrix can be first obtained in each iteration. Subsequently, the solutions for the positions of the transmit and receive MAs are obtained using the SCA method based on the second-order Taylor expansion. The simulation results show that the proposed scheme has significant advantages over the other baseline schemes. In particular, the proposed scheme has the ability to match the performance of the fixed position antenna scheme while utilizing fewer resources.

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) is emerging as a promising technology for next-generation wireless communication networks, offering a variety of merits such as the ability to tailor the communication environment. Moreover, deploying multiple RISs helps mitigate severe signal blocking between the base station (BS) and users, providing a practical and efficient solution to enhance the service coverage. However, fully reaping the potential of a multi-RIS aided communication system requires solving a non-convex optimization problem. This challenge motivates the adoption of learning-based methods for determining the optimal policy. In this paper, we introduce a novel heterogeneous graph neural network (GNN) to effectively leverage the graph topology of a wireless communication environment. Specifically, we design an association scheme that selects a suitable RIS for each user. Then, we maximize the weighted sum rate (WSR) of all the users by iteratively optimizing the RIS association scheme, and beamforming designs until the considered heterogeneous GNN converges. Based on the proposed approach, each user is associated with the best RIS, which is shown to significantly improve the system capacity in multi-RIS multi-user millimeter wave (mmWave) communications. Specifically, simulation results demonstrate that the proposed heterogeneous GNN closely approaches the performance of the high-complexity alternating optimization (AO) algorithm in the considered multi-RIS aided communication system, and it outperforms other benchmark schemes. Moreover, the performance improvement achieved through the RIS association scheme is shown to be of the order of 30%.

Advancements in emerging technologies, e.g., reconfigurable intelligent surfaces and holographic MIMO (HMIMO), facilitate unprecedented manipulation of electromagnetic (EM) waves, significantly enhancing the performance of wireless communication systems. To accurately characterize the achievable performance limits of these systems, it is crucial to develop a universal EM-compliant channel model. This paper addresses this necessity by proposing a comprehensive EM channel model tailored for realistic multi-path environments, accounting for the combined effects of antenna array configurations and propagation conditions in HMIMO communications. Both polarization phenomena and spatial correlation are incorporated into this probabilistic channel model. Additionally, physical constraints of antenna configurations, such as mutual coupling effects and energy consumption, are integrated into the channel modeling framework. Simulation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed probabilistic channel model, indicating that traditional Rician and Rayleigh fading models cannot accurately depict the channel characteristics and underestimate the channel capacity. More importantly, the proposed channel model outperforms free-space Green’s functions in accurately depicting both near-field gain and multi-path effects in radiative near-field regions. These gains are much more evident in tri-polarized systems, highlighting the necessity of polarization interference elimination techniques. Moreover, the theoretical analysis accurately verifies that capacity decreases with expanding communication regions of two-user communications.

Conventional wireless communication receivers guided by Bayesian inference methods need to know the exact statistical relationship among variables, which is hard to obtain accurately in wireless contexts, thus limiting the system performance. The recently emerging artificial intelligence (AI)-empowered algorithms have shown striking performances in exploring the implicit relationship among variables with specially designed Neural Networks (NNs). Therefore, it is preferable to integrate NNs with BPs in receiver design. Such approaches also leverage NNs’ lack of reasoning ability in large state spaces and traditional BPs’ lack of reasoning depth. However, conventional receiver modules are usually designed based on explicit mathematical derivations, which cannot be easily substituted with data-driven NNs as they may break the overall inner relationship of the algorithm. In this paper, we investigate how to beneficially incorporate NNs into the existing Belief Propagation (BP)-based framework, taking the traditional semi-blind estimation problem in an Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) receiver as an example. Unlike existing deep-unfolding approaches, we simply utilize NNs as embedded functional units rather than duplicate denoising modules. Through qualitative discussions and numerical results, we illustrate the characteristics, principles, and differences of our proposed architecture compared to the traditional BP framework and show the dramatic performance improvements brought by incorporating NNs with BP in this well-investigated problem. Recalling that the state evolution of NNs is different from that of traditional BP methods, we give some new insights and design principles which are somehow counterfactual. We also raise some open issues on the incorporated framework.

Holographic multiple-input and multiple-output (HMIMO) is a promising technology with the potential to achieve high energy and spectral efficiencies, enhance system capacity and diversity, etc. In this work, we address the challenge of HMIMO near field (NF) channel estimation, which is complicated by the intricate model introduced by the dyadic Green’s function. Despite its complexity, the channel model is governed by a limited set of parameters. This makes parametric channel estimation highly attractive, offering substantial performance enhancements and enabling the extraction of valuable sensing parameters, such as user locations, which are particularly beneficial in mobile networks. However, the relationship between these parameters and channel gains is nonlinear and compounded by integration, making the estimation a formidable task. To tackle this problem, we propose a novel neural network (NN) assisted hybrid method. With the assistance of NNs, we first develop a novel hybrid channel model with a significantly simplified expression compared to the original one, thereby enabling parametric channel estimation. Using the readily available training data derived from the original channel model, the NNs in the hybrid channel model can be effectively trained offline. Then, building upon this hybrid channel model, we formulate the parametric channel estimation problem with a probabilistic framework and design a factor graph representation for Bayesian estimation. Leveraging the factor graph representation and unitary approximate message passing (UAMP), we develop an effective message passing-based Bayesian channel estimation algorithm. Extensive simulations demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed method.

Holographic multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) communications introduce innovative antenna array configurations, such as dense and volumetric arrays, which offer notable advantages over conventional planar arrays with half-wavelength element spacing. However, accurately assessing the performance of these new holographic MIMO systems necessitates careful consideration of channel matrix normalization, as it is influenced by array gain, which, in turn, depends on the array topology. Traditional normalization methods may be insufficient for assessing these advanced array topologies, potentially resulting in misleading or inaccurate evaluations. In this study, we propose electromagnetic normalization approaches for the channel matrix that accommodate arbitrary array topologies, drawing on the array gains from analytical, physical, and full-wave methods. Additionally, we introduce a normalization method for near-field MIMO channels based on a rigorous dyadic Green’s function approach, which accounts for potential losses of gain at near field. Finally, we perform capacity analyses under quasi-static, ergodic, and near-field conditions, through adopting the proposed normalization techniques. Our findings indicate that channel matrix normalization should reflect the realized gains of the antenna array along target directions. Failing to accurately normalize the channel matrix can result in errors when evaluating the performance limits and benefits of unconventional holographic array topologies, potentially compromising the optimal design of holographic MIMO systems.

In this paper, we investigate the potential of reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) in facilitating passive/device-free three-dimensional (3D) drone localization within existing cellular infrastructure operating at millimeter-wave (mmWave) frequencies and employing multiple antennas at the transceivers. The developed localization system operates in the bi-static mode without requiring direct communication between the drone and the base station. We analyze the theoretical performance limits via Fisher information analysis and Cramér Rao lower bounds (CRLBs). Furthermore, we develop a low-complexity yet effective drone localization algorithm based on coordinate gradient descent and examine the impact of factors such as radar cross section (RCS) of the drone and training overhead on system performance. It is demonstrated that integrating RIS yields significant benefits over its RIS-free counterpart, as evidenced by both theoretical analyses and numerical simulations.

Orthogonal delay-Doppler division multiplexing (ODDM) modulation has recently been considered a promising technology for enhancing communication system performance in high-mobility scenarios. Accurate and low-complexity channel estimation is one of the most significant challenges for massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) ODDM systems, mainly due to the massive antenna arrays and high-mobility environments. In this paper, we focus on the downlink massive MIMO-ODDM communication systems, and propose a two-stage low-complexity channel estimation algorithm. Specifically, we first derive the effective channel model of the massive MIMO-ODDM systems, where the elements of the channel matrix do not follow a Bernoulli-Gaussian distribution, but their magnitudes do. Utilizing this characteristic, we employ the memory approximate message passing method to estimate the gains, delay, and Doppler of the multi-path channel, while the angles of the channel are estimated using the discrete Fourier transform method, achieving low-complexity Bayes-optimal results. Finally, numerical results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can achieve improved estimation results, surpassing existing algorithms by approximately 2 dB.

In this paper, the energy efficiency maximization problem in space-air-ground integrated network (SAGIN)-enabled probabilistic semantic communication (PSC) is investigated. In the considered model, a satellite needs to transmit data to multiple ground terminals (GTs) via an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) acting as a relay. During transmission, the satellite and the UAV can use PSC technique to compress the transmitted data, while the GTs can automatically recover the original data. In the considered PSC system, shared probability graphs serve as a common knowledge base among the transceivers, allowing for resource-saving communication at the expense of increased computation resource. Therefore, it is important to study the trade-off between communication and computation to achieve optimal energy efficiency. The joint communication and computation problem is formulated as an optimization problem aiming to minimize the total communication and computation energy consumption of the network under latency, semantic compression ratio, and UAV location constraints. To solve this non-convex problem, we propose an alternating algorithm. Numerical results show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

Millimeter-wave (mmWave) technology is increasingly recognized as a pivotal technology of the sixth-generation communication networks due to the large amounts of available spectrum at high frequencies. However, the huge overhead associated with beam training imposes a significant challenge in mmWave communications, particularly in urban environments with high background noise. To reduce this high overhead, we propose a novel solution for robust continuous-time beam tracking with liquid neural network, which dynamically adjust the narrow mmWave beams to ensure real-time beam alignment with mobile users. Through extensive simulations, we validate the effectiveness of our proposed method and demonstrate its superiority over existing state-of-the-art deep-learning-based approaches. Specifically, our scheme achieves at most 46.9% higher normalized spectral efficiency than the baselines when the user is moving at 5 m/s, demonstrating the potential of liquid neural networks to enhance mmWave mobile communication performance.

The emerging concept of extremely-large holographic multiple-input multiple-output (HMIMO), beneficial from compactly and densely packed cost-efficient radiating metaatoms, has been demonstrated for enhanced degrees of freedom even in pure line-of-sight conditions, enabling tremendous multiplexing gain for the next-generation communication systems. Most of the reported works focus on energy and spectrum efficiency, path loss analyses, and channel modeling. The extension to secure communications remains unexplored. In this paper, we theoretically characterize the secrecy capacity of the HMIMO network with multiple legitimate users and one eavesdropper while taking into consideration artificial noise and max-min fairness. We formulate the power allocation (PA) problem and address it by following successive convex approximation and Taylor expansion. We further study the effect of fixed PA coefficients, imperfect channel state information, inter-element spacing, and the number of Eve's antennas on the sum secrecy rate. Simulation results show that significant performance gain with more than 100% increment in the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regime for the two-user case is obtained by exploiting adaptive/flexible PA compared to the case with fixed PA coefficients.

Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) have become a promising technology to meet the requirements of energy efficiency and scalability in future six-generation (6G) communications. However, a significant challenge in RISs-aided communications is the joint optimization of active and passive beamforming at base stations (BSs) and RISs respectively. Specif-ically, the main difficulty is attributed to the highly non-convex optimization space of beamforming matrices at both BSs and RISs, as well as the diversity and mobility of communication scenarios. To address this, we present a greenly gradient based meta learning beamforming (GMLB) approach. Unlike traditional deep learning based methods which take channel information directly as input, GMLB feeds the gradient of sum rate into neural networks. Coherently, we design a differential regulator to address the phase shift optimization of RISs. Moreover, we use the meta learning to iteratively optimize the beamforming matrices of BSs and RISs. These techniques make the proposed method to work well without requiring energy-consuming pretraining. Simulations show that GMLB could achieve higher sum rate than that of typical alternating optimization algorithms with the energy consumption by two orders of magnitude less.

Integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) is increasingly recognized as a pivotal technology for next-generation cellular networks, offering mutual benefits in both sensing and communication capabilities. This advancement necessitates a re-examination of the fundamental limits within networks where these two functionalities coexist via shared spectrum and infrastructures. However, traditional stochastic geometry-based performance analyses are confined to either communication or sensing networks separately. This paper bridges this gap by introducing a generalized stochastic geometry framework in ISAC networks. Based on this framework, we define and calculate the coverage rate of sensing and communication performance under resource constraints. Further, we present theoretical results for the coverage rate of unified ISAC performance, taking into account the coupling effects of dual functions in coexistence networks. Extensive numerical results validate the accuracy of all theoretical derivations, and also indicate that denser networks significantly enhance ISAC coverage. Specifically, increasing the base station density from 1 km-2to 10 km-2can boost the ISAC coverage rate from 1.4% to 39.8%.

It is well known that there is inherent radiation pattern distortion for the commercial base station antenna array, which usually needs three antenna sectors to cover all space. To eliminate pattern distortion and further enhance beamforming performance, we propose an electromagnetic hybrid beamforming (EHB) algorithm based on 3D superdirective holographic antenna arrays. Specifically, EHB consists of antenna excitation current vectors (analog beamforming) and digital precoding matrices, where the implementation of analog beamforming involves real-time adjustments to the radiation pattern to adapt to the wireless environment. Meanwhile, the digital beamforming is optimized based on the channel characteristics of analog beam-forming to further improve the achievable rate of communication systems. An electromagnetic channel model incorporating array radiation pattern and coupling effect is also developed to evaluate the benefits of our proposed scheme. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme achieves a sum rate gain of over 150 % compared to traditional beamforming algorithms.

In this paper, we investigate physical layer security (PLS) for terrestrial RIS-assisted multibeam satellite commu-nications with similar channels. Deploying the reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) in each beam, and we use inter-beam in-terference and the channel variability from the RIS to the satellite user and eavesdroppers to enhance satellite security. Specifically, considering the constraints of the secrecy rate, we formulate a problem to minimize the total power by jointly optimizing the satellite beamforming and the RIS beamforming. To solve the problem, the original problem is decoupled into two non-convex optimization sub-problems, i.e., the active and the passive beamforming optimization problem. Then, semidefinite relax-ation (SDR) is used to solve the active beamforming optimization problem. The maximum ratio transmission-based beamforming and SDR are employed separately to solve passive beamforming optimization problem in each beam. The alternating optimization (AO) is utilized to solve the original problem and the convergence is proven. We have carried out simulations to evaluate the effectiveness of our proposed approach, the results show that the proposed algorithms have superior system performance.

This paper investigates an intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) assisted integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) with high-mobility systems, where the orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS) modulation is employed to leverage the Delay- Doppler (DD) spread. We propose a subspace-based beamforming design algorithm, which optimizes the phase shifts at the IRS and the combining vector at the base station (BS) to enhance the communication performance subject to the constraint on the sensing accuracy. Moreover, we derived closed-form solutions for the optimization problems. Numerical results affirm the effectiveness of our proposed beamforming design algorithm in high-mobility scenarios.

Accurate localization of mobile terminals is crucial for integrated sensing and communication systems. Existing fingerprint localization methods, which deduce coordinates from channel information in pre-defined rectangular areas, struggle with the heterogeneous fingerprint distribution inherent in non-line-of-sight (NLOS) scenarios. To address the problem, we introduce a novel multi-source information fusion learning framework referred to as the Autosync Multi-Domain NLOS Localization (AMDNLoc). Specifically, AMDNLoc employs a two-stage matched filter fused with a target tracking algorithm and iterative centroid-based clustering to automatically and irregularly segment NLOS regions, ensuring uniform fingerprint distribution within channel state information across frequency, power, and time-delay domains. Additionally, the framework utilizes a segment-specific linear classifier array, coupled with deep residual network-based feature extraction and fusion, to establish the correlation function between fingerprint features and coordinates within these regions. Simulation results demonstrate that AMDNLoc significantly enhances localization accuracy by over 40% compared with traditional convolutional neural networks on the wireless artificial intelligence research dataset.

Millimeter wave (mmWave) has attracted considerable attention due to its wide bandwidth and high frequency. However, it is highly susceptible to blockages, resulting in significant degradation of the coverage and the sum rate. A promising approach is deploying distributed reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs), which can establish extra communication links. In this paper, we investigate the impact of distributed RISs on the coverage probability and the sum rate in mmWave wireless communication systems. Specifically, we first introduce the system model, which includes the blockage, the RIS and the user distribution models, leveraging the Poisson point process. Then, we define the association criterion and derive the conditional coverage probabilities for the two cases of direct association and reflective association through RISs. Finally, we combine the two cases using Campbell's theorem and the total probability theorem to obtain the closed-form expressions for the ergodic coverage probability and the sum rate. Simulation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed analytical approach, demonstrating that the deployment of distributed RISs significantly improves the ergodic coverage probability by 45.4% and the sum rate by over 1.5 times.

In this paper, the problem of joint transmission and computation resource allocation for probabilistic semantic communication (PSC) network with rate splitting multiple access (RSMA) is investigated. In the considered model, the base station (BS) needs to transmit a large amount of data, which is represented by substantial knowledge graphs, to multiple users. Due to limited communication resource, the BS needs to utilize semantic communication techniques to compress the large-sized data. In this paper, the semantic communication is enabled by shared probability graphs between the BS and users. The process of semantic compression requires computation power at the BS, which has an impact on limited power budget. Therefore, it is necessary to balance the power between transmission and computation. Based on the probability graph, the semantic rate related to semantic compression ratio is first theoretically formulated. Then, the problem is formulated as an optimization problem with the aim of maximizing the sum semantic rate of all users under total power, semantic compression ratio, and rate allocation constraints. To tackle this problem, an iterative algorithm is accordingly proposed to obtain a suboptimal solution. Numerical results validate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

In this paper, we investigate a multiuser integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) system with hardware im-pairments at both the base station (BS) transceiver and the users. Specifically, by considering the impact of hardware impairments, we optimize the transmit and receive beamforming at the ISAC BS to maximize the radar output signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) for sensing, under both point and extended target scenarios, subject to the constraints of communication requirement and power limitation. For both scenarios, we first find closed-form optimal radar receive beamforming and then obtain equivalent reformulations with respect to the transmit beamforming. Subsequently, for the resulting problems, a globally optimal solution is obtained for the point target scenario and an iterative solution is proposed for the extended target scenario. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed methods is evaluated via simulation results.

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) and ambient backscatter communication (AmBC) have been envisioned as two promising technologies due to their high transmission reliability as well as energy-efficiency. This paper investigates the secrecy performance of RIS assisted AmBC networks. New closed-form and asymptotic expressions of secrecy outage probability for RIS-AmBC networks are derived by taking into account both imperfect successive interference cancellation (ipSIC) and perfect SIC (pSIC) cases. On top of these, the secrecy diversity order of legitimate user is obtained in high signal-to-noise ratio region, which equals zero and is proportional to the number of RIS elements for ipSIC and pSIC, respectively. Numerical results are provided to verify the accuracy of theoretical analyses and manifest that the secrecy performance of RIS-AmBC networks exceeds that of conventional AmBC networks. In addition, due to the mutual interference between direct and backscattering links, the number of RIS elements has an optimal value to minimise the secrecy system outage probability.

Recently , over-the-air computation (OAC) has shown potential in realizing computation tasks over wireless transmission. Through proper transmit and receive beamforming design, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO)-based OAC systems can even realize partial functions of neural networks (NNs). In this paper, we propose an OAC-NN with reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-aided MIMO, in which the NN computation task can be realized through updating the RIS reflection matrix. In the proposed structure, the communication system can complete the overall simple NN-based tasks only through multiple rounds of transmissions without introducing any additional computing resources. Numerical results reflect the effectiveness of the proposed scheme and the tradeoff between communication costs and computing performance.

This paper investigates the secure resource allocation for a downlink integrated sensing and communication system with multiple legal users and potential eavesdroppers. In the considered model, the base station (BS) simultaneously transmits sensing and communication signals through beamforming design, where the sensing signals can be viewed as artificial noise to enhance the security of communication signals. To further enhance the security in the semantic layer, the semantic information is extracted from the original information before transmission. The user side can only successfully recover the received information with the help of the knowledge base shared with the BS, which is stored in advance. Our aim is to maximize the sum semantic secrecy rate of all users while maintaining the minimum quality of service for each user and guaranteeing overall sensing performance. To solve this sum semantic secrecy rate maximization problem, an iterative algorithm is proposed using the alternating optimization method. The simulation results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed algorithm in terms of secure semantic communication and reliable detection.

In this paper, we focus on improving autonomous driving safety via task offloading from cellular vehicles (CVs), using vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) links, to an multi-access edge computing (MEC) server. Considering that the frequencies used for V2I links can be reused for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications to improve spectrum utilization, the receiver of each V2I link may suffer from severe interference, causing outages in the task offloading process. To tackle this issue, we propose the deployment of a reconfigurable intelligent computational surface (RICS) to enable, not only V2I reflective links, but also interference cancellation at the V2V links exploiting the computational capability of its metamaterials. We devise a joint optimization formulation for the task offloading ratio between the CVs and the MEC server, the spectrum sharing strategy between V2V and V2I communications, as well as the RICS reflection and refraction matrices, with the objective to maximize a safety-based autonomous driving task. Due to the non-convexity of the problem and the coupling among its free variables, we transform it into a more tractable equivalent form, which is then decomposed into three sub-problems and solved via an alternate approximation method. Our simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed RICS optimization in improving the safety in autonomous driving networks.

Mobile edge computing (MEC) in the next generation networks will provide computation services at the network edge to enrich the capabilities of mobile devices and lengthen their battery lives. However, the performance of MEC cannot be guaranteed, when large size local tasks are uploaded to the server simultaneously causing network congestion. As a new paradigm that focuses on transmitting the meaning of messages, semantic communications reveals the significant potential to reduce the network traffic. In this paper, we propose a semantic-aware joint communication and computation resource allocation framework for MEC systems. In the considered system, random tasks arrive at each terminal device (TD), which needs to be computed locally or offloaded to the MEC server. To further release the transmission burden, each TD sends the small-size extracted semantic information of tasks to the server instead of the original large-size raw data. An optimization problem of joint semantic-aware division factor, communication and computation resource management is formulated. The problem aims to minimize the energy consumption of the whole system, while satisfying long-term delay and processing rate constraints. To solve this problem, an online low-complexity algorithm is proposed. In particular, Lyapunov optimization is utilized to decompose the original coupled long-term problem into a series of decoupled deterministic problems without requiring the realizations of future task arrivals and channel gains. Then, the block coordinate descent method and successive convex approximation algorithm are adopted to solve the current time slot deterministic problem by observing the current system states. Moreover, the closed-form optimal solution of each optimization variable is provided. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm yields up to 41.8% energy reduction compared to its counterpart without semantic-aware allocation.

For the sake of enhancing the covertness and sensing performance in the integrated sensing and covert communications (ISCC) system, we design a beamforming framework for reconfigurable intelligence surface (RIS) assisted ISCC. Specifically, the system intends to transmit information to a legitimate receiver (Bob) covertly and sense the target simultaneously while avoiding being detected by a warden (Willie). RIS can be applied to both traditional single-connected networks and a broad fully-connected networks. By jointly optimizing the beamforming vector of the communication and the autocorrelation matrix of the sensing, and the phase shift matrix of the RIS, both the convert rate and the target’s probing power are maximized. And the covertness and the constant-mode constraints are considered. A multi-strategy alternate optimization (MSAO) algorithm is proposed to solve the optimization problem based on quadratic constraint quadratic programming (QCQP) and semidefinite relaxation (SDR). Furthermore, we consider a more realistic application scenario where the legal party has imperfect channel state information of Willie. Simulation results show that deploying RIS in a generalized fully-connected mode can achieve better transmission of beampatterns and increase upper limit of covert communications rate than conventional single-connected mode.

The integration of nonorthogonal multiple access (NOMA) with integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) heralds a novel and promising paradigm, advancing the frontier of wireless communication technologies. Nevertheless, this synergistic integration may confront security challenges attributable to intrinsic vulnerabilities within the ISAC frameworks, i.e., sensing targets assume the role of potential eavesdroppers. In this article, we exploit the additional degrees of freedom afforded by reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) to enhance secure communication and achieve target detection within the NOMA-assisted ISAC system. Specifically, the coexisting radar and NOMA signals are concurrently propagated through both the direct and reflected links. Subsequently, we formulate a secure optimization problem by collaboratively designing the beamforming vectors of the base station and the phase shifts of RIS under the constraints of total transmit power, communication quality of service, and sensing quality. Due to nonconvexity, the optimization problem is decomposed into two subproblems and addressed separately, employing the successive convex approximation approach based on the first-order Taylor expansion and the second-order cone. Finally, we obtain the solution to the original problem utilizing alternating optimization. Simulation results demonstrate that our proposed approach exhibits superior capabilities in secure communication and precise target detection.

Urban air mobility (UAM) expands vehicles from the ground to the near-ground space, envisioned as a revolution for transportation systems. Comprehensive scene perception is the foundation for autonomous aerial driving. However, UAM encounters the intelligent perception challenge: high-perception learning requirements conflict with the limited sensors and computing chips of flying cars. To overcome the challenge, federated learning (FL) and other collaborative learning have been proposed. It enables resource-limited devices to conduct onboard deep learning (DL) collaboratively. But traditional FL relies on a central integrator for DL model aggregation, which is difficult to deploy in dynamic UAM environments. The fully decentralized learning schemes may be the intuitive solution while the convergence of decentralized learning cannot be guaranteed. Accordingly, this article explores reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs)-empowered decentralized FL (DFL), taking account of topological attributes to facilitate the DFL performance with convergence guarantee. Several DFL topological criteria are proposed for optimizing the transmission delay and convergence rate. Subsequently, we innovatively leverage the RIS link construction and deconstruction ability to remold the current network based on the proposed topological criteria. This article rethinks the functions of RIS from the perspective of the network layer. Furthermore, a deep deterministic policy gradient-based RIS phase shift control algorithm is developed to reshape the communication network. Simulation experiments are conducted over MobileNet-based multiview learning to verify the efficiency of the DFL framework.

Massive machine-type communications (mMTCs) features a massive number of low-cost user equipment (UE) with sparse activity. Tailor-made for these features, grant-free random access (GF-RA) serves as an efficient access solution for massive machine-type communication (mMTC). However, most existing GF-RA schemes rely on strict synchronization, which incurs excessive coordination burden for the low-cost UEs. In this work, we propose a receiver design for asynchronous GF-RA, and address the joint user-activity detection (UAD) and channel estimation (CE) problem in the presence of asynchronization-induced intersymbol interference. Specifically, the delay profile is exploited at the receiver to distinguish different UEs. However, a sample correlation problem in this receiver design impedes the factorization of the joint likelihood function, which complicates the UAD and CE problem. To address this correlation problem, we design a partially uni-directional (PUD) factor graph representation for the joint likelihood function. Building on this PUD factor graph, we further propose a PUD message passing-based sparse Bayesian learning (SBL) algorithm for asynchronous UAD and CE (PUDMP-SBL-aUADCE). Our theoretical analysis shows that the PUDMP-SBL-aUADCE algorithm exhibits higher signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio (SINR) in the asynchronous case than in the synchronous case, i.e., the proposed receiver design can exploit asynchronization to suppress multiuser interference. In addition, considering potential timing error from the low-cost UEs, we investigate the impacts of imperfect delay profile, and reveal the advantages of adopting the SBL method in this case. Finally, extensive simulation results are provided to demonstrate the performance of the PUDMP-SBL-aUADCE algorithm.

The advent of Industry 4.0 has positioned the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) as a cornerstone of future industry. In this article, the problem of spectral-efficient communication and computation resource allocation for distributed reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) assisted probabilistic semantic communication (PSC) in IIoT is investigated. In the considered model, multiple RISs are deployed to serve multiple users, while PSC adopts compute-then-transmit protocol to reduce the size of the transmission data. To support the high-rate transmission, the semantic compression ratio, transmit power allocation, and distributed RISs deployment must be jointly considered. This joint communication and computation problem is formulated as an optimization problem whose goal is to maximize the sum semantic-aware transmission rate of the system under the total transmit power, phase shift, RIS-user association, and semantic compression ratio constraints. To solve this problem, a many-to-many matching scheme is proposed to solve the RIS-user association subproblem, the semantic compression ratio subproblem is addressed following the greedy policy, while the phase shift of RIS can be optimized using the tensor-based beamforming. Numerical results verify the superiority of the proposed algorithm.

Integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) is increasingly recognized as a pivotal technology for next-generation cellular networks, offering mutual benefits in both sensing and communication capabilities. This advancement necessitates a re-examination of the fundamental limits within networks where these two functions coexist via shared spectrum and infrastructures. However, traditional stochastic geometry-based performance analyses are confined to either communication or sensing networks separately. This paper bridges this gap by introducing a generalized stochastic geometry framework in ISAC networks. Based on this framework, we define and calculate the coverage and ergodic rate of sensing and communication performance under resource constraints. Then, we shed light on the fundamental limits of ISAC networks by presenting theoretical results for the coverage rate of the unified performance, taking into account the coupling effects of dual functions in coexistence networks. Further, we obtain the analytical formulations for evaluating the ergodic sensing rate constrained by the maximum communication rate, and the ergodic communication rate constrained by the maximum sensing rate. Extensive numerical results validate the accuracy of all theoretical derivations, and also indicate that denser networks significantly enhance ISAC coverage. Specifically, increasing the base station density from$1~\text {km}^{-2}$to$10~\text {km}^{-2}$can boost the ISAC coverage rate from 1.4% to 39.8%. Further, results also reveal that with the increase of the constrained sensing rate, the ergodic communication rate improves significantly, but the reverse is not obvious.

Envisioned as one of the most promising technologies, holographic multiple-input multiple-output (H-MIMO) recently attracts notable research interests for its great potential in expanding wireless possibilities and achieving fundamental wireless limits. Empowered by the nearly continuous, large and energy-efficient surfaces with powerful electromagnetic (EM) wave control capabilities, H-MIMO opens up the opportunity for signal processing in a more fundamental EM-domain, paving the way for realizing holographic imaging level communications in supporting the extremely high spectral efficiency and energy efficiency in future networks. In this article, we propose a generalized EM-domain near-field channel modeling and study its capacity limit of point-to-point H-MIMO systems that equips arbitrarily placed surfaces in a line-of-sight (LoS) environment. Two effective and computational-efficient channel models are established from their integral counterpart, where one is with a sophisticated formula but showcases more accurate, and another is concise with a slight precision sacrifice. Furthermore, we unveil the capacity limit using our channel model, and derive a tight upper bound based upon an elaborately built analytical framework. Our result reveals that the capacity limit grows logarithmically with the product of transmit element area, receive element area, and the combined effects of 1/d2mn, 1/d4mn, and 1/d6mnover all transmit and receive antenna elements, wheredmnindicates the distance between each transmit elementnand receive elementm. Particularly, 1/d6mndominates in the near-field region whereas 1/d2mndominates in the far-field region. Numerical evaluations validate the effectiveness of our channel models, and showcase the slight disparity between the upper bound and the exact capacity, which is beneficial for predicting practical system performance.

In integrated ground-air-space (IGAS) wireless networks, numerous services require sensing knowledge including location, angle, distance information, etc., which usually can be acquired during the beam training stage. On the other hand, IGAS networks employ large-scale antenna arrays to mitigate obstacle occlusion and path loss. However, large-scale arrays generate pencil-shaped beams, which necessitate a higher number of training beams to cover the desired space. These factors motivate our investigation into the IGAS beam training problem to achieve effective sensing services. To address the high complexity and low identification accuracy of existing beam training techniques, we propose an efficient hashing multi-arm beam (HMB) training scheme. Specifically, we first construct an IGAS single-beam training codebook for the uniform planar arrays. Then, the hash functions are chosen independently to construct the multi-arm beam training codebooks for each AP. All APs traverse the predefined multi-arm beam training codeword simultaneously and the multi-AP superimposed signals at the user are recorded. Finally, the soft decision and voting methods are applied to obtain the correctly aligned beams only based on the signal powers. In addition, we logically prove that the traversal complexity is at the logarithmic level. Simulation results show that our proposed IGAS HMB training method can achieve 96.4% identification accuracy of the exhaustive beam training method and greatly reduce the training overhead.

Abstract Near-field technology is increasingly recognized due to its transformative potential in communication systems, establishing it as a critical enabler for sixth-generation (6G) telecommunication development. This paper presents a comprehensive survey of recent advancements in near-field technology research. First, we explore the near-field propagation fundamentals by detailing definitions, transmission characteristics, and performance analysis. Next, we investigate various near-field channel models—deterministic, stochastic, and electromagnetic information theory based models, and review the latest progress in near-field channel testing, highlighting practical performance and limitations. With evolving channel models, traditional mechanisms such as channel estimation, beamtraining, and codebook design require redesign and optimization to align with near-field propagation characteristics. We then introduce innovative beam designs enabled by near-field technologies, focusing on non-diffractive beams (such as Bessel and Airy) and orbital angular momentum (OAM) beams, addressing both hardware architectures and signal processing frameworks, showcasing their revolutionary potential in near-field communication systems. Additionally, we highlight progress in both engineering and standardization, covering the primary 6G spectrum allocation, enabling technologies for near-field propagation, and network deployment strategies. Finally, we conclude by identifying promising future research directions for near-field technology development that could significantly impact system design. This comprehensive review provides a detailed understanding of the current state and potential of near-field technologies.

In this paper, we investigate the energy efficiency (EE) problem under reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-aided secure cell-free networks, where multiple legitimate users and eavesdroppers (Eves) exist. We formulate a max-min security EE optimization problem by jointly designing the distributed active beamforming and artificial noise at base stations as well as the passive beamforming at RISs under practical constraints. To deal with it, we first divide the original optimization problem into two sub-ones, and then propose an iterative optimization algorithm to solve each sub-problem based on the fractional programming, constrained concave-convex procedure (CCCP) and semi-definite programming (SDP) techniques. After that, these two sub-problems are alternatively solved until convergence, and the final solutions are obtained. Next, we extend to the imperfect channel state information of the Eves’ links, and investigate the robust security EE beamforming optimization problem by bringing the outage probability constraints. Based on this, we first transform the uncertain outage probability constraints into the certain ones by the Bernstein-type inequality and sphere boundary techniques, and then propose an alternatively iterative algorithm to obtain the solutions of the original problem based on the S-procedure, successive convex approximation, CCCP, and SDP techniques. Finally, the simulation results are conducted to show the effectiveness of the proposed schemes.

Simultaneously transmitting and reflecting reconfigurable intelligent surface (STAR-RIS) is emerging as a promising technology by achieving full-space coverage and further improving system performance. However, most existing works adopted an independent phase-shift model, which is high-cost and may be difficult to achieve in realistic wideband systems. Consequently, a coupled phase-shift STAR-RIS enhanced downlink multi-user multiple-input single-output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing system is investigated for both unicast and broadcast communications in this paper. We aim to maximize the average sum-rate (ASR) for all subcarriers by jointly optimizing the precoding matrices and the reflecting and transmitting coefficients (RTCs). Specifically, a block coordinate descent algorithm is proposed to iteratively design each block of a multiblock problem reformulated by the original one. The precoding matrices are optimized by the Lagrangian multiplier method for low computational complexity. For the RTCs, an element-based alternating optimization algorithm is proposed to optimize the coupled phase-shift and amplitude coefficients. Simulation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm by comparing the ASR with that of other benchmarks. Moreover, its performance closely approaches the upper bound under various practical user proportion scenarios on both sides of the STAR-RIS.

In this paper, a novel active fully-connected reconfigurable intelligent surface assisted space shift keying and code index modulation (AFRIS-SCIM) scheme is proposed. On one hand, by introducing joint space-code index modulation while maintaining low power consumption and complexity, the proposed scheme achieves higher data rates compared to existing one-dimensional index modulation. On the other hand, the proposed active fully-connected architecture achieves a desirable trade-off between reliability and power consumption compared to conventional passive RIS and active RIS architectures. Additionally, to reduce detection complexity at the receiver, a low-complexity detection algorithm is proposed and the upper bound for the bit error rate (BER) of the system is derived. Mathematical models characterizing the system complexity and power consumption are also established to analyze the overall performance. Both theoretical analyses and simulation results demonstrate that the AFRIS-SCIM scheme outperforms existing RIS-IM schemes as well as multidimensional index modulation systems in terms of BER performance.

It has been proved that a long-range (LoRa) system can achieve long-distance and low-power transmission. However, the performance of LoRa systems can be severely degraded by fading. In addition, LoRa technology typically adopts an ALOHA-based access mechanism, which inevitably produces interfering signals for the target user. To overcome the effects of fading and interference, we introduce a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) to LoRa systems. In this context, both non-coherent and coherent detections are considered and their bit error rate (BER) performance analyses are conducted. Moreover, we derive the closed-form BER expressions for the proposed system over Nakagami-m fading channels. Simulation results are used to verify the accuracy of our proposed analytical results. It is shown that in the presence of the interference, the proposed system outperforms RIS-free LoRa systems, and RIS-aided LoRa systems adopting blind transmission. In addition, we also compare the proposed system to single-user RIS-aided LoRa systems adopting blind transmission, and the results show that the proposed system maintains its superior performance even in the presence of the interference. Furthermore, the impacts of the spreading factor (SF), the number of reflecting elements, and the Nakagami-m fading parameters are investigated. It is shown that increasing the number of reflecting elements can remarkably enhance the BER performance, which is an affective measure for the proposed system to balance the trade-off between data rate and coverage range. We further observe that the BER performance of the proposed system is more sensitive to the fading parameter m at high signal-to-noise ratios.

Intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) usually consists of a large number of passive elements, for which the element-grouping strategies can be adopted to group adjacent elements into a sub-surface for lower computational complexity. For the grouped elements of a sub-surface, the linear gradient phase shift configuration can achieve directional IRS reflect beam towards the intended receiver. In this paper, we propose a practical scalable optimization framework for element-grouping IRS by adopting the amplitude-dependent phase-gradient directional beamforming, which induces a new amplitude-phase coupling to the reflected signal. Specifically, by deriving the phase-gradient condition from Fermat’s principle, we propose a practical phase-gradient IRS reflection model. Under this practical model, the amplitude-phase coupling becomes complicated, which brings technical challenges to the IRS beamforming optimization. We study a joint transmit and reflect beamforming optimization problem to minimize the transmit power. By designing a trigonometric transformation to deal with the complicated amplitude-phase coupling, we propose a penalty-based phase control strategy under given element grouping. Subsequently, to solve the element-grouping combinatorial problem with performance guarantee, we propose a low-complexity IRS reflect beamforming algorithm based on Markov approximation. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm achieves substantial performance gains compared to conventional schemes.

In this paper, we explore an efficient uncoupled unsourced random access (UURA) scheme for 6G massive communication. UURA is a typical framework of unsourced random access that addresses the problems of codeword detection and message stitching, without the use of check bits. Firstly, we establish a framework for UURA, allowing for immediate decoding of sub-messages upon arrival. Thus, the processing delay is effectively reduced due to the decreasing waiting time. Next, we propose an integrated decoding algorithm for sub-messages by leveraging matrix information geometry (MIG) theory. Specifically, MIG is applied to measure the feature similarities of codewords belonging to the same user equipment, and thus sub-message can be stitched once it is received. This enables the timely recovery of a portion of the original message by simultaneously detecting and stitching codewords within the current sub-slot. Furthermore, we analyze the performance of the proposed integrated decoding-based UURA scheme in terms of computational complexity and convergence rate. Finally, we present extensive simulation results to validate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme in 6G wireless networks.

The reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) aided index modulation (IM) is a promising technology for next-generation wireless communications. However, acquiring channel state information (CSI) for RIS-based IM requires expensive pilot overhead, especially for the IM in multiple domains. In this paper, a novel rectangular differential reflecting spatial modulation (RDRSM) system is proposed for the RIS-aided multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system. Specifically, the proposed multi-antenna-activated RDRSM (M-RDRSM) scheme utilizes a rectangular dispersion matrix (DM) to jointly map a digital beamforming (DBF) weight vector and a RIS reflection pattern to perform the rectangular differential modulation. A thorough analysis presents that the proposed M-RDRSM scheme can achieve high-spectral efficiency, low complexity of the system, and noncoherent decoding without prior knowledge of CSI in the space-reflection dual-domain IM. Further, the proposed M-RDRSM scheme is simplified to a single-antenna-activated RDRSM (S-RDRSM) scheme, which can reduce the hardware cost and avoid the inter-antenna synchronization problem more effectively. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed RDRSM scheme performs better in terms of bit error rate performance and achieve a lower decoding complexity than the existing correlated differential IM schemes with the same achievable spectral efficiency.

In this work, we investigate the performance of reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) assisted near-field wideband system. By considering the large-scale effect of a high-dimensional RIS and frequency-selective channels, we derive an accurate array manifold of the RIS in the near-field from the scattering point of view. Subsequently, we conceive a near-optimal RIS phase design for a single-user scenario to alleviate the beam-squint effect of the wideband system. As for the multi-user case, we provide a virtual-subarray-based phase shift design, which mitigates the beam-squint effect as well as the mitigates deleterious effects of beam concentration. Numerical results show that the achievable data rate can be significantly improved by the proposed schemes compared to the benchmarks both in the single-user and multi-user cases. Explicitly, in the multi-user system, by leveraging the virtual-subarray-based phase design, the achievable sum-rate can be doubled compared to the conventional benchmarks.

It is well known that there is inherent radiation pattern distortion for the commercial base station antenna array, which usually needs three antenna sectors to cover the whole space. To eliminate pattern distortion and further enhance beamforming performance, we propose an electromagnetic hybrid beamforming (EHB) scheme based on a three-dimensional (3D) superdirective holographic antenna array. Specifically, EHB consists of antenna excitation current vectors (analog beamforming) and digital precoding matrices, where the implementation of analog beamforming involves the real-time adjustment of the radiation pattern to adapt it to the dynamic wireless environment. Meanwhile, the digital beamforming is optimized based on the channel characteristics of analog beamforming to further improve the achievable rate of communication systems. An electromagnetic channel model incorporating array radiation patterns and the mutual coupling effect is also developed to evaluate the benefits of our proposed scheme. Simulation results demonstrate that our proposed EHB scheme with a 3D holographic array achieves a relatively flat superdirective beamforming gain and allows for programmable focusing directions throughout the entire spatial domain. Furthermore, they also verify that the proposed scheme achieves a sum rate gain of over 150% compared to traditional beamforming algorithms.

In this paper, we investigate integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) in high-mobility systems with the aid of an intelligent reflecting surface (IRS). To exploit the benefits of Delay-Doppler (DD) spread caused by high mobility, orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS)-based frame structure and transmission framework are proposed. In such a framework, we first design a low-complexity ratio-based sensing algorithm for estimating the velocity of mobile user. Then, we analyze the performance of sensing and communication in terms of achievable mean square error (MSE) and achievable rate, respectively, and reveal the impact of key parameters. Next, with the derived performance expressions, we jointly optimize the phase shift matrix of IRS and the receive combining vector at the base station (BS) to improve the overall performance of integrated sensing and communication. Finally, extensive simulation results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms in high-mobility systems.

Data collection and processing timely is crucial for mobile crowd integrated sensing, communication, and computation (ISCC) systems with various applications such as smart home and connected cars, which requires numerous integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) devices to sense the targets and offload the data to the base station (BS) for further processing. However, as the number of ISAC devices grows, there exists intensive interactions among ISAC devices in the processes of data collection and processing since they share the common network resources. In this paper, we consider the environment sensing problem in the large-scale mobile crowd ISCC systems and propose an efficient waveform precoding design algorithm based on the mean field game (MFG). Specifically, to handle the complex interactions among large-scale ISAC devices, we first utilize the MFG method to transform the influence from other ISAC devices into the mean field term and derive the Fokker-Planck-Kolmogorov equation, which models the evolution of the system state. Then, we derive the cost function based on the mean field term and reformulate the waveform precoding design problem. Next, we utilize the G-prox primal-dual hybrid gradient algorithm to solve the reformulated problem and analyze the computational complexity of the proposed algorithm. Finally, simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can solve the interactions among large-scale ISAC devices effectively in the ISCC process. In addition, compared with other baselines, the proposed waveform precoding design algorithm has advantages in improving communication performance and reducing cost function.

In this paper, we propose an innovative learning-based channel prediction scheme so as to achieve higher prediction accuracy and reduce the requirements of huge amounts and strict sequential format of channel data. Inspired by the idea of the neural ordinary differential equation (Neural ODE), we first prove that the channel prediction problem can be modeled as an ODE problem with a known initial value by analyzing the physical process of electromagnetic wave propagation within a mobile environment. Then, we design a novel physics-inspired spatial channel gradient network (SCGnet), which represents the derivative process of channel varying as a special neural network and can obtain the gradients at any relative displacement needed for the ODE solving. With the SCGnet, the static channel at any location served by the base station is accurately inferred through consecutive propagation and integration. Finally, we design an efficient recurrent positioning algorithm based on some prior knowledge of user mobility to obtain the velocity vector and propose an approximate Doppler compensation method to make up the instantaneous angular-delay domain channel. Only discrete historical channel data is needed for the training, whereas only a few fresh channel measurements are needed for the prediction, which ensures the scheme’s practicability. Comprehensive evaluations show that the proposed scheme is most efficient in representing, learning, and predicting mobile wireless channels.

The millimeter wave (mmWave) has received considerable interest due to its expansive bandwidth and high frequency. However, a noteworthy challenge arises from its vulnerability to blockages, leading to reduced coverage and achievable rate. To address these limitations, a potential solution is to deploy distributed reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs), which comprise many low-cost and passively reflected elements, and can facilitate the establishment of extra communication links. In this paper, we leverage stochastic geometry to investigate the ergodic coverage probability and the achievable rate in both distributed RISs-assisted single-cell and multi-cell mmWave wireless communication systems. Specifically, we first establish the system model considering the stochastically distributed blockages, RISs and users by the Poisson point process. Then we give the association criterion and derive the association probabilities, the distance distributions, and the conditional coverage probabilities, for two cases of associations between base stations and users without or with RISs. Finally, we use Campbell’s theorem and the total probability theorem to obtain the closed-form expressions of the ergodic coverage probability and the achievable rate. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of our analysis method, and demonstrate that by deploying distributed RISs, the ergodic coverage probability is significantly improved by approximately 50%, and the achievable rate is increased by more than 1.5 times.

In this paper, we investigate an active simultaneously transmitting and reflecting reconfigurable intelligent surface (STAR-RIS) assisted integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) system, where the dual-functional base station (DFBS) operates in full-duplex (FD) mode to provide communication services and performs targets sensing simultaneously. Meanwhile, we consider multiple targets and multiple users scenario as well as the self-interference at the FD DFBS. Through jointly optimizing the DFBS and active STAR-RIS beamforming under different work modes, our purpose is to achieve the maximum communication sum-rate, while satisfying the minimum radar signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) constraint, the active STAR-RIS hardware constraints and the total power constraint of DFBS and active STAR-RIS. To tackle the complex non-convex optimization problem formulated, an efficient alternating optimization algorithm is proposed. Specifically, the fractional programming method is first leveraged to turn the original problem into a more tractable one, and subsequently the transformed problem is decomposed into several sub-problems. Next, we develop a derivation method to obtain the closed-form expression of the radar receiving beamforming, and then the DFBS transmit beamforming is optimized under the radar SINR requirement and total power constraints. After that, the active STAR-RIS reflection and transmission beamforming are optimized by majorization minimization, complex circle manifold and convex optimization techniques. Finally, the proposed schemes are conducted through numerical simulations to show their benefits and efficiency.

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) has become a promising technology to realize the programmable wireless environment via steering the incident signal in fully customizable ways. However, a major challenge in RIS-aided communication systems is the simultaneous design of the precoding matrix at the base station (BS) and the phase shifting matrix of the RIS elements. This is mainly attributed to the highly non-convex optimization space of variables at both the BS and the RIS, and the diversity of communication environments. Generally, traditional optimization methods for this problem suffer from the high complexity, while existing deep learning based methods are lacking in robustness in various scenarios. To address these issues, we introduce a gradient-based manifold meta learning method (GMML), which works without pre-training and has strong robustness for RIS-aided communications. Specifically, the proposed method fuses meta learning and manifold learning to improve the overall spectral efficiency, and reduce the overhead of the high-dimensional signal process. Unlike traditional deep learning based methods which directly take channel state information as input, GMML feeds the gradients of the precoding matrix and phase shifting matrix into neural networks. Coherently, we design a differential regulator to constrain the phase shifting matrix of the RIS. Numerical results show that the proposed GMML can improve the spectral efficiency by up to 7.31%, and speed up the convergence by 23 times faster compared to traditional approaches. Moreover, they also demonstrate remarkable robustness and adaptability in dynamic settings.

Adaptive rate control for deep joint source and channel coding (JSCC) is considered as an effective approach to transmit sufficient information in scenarios with limited communication resources. We propose a deep JSCC scheme for wireless image transmission with entropy-aware adaptive rate control, using a single deep neural network to support multiple rates and automatically adjust the rate based on the feature maps of the input image and their entropy, as well as the channel conditions. In particular, we maximize the entropy of the feature maps to increase the average information carried by each transmitted symbol during the training. We further decide which feature maps should be activated based on their entropy, which improves the efficiency of the transmitted symbols. We also propose a pruning module to remove less important pixels in the activated feature maps in order to further improve transmission efficiency. The experimental results demonstrate that our proposed scheme learns an effective rate control strategy that reduces the required channel bandwidth while preserving the quality of the reconstructed images.

To support the extremely high spectral efficiency and energy efficiency requirements, and emerging applications of future wireless communications, holographic multiple-input multiple-output (H-MIMO) technology is envisioned as one of the most promising enablers. It can potentially bring extra degrees-of-freedom for communications and signal processing, including spatial multiplexing in line-of-sight (LoS) channels and electromagnetic (EM) field processing performed using specialized devices, to attain the fundamental limits of wireless communications. In this context, EM-domain channel modeling is critical to harvest the benefits offered by H-MIMO. Existing EM-domain channel models are built based on the tensor Green function, which require prior knowledge of the global position and/or the relative distances and directions of the transmit/receive antenna elements. Such knowledge may be difficult to acquire in real-world applications due to extensive measurements needed for obtaining this data. To overcome this limitation, we propose a transmit-receive parameter separable channel model method-ology in which the EM-domain (or holographic) channel can be simply acquired from the distance/direction measured between the center-points between the transmit and receive surfaces, and the local positions between the transmit and receive elements, thus avoiding extensive global parameter measurements. Analysis and numerical results showcase the effectiveness of the proposed channel modeling approach in approximating the H-MIMO channel, and achieving the theoretical channel capacity.

The integration of sensing and communication (ISAC) is an essential function of future wireless systems. Due to its large available bandwidth, millimeter-wave (mmWave) ISAC systems are able to achieve high sensing accuracy. In this paper, we consider the multiple base-station (BS) collaborative sensing problem in a multi-input multi-output (MIMO) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) mmWave communication system. Our aim is to sense a remote target shape with the collected signals which consist of both the reflection and scattering signals. We first characterize the mmWave's scattering and reflection effects based on the Lambertian scattering model. Then we apply the periodogram technique to obtain rough scattering point detection, and further incorporate the subspace method to achieve more precise scattering and reflection point detection. Based on these, a reconstruction algorithm based on Hough Transform and principal component analysis (PCA) is designed for a single convex polygon target scenario. To improve the accuracy and completeness of the reconstruction results, we propose a method to further fuse the scattering and reflection points. Extensive simulation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.

In this paper, we investigate the energy efficiency (EE) problem in downlink reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-aided secure cell-free networks. First, we formulate a max-min secure EE (SEE) optimization problem via jointly optimizing the distributed beamforming at base stations and phase shifts at RISs under the constraint of each base station transmit power. To deal with it, we divide the original optimization problem into two sub-ones and propose an alternative scheme. Specifically, we develop an iterative optimization algorithm to solve each sub-one based on the fractional programming, constrained convex-convex procedure and semi-definite programming techniques. After that, these two sub-ones are alternatively solved until convergence, and then the final solutions are obtained. Finally, the simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) is considered as a promising solution for next-generation wireless communication networks due to a variety of merits, e.g., customizing the communication environment. Therefore, deploying multiple RISs helps overcome severe signal blocking between the base station (BS) and users, which is also a practical and effective solution to achieve better service coverage. However, reaping the full benefits of a multi-RISs aided communication system requires solving a non-convex, infinite-dimensional optimization problem, which motivates the use of learning-based methods to configure the optimal policy. This paper adopts a novel heterogeneous graph neural network (GNN) to effectively exploit the graph topology in the wireless communication optimization problem. First, we characterize all communication link features and interference relations in our system with a heterogeneous graph structure. Then, we endeavor to maximize the weighted sum rate (WSR) of all users by jointly optimizing the active beamforming at the BS, the passive beamforming vector of the RIS elements, as well as the RISs association strategy. Unlike most existing work, we consider a more general scenario where the cascaded link for each user is not fixed but dynamically selected by maximizing the WSR. Simulation results show that our proposed heterogeneous GNNs perform about 10 times better than other benchmarks, and a suitable RISs association strategy is also validated to be effective in improving the quality services of users by 30%.

This paper studies the exploitation of triple polarization (TP) for multi-user (MU) holographic multiple-input multiple-output surface (HMIMOS) wireless communication systems, aiming at capacity boosting without enlarging the antenna array size. We specifically consider that both the transmitter and receiver are equipped with an HMIMOS comprising compact sub-wavelength TP patch antennas. To characterize TP MU-HMIMOS systems, a TP near-field channel model is proposed using the dyadic Green's function, whose characteristics are leveraged to design a user-cluster-based precoding scheme for mitigating the cross-polarization and inter-user interference contributions. A theoretical correlation analysis for HMIMOS with infinitely small patch antennas is also presented. According to the proposed scheme, the users are assigned to one of the three polarizations, which is easy to implement, at the cost, however, of reducing the system's diversity. Our numerical results showcase that the cross-polarization channel components have a non-negligible impact on the system performance, which is efficiently eliminated with the proposed MU precoding scheme.

How to achieve reliable communication and safety monitoring is very important in coal mines. However, most of the existing transmission strategies and sensing-based monitoring approaches assume a single objective and neglect non-line-of-sight (NLOS) problems brought by winding tunnels or mine collapses. To this end, we first propose a multihop reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-aided joint communication and sensing (JCAS) approach to maximize the energy efficiency of the JCAS access point and the sum sensing rates in order to improve the sensing accuracy. Specifically, we formulate an energy-efficient optimization problem by jointly designing both the phase-shift matrix and the switches status of the RISs as well as the transmit power of the access point. The problem is solved by adopting the successive convex approximation-based alternating optimization algorithm, the second-order optimization method, the Lambert-$w$function, and Newton’s method. Moreover, a sensing-based rate optimization problem is also solved via the Lagrange relaxation method and the Gradient descent method. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm has better robustness and higher energy efficiency.

Terahertz (THz) communication is expected to be one of the core enabling technologies for future systems. Due to the poor scattering and severe reflection loss of THz waves, the line-of-sight (LoS) communication is considered as a leading feature in THz multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO) systems. To realize LoS communication, beam training is a promising scheme to find the beamforming vectors without leveraging explicit channel state information (CSI). In this context, a crucial issue for THz MIMO is how to design the beam codewords for realizing any expected radiation pattern during the training. In particular, the narrow beams can be realized by array response vectors whereas the wide-beam design is still an open problem. In this article, we propose two high-quality algorithms, namely, successive convex approximation (SCA)-based auxiliary target pursuit (SCA-ATP) and the sum of symmetrical array response vectors (S-SARVs), for offline design and real-time design, respectively. Numerical results show that SCA-ATP yields the best performance in terms of the beam-pattern error (BPE) compared with benchmarks, and S-SARV can achieve a close performance to SCA-ATP with low computational complexity.

Tailor-made for massive connectivity and sporadic access, grant-free random access has become a promising candidate access protocol for massive machine-type communications (mMTC). Compared with conventional grant-based protocols, grant-free random access skips the exchange of scheduling information to reduce the signaling overhead, and facilitates the sharing of access resources to enhance access efficiency. However, some challenges remain to be addressed in the receiver design, such as the unknown identity of active users and multiuser interference (MUI) on shared access resources. In this work, we deal with the problem of joint user activity and data detection for grant-free random access. Specifically, the approximate message passing (AMP) algorithm is first employed to mitigate MUI and decouple the signals of different users. Then, we extend the data symbol alphabet to incorporate the null symbols from inactive users. In this way, the joint user activity and data detection problem is formulated as a clustering problem under the Gaussian mixture model. Furthermore, in conjunction with the AMP algorithm, a variational Bayesian inference-based clustering (VBIC) algorithm is developed to solve this clustering problem. Simulation results show that, compared with state-of-art solutions, the proposed AMP-combined VBIC (AMP-VBIC) algorithm achieves a significant performance gain in detection accuracy.

A revolutionary technology relying on Stacked Intelligent Metasurfaces (SIM) is capable of carrying out advanced signal processing directly in the native electromagnetic (EM) wave regime. An SIM is fabricated by a sophisticated amalgam of multiple stacked metasurface layers, which may outperform its single-layer metasurface counterparts, such as reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) and metasurface lenses. We harness this new SIM for implementing holographic multiple-input multiple-output (HMIMO) communications without requiring excessive radio-frequency (RF) chains, which is a substantial benefit compared to existing implementations. First of all, we propose an HMIMO communication system based on a pair of SIM at the transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX), respectively. In sharp contrast to the conventional MIMO designs, SIM is capable of automatically accomplishing transmit precoding and receiver combining, as the EM waves propagate through them. As such, each spatial stream can be directly radiated and recovered from the corresponding transmit and receive port. Secondly, we formulate the problem of minimizing the error between the actual end-to-end channel matrix and the target diagonal one, representing a flawless interference-free system of parallel subchannels. This is achieved by jointly optimizing the phase shifts associated with all the metasurface layers of both the TX-SIM and RX-SIM. We then design a gradient descent algorithm to solve the resultant non-convex problem. Furthermore, we theoretically analyze the HMIMO channel capacity bound and provide some fundamental insights. Finally, extensive simulation results are provided for characterizing our SIM-aided HMIMO system, which quantifies its substantial performance benefits, e.g., 150% capacity improvement over both conventional MIMO and its RIS-aided counterparts.

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-aided terahertz (THz) communications have been regarded as a promising candidate for future 6G networks because of its ultra-wide bandwidth and ultra-low power consumption. However, there exists the beam split problem, especially when the base station (BS) or RIS owns the large-scale antennas, which may lead to serious array gain loss. Therefore, in this paper, we investigate the beam split and beamforming design problems in the THz RIS communications. Specifically, we first analyze the beam split effect caused by different RIS sizes, shapes and deployments. On this basis, we apply the fully connected time delayer phase shifter hybrid beamforming (FC-TD-PS-HB) architecture at the BS and deploy distributed RISs to cooperatively mitigate the beam split effect. We aim to maximize the achievable sum rate by jointly optimizing the hybrid analog/digital beamforming, time delays at the BS and reflection coefficients at the RISs. To solve the formulated problem, we first design the analog beamforming and time delays based on different RISs’ physical directions, and then it is transformed into an optimization problem by jointly optimizing the digital beamforming and reflection coefficients. Next, we propose an alternatively iterative optimization algorithm to deal with it. Specifically, for given the reflection coefficients, we propose an iterative algorithm based on the minimum mean square error technique to obtain the digital beamforming. After, we apply Lagrangian dual reformulation (LDR) and multidimensional complex quadratic transform (MCQT) methods to transform the original problem to a quadratically constrained quadratic program, which can be solved by alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) technique to obtain the reflection coefficients. Finally, the digital beamforming and reflection coefficients are obtained via repeating the above processes until convergence. Simulation results verify that the proposed scheme can effectively alleviate the beam split effect and improve the system capacity.

In this paper, the problem of wireless resource allocation and semantic information extraction for energy efficient semantic communications over wireless networks with rate splitting is investigated. In the considered model, a base station (BS) first extracts semantic information from its large-scale data, and then transmits the small-sized semantic information to each user which recovers the original data based on its local common knowledge. At the BS side, the probability graph is used to extract multi-level semantic information. In the downlink transmission, a rate splitting scheme is adopted, while the private small-sized semantic information is transmitted through private message and the common knowledge is transmitted through common message. Due to limited wireless resource, both computation energy and transmission energy are considered. This joint computation and communication problem is formulated as an optimization problem aiming to minimize the total communication and computation energy consumption of the network under computation, latency, and transmit power constraints. To solve this problem, an alternating algorithm is proposed where the closed-form solutions for semantic information extraction ratio and computation frequency are obtained at each step. Numerical results verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

In split machine learning (ML), different partitions of a neural network (NN) are executed by different computing nodes, requiring a large amount of communication cost. As over-the-air computation (OAC) can efficiently implement all or part of the computation at the same time of communication, thus by substituting the wireless transmission in the traditional split ML framework with OAC, the communication load can be eased. In this paper, we propose to deploy split ML in a wireless multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication network utilizing the intricate interplay between MIMO-based OAC and NN. The basic procedure of the OAC split ML system is first provided, and we show that the inter-layer connection in a NN of any size can be mathematically decomposed into a set of linear precoding and combining transformations over a MIMO channel carrying out multi-stream analog communication. The precoding and combining matrices which are regarded as trainable parameters, and the MIMO channel matrix, which are regarded as unknown (implicit) parameters, jointly serve as a fully connected layer of the NN. Most interestingly, the channel estimation procedure can be eliminated by exploiting the MIMO channel reciprocity of the forward and backward propagation, thus greatly saving the system costs and/or further improving its overall efficiency. The generalization of the proposed scheme to the conventional NNs is also introduced, i.e., the widely used convolutional NNs. We demonstrate its effectiveness under both the static and quasi-static memory channel conditions with comprehensive simulations.

Chaotic secure communication systems using chaotic waveforms as their spreading carriers can hide the transmitted information bits over a wide frequency range of chaotic waveform, which disguises the transmitted information waveform as noise. In this paper, a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) enabled$M$-ary differential chaos shift keying with block interleaving (RIS-MDCSK-BI) system is proposed for chaotic secure communications, where an RIS is deployed at the transmitter to assist communications and a pair of block interleaving patterns are used to interleave$M$-ary information-bearing signals to enhance security performance. Moreover, we propose a chaotic merging sort algorithm to generate different block interleaving patterns, where these interleaving patterns are encrypted by using the non-periodic and noise-like properties of chaotic signals. To estimate information bits at the legitimate receiver, we propose a sequential detection algorithm and a joint detection algorithm. Then, theoretical bit error rate (BER) performances of the proposed RIS-MDCSK-BI system with the legitimate receiver and the eavesdropping receiver are derived. The security performance metrics, including information leakage and secrecy outage probability, are also analyzed. Monte Carlo simulations are performed to verify the superior BER performance and security performance of the proposed RIS-MDCSK-BI system compared to benchmark systems.

An active reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-aided multi-user downlink communication system is investigated, where non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) is employed to improve spectral efficiency, and the active RIS is powered by energy harvesting (EH). The problem of joint control of the RIS’s amplification matrix and phase shift matrix is formulated to maximize the communication success ratio with considering the quality of service (QoS) requirements of users, dynamic communication state, and dynamic available energy of RIS. To tackle this non-convex problem, a cascaded deep learning algorithm namely long short-term memory-deep deterministic policy gradient (LSTM-DDPG) is designed. First, an advanced LSTM based algorithm is developed to predict users’ dynamic communication state. Then, based on the prediction results, a DDPG based algorithm is proposed to joint control the amplification matrix and phase shift matrix of the RIS. Finally, simulation results verify the accuracy of the prediction of the proposed LSTM algorithm, and demonstrate that the LSTM-DDPG algorithm has a significant advantage over other benchmark algorithms in terms of communication success ratio performance.

In reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-aided coherent communications, channel state information (CSI) is often assumed to be perfectly estimated at the receiver. However, perfect CSI cannot be available in practice. Furthermore, the complex and ever-changing channel makes the acquisition of accurate CSI often unaffordable because of the large overhead in transmitting pilot signals. Motivated by these considerations, a novel non-coherent RIS-aided joint index keying$M$-ary differential chaos shift keying (RIS-JIK-MDCSK) system is proposed in this paper, where the receiver can retrieve information bits by performing non-coherent correlation demodulation without requiring CSI, thereby reducing the system complexity. In RIS-JIK-MDCSK, the states of the reference signal, RIS elements, and information-bearing subcarriers are jointly optimized to devise a joint index keying mechanism, where additional information bits are implicitly transmitted by these state indices, thus increasing the throughput and spectral efficiency. Furthermore, an effective joint index keying detection algorithm is proposed to recover the information bits. The analytical bit error rate (BER) of RIS-JIK-MDCSK is derived over a Rayleigh fading channel. Other evaluation metrics, including the throughput, spectral efficiency, and system complexity are also analyzed and compared against benchmark systems. Numerical simulations are performed to evaluate the superiority of RIS-JIK-MDCSK compared to existing systems.

In this paper, the problem of the deployment and resource management for visible light communication (VLC)-enabled, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs)-assisted unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) networks is investigated. In the considered model, UAVs provide terrestrial users with wireless services and illumination simultaneously. Moreover, RISs are utilized to further improve the channel quality between UAVs and users. This joint placement and resource management problem is constructed aiming at acquiring the optimal UAV deployment, RISs phase shift, user and RIS association that satisfies the users’ needs with minimum consumption of the UAVs’ energy. An iterative algorithm that alternately optimizes continuous and binary variables is proposed to solve this mixed-integer programming problem. Specifically, RISs phase shift optimization is solved by phases alignment method and semidefinite program algorithm. Next, the successive convex approximation algorithm is proposed to settle the UAV deployment problem. The user and RIS association variables are relaxed to the continuous ones before adopting the dual method to find the optimal solution. Moreover, a greedy algorithm is proposed as an alternative to RIS association optimization with low complexity. Simulation results show that the proposed two schemes harvest the superior performance of 34.85% and 32.11% energy consumption reduction over the case without RIS, respectively.

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) is very promising for wireless networks to achieve high energy efficiency, extended coverage, improved capacity, massive connectivity, etc. To unleash the full potentials of RIS-aided communications, acquiring accurate channel state information is crucial, which however is very challenging. For RIS-aided multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) communications, the existing channel estimation methods have computational complexity growing rapidly with the number of RIS units$N$(e.g., in the order of$N^{2}$or$N^{3}$) and/or have special requirements on the matrices involved (e.g., the matrices need to be sparse for algorithm convergence to achieve satisfactory performance), which hinder their applications. In this work, instead of using the conventional signal model in the literature, we derive a new signal model obtained through proper vectorization and reduction operations. Then, leveraging the unitary approximate message passing (UAMP), we develop a more efficient channel estimator that has complexity linear with$N$and does not have special requirements on the relevant matrices, thanks to the robustness of UAMP. These facilitate the applications of the proposed algorithm to a general RIS-aided MIMO system with a larger$N$. Moreover, extensive numerical results show that the proposed estimator delivers much better performance and/or requires significantly less number of training symbols, thereby leading to notable reductions in both training overhead and latency.

The combination of cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (CF-mMIMO) and reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) is envisioned as a promising paradigm to improve network capacity and enhance coverage capability. However, to reap full benefits of RIS-aided CF-mMIMO, the main challenge is to efficiently design cooperative beamforming (CBF) at base stations (BSs), RISs, and users. Firstly, we investigate the fractional programing to convert the weighted sum-rate (WSR) maximization problem into a tractable optimization problem. Then, the alternating optimization framework is employed to decompose the transformed problem into a sequence of subproblems, i.e., hybrid BF (HBF) at BSs, passive BF at RISs, and combining at users. In particular, the alternating direction method of multipliers algorithm is utilized to solve the HBF subproblem at BSs. Concretely, the analog BF design with unit-modulus constraints is solved by the manifold optimization (MO) while we obtain a closed-form solution to the digital BF design that is essentially a convex least-square problem. Additionally, the passive BF at RISs and the analog combining at users are designed by primal-dual subgradient and MO methods. Moreover, considering heavy communication costs in conventional CF-mMIMO systems, we propose a partially-connected CF-mMIMO (P-CF-mMIMO) framework to decrease the number of connections among BSs and users. To better compromise WSR performance and network costs, we formulate the BS selection problem in the P-CF-mMIMO system as a binary integer quadratic programming (BIQP) problem, and develop a relaxed linear approximation algorithm to handle this BIQP problem. Finally, numerical results demonstrate superiorities of our proposed algorithms over baseline counterparts.

This paper investigates the utilization of triple polarization (TP) for multi-user (MU) wireless communication systems with holographic multiple-input multi-output surfaces (HMIMOSs), targeting capacity boosting and diversity exploitation without enlarging the antenna array sizes of the transceivers. We specifically consider that both the transmitter and receiver are equipped with an HMIMOS consisting of compact sub-wavelength TP patch antennas and operating in the near-field (NF) regime. To characterize TP MU-HMIMOS systems, a TP NF channel model is constructed using the dyadic Green’s function, whose characteristics are leveraged to design two precoding schemes for mitigating the cross-polarization and inter-user interference contributions. Specifically, a user-cluster-based precoding scheme that assigns different users to one of three polarizations, at the expense of system’s diversity, is presented together with a two-layer precoding technique that removes interference using a Gaussian elimination method. A theoretical correlation analysis for HMIMOS-based systems operating in the NF region is also derived, revealing that both the spacing of transmit patch antennas and user distance impact transmit correlation factors. Our numerical results showcase that the users located far from the transmit HMIMOS experience higher correlation than those closer in the NF region, resulting in a lower channel capacity. In terms of channel capacity, it is demonstrated that the proposed TP HMIMOS-based systems almost achieve 1.25 and 3 times larger gain compared to their dual-polarized version and conventional HMIMOS systems, respectively. It is also shown that the the proposed two-layer precoding scheme combined with two-layer power allocation realizes the highest spectral efficiency, among compared schemes, without sacrificing diversity.

The emergent technology of Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs) has the potential to transform wireless environments into controllable systems, through programmable propagation of information-bearing signals. Techniques stemming from the field of Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) have recently gained popularity in maximizing the sum-rate performance in multi-user communication systems empowered by RISs. Such approaches are commonly based on Markov Decision Processes (MDPs). In this paper, we instead investigate the sum-rate design problem under the scope of the Multi-Armed Bandits (MAB) setting, which is a relaxation of the MDP framework. Nevertheless, in many cases, the MAB formulation is more appropriate to the channel and system models under the assumptions typically made in the RIS literature. To this end, we propose a simpler DRL approach for orchestrating multiple metasurfaces in RIS-empowered multi-user Multiple-Input Single-Output (MISO) systems, which we numerically show to perform equally well with a state-of-the-art MDP-based approach, while being less demanding computationally.

Resource allocation is very important for achieving interference suppression and protecting the quality of service of users in heterogeneous networks (HetNets). However, the existing works with perfect channel state information (CSI) and ideal hardware ignored the impact of channel uncertainties and hardware impairments on system performance. In this paper, we design a robust secure resource allocation algorithm with imperfect CSI to achieve the energy efficiency (EE) maximization of femtocell users for a two-tier downlink HetNet with multiple passive eavesdroppers, where the residual hardware impairments are considered at the transceivers. The formulated EE problem is non-convex with the consideration of the maximum transmit power constraint of each base station, the cross-tier interference power constraint, as well as the secure rate constraint. By using the worst-case approach and successive convex approximation, the resource allocation problem with the infinite-dimensional constraints is converted into a convex one which is efficiently solved by using convex optimization theory. Simulation results verify that the proposed algorithm has a higher EE and causes less interference power to macrocell users by comparing it with the baseline algorithms.

The transmission performance of an reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-aided device-to-device (D2D) communication network is fundamentally limited by the devices' energy. To address this challenge, in this paper, the joint radio resource allocation of D2D users (DUs) with piece-wise linear energy harvesting (EH) models and passive beamforming of the RIS is investigated to maximize the sum rate of DUs for an RIS-aided wireless-powered D2D communication underlaying a cellular network. Specifically, multiple wireless-powered DUs harvest radio-frequency energy from a hybrid access point (HAP) with the help of an RIS during the EH phase and achieve data transmission by using the harvested energy during information transmission phase. The optimization problem is formulated by jointly optimizing the transmit power of DUs, transmission time, the active beamforming vector of the HAP, and the passive beamforming matrix of the RIS. An alternating optimization-based algorithm is designed to solve the non-convex problem by using the variable substitution approach and the Lagrangian dual method. Simulation results have shown that our proposed algorithm provides a significant improvement in data rates over the existing algorithm without the RIS.

In this paper, the problem of wireless resource allocation and semantic information extraction for energy efficient semantic communications over wireless networks is investigated. In the considered model, each user first extracts the semantic information from its large-scale data, and then transmits the small-sized semantic information to the base station (BS) which recovers the original data. Due to the limited energy budget of wireless users, both local computational energy and transmission energy must be considered. This joint computation and communication problem is formulated as an optimization problem whose goal is to minimize the total energy consumption of the network under a latency constraint. To solve this problem, an iterative algorithm is proposed where the optimal solution for joint bandwidth allocation, power control, and computation frequency optimization problem can be obtained. Numerical results show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

Robustness and energy efficiency (EE) are of crucial importance in reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted wireless communication networks. However, a large portion of the current works assume that perfect channel state information (CSI) can be obtained, which is impractical because of the passive features of the RIS and the lack of radio frequency chains at the RIS. To handle this issue, we investigate an alternating optimization (AO) algorithm in an RIS-assisted non-orthogonal multiple-access (NOMA) network with imperfect CSI. The EE-based maximization resource allocation problem is formed with the maximum transmit power constraint at the base station, the continuous phase shifts constraint of the RIS, and the outage probability constraint of the signal-to-interference-noise ratio. To solve the tricky non-convex fractional problem, Dinkelbach’s method is used to convert the fractional objective function into parameter subtraction form, and the S-procedure is utilized to deal with the non-convex outage probability constraint with channel uncertainties. Moreover, by applying the AO algorithm the original optimization problem is converted into several semi-definite programming (SDP) subproblems. The overall simulation results illustrate that the proposed algorithm has good robustness and EE.

In this paper, the problem of power allocation is investigated for a multi-user downlink visible light communication (VLC) system with non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA). In this considered system, not only input-independent Gaussian noise but also input-dependent shot noise are considered due to the properties of realistic VLC channels. This problem is posed as a joint problem of alternating current power and direct current (DC) power under the optical and electrical domain constraints in VLC as well as specific power constraints for NOMA decoding, whose goal is to maximize the minimum signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) among all users. Although this problem is non-convex, a geometric programming (GP) based algorithm is proposed to convert the original problem into a convex one, thus the optimal solution is obtained. Furthermore, special cases where lower DC offset is preferred are investigated. Simulation results verify that the DC offset has significant impacts on the performance of NOMA VLC systems with shot noise, and our proposed scheme achieves better SINR performance over the conventional schemes.

The multi-task federated learning (FL) problem in the wireless communication system is investigated in this paper. The base station (BS) and wireless users cooperatively perform a two-task FL algorithm in the established model. Users use their local datasets to train two local models of two different tasks. The trained local model of only one task is transmitted to the BS at each time and the BS aggregates the obtained models to calculate a global model, which will be sent back to all users. Since the resources for wireless transmission, such as transmit power and number of subcarriers are limited, the BS have to allocate resources reasonably to minimize the time consumption of the FL procedure while meeting the required learning performance. On the other hand, users are dynamically arranged to participate in different tasks in each iteration. This resource allocation and users arrangement problem is formulated as an optimization problem which aims to minimize time consumption of the two-task FL procedure. To address this nonconvex problem, we first decompose it into two convex sub-problems. Then we propose an iterative algorithm to solve this problem via iteratively obtaining the optimal solution of the joint power control and communication round optimization subproblem, and user arrangement subproblem. Simulation results of this multi-task FL system show that the proposed algorithm can reduce 7.02% and 9.67% completion time compared to the uniform and random user selection schemes respectively.

This paper investigates the problem of secrecy energy efficiency for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) assisted joint sensing and communication system. In the considered system, there exists one UAV, one legal user, and one eavesdropper. The UAV needs to complete multiple tasks in multiple time cycles. In each time cycle, the UAV first flies to sense one task and then transmits the sensing results to the legal user. To maximize the secrecy energy efficiency of the system, a joint sensing and transmission time and UAV location optimization problem is formulated. To solve this non-convex fractional programming problem, the original problem is first divided into two subproblems. Each sub-problem can be easily transformed to a convex one by using the successive convex approximation (SCA) method and the Dinkelbach’s approach. Then, an iterative algorithm based on the alternating method is proposed. Simulation results reveal that our proposed algorithm is superior to the conventional algorithms in terms of secrecy energy efficiency.

Abstract In this paper, a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) assisted downlink non‐orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) network is considered, where a base station communicates with a pair of users with the assistance of a RIS. The performance of RIS‐assisted downlink NOMA networks is investigated by exploiting the coherent phase shifting design. In particular, the central limit theorem based Gaussian approximation is introduced to model the sum of independent and identically distributed random variables and derive the approximate expressions of the outage probability for two users. Furthermore, the upper bounds for the outage probability are obtained based on the property of the Bessel function. Additionally, both the asymptotic outage probabilities and the asymptotic upper bounds at high signal‐to‐noise ratio are derived and the diversity order achieved by the network is obtained. Simulation results are provided to validate the theoretical findings and demonstrate that RIS‐NOMA can achieve superior outage performance compared to RIS‐assisted orthogonal multiple access and conventional full‐duplex decode‐and‐forward relaying schemes. Moreover, it can be observed that the outage performance of RIS‐NOMA can be tremendously enhanced with increasing the number of reflecting elements.

The envisioned wireless networks of the future entail the provisioning of massive numbers of connections, heterogeneous data traffic, ultra-high spectral efficiency, and low latency services. This vision is spurring research activities focused on defining a next generation multiple access (NGMA) protocol that can accommodate massive numbers of users in different resource blocks, thereby, achieving higher spectral efficiency and increased connectivity compared to conventional multiple access schemes. In this article, we present a multiple access scheme for NGMA in wireless communication systems assisted by multiple reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs). In this regard, considering the practical scenario of static users operating together with mobile ones, we first study the interplay of the design of NGMA schemes and RIS phase configuration in terms of efficiency and complexity. Based on this, we then propose a multiple access framework for RIS-assisted communication systems, and we also design a medium access control (MAC) protocol incorporating RISs. In addition, we give a detailed performance analysis of the designed RIS-assisted MAC protocol. Our extensive simulation results demonstrate that the proposed MAC design outperforms the benchmarks in terms of system throughput and access fairness, and also reveal a trade-off relationship between the system throughput and fairness.

In this paper, we aim to efficiently and accurately predict the static channel impulse response (CIR) with only the user’s position information and a set of channel instances obtained within a certain wireless communication environment. Such a problem is by no means trivial since it needs to reconstruct the high-dimensional information (here the CIR everywhere) from the extremely low-dimensional data (here the location coordinates), which often results in overfitting and large prediction error. To this end, we resort to a novel physics-inspired generative approach. Specifically, we first use a forward deep neural network to infer the positions of all possible images of the source reflected by the surrounding scatterers within that environment, and then use the well-known Gaussian Radial Basis Function network (GRBF) to approximate the amplitudes of all possible propagation paths. We further incorporate the most recently developed sinusoidal representation network (SIREN) into the proposed network to implicitly represent the highly dynamic phases of all possible paths, which usually cannot be well predicted by the conventional neural networks with non-periodic activators. The resultant framework of Cosine-Gaussian Radial Basis Function network (C-GRBFnet) is also extended to the MIMO channel case. Key performance measures including prediction accuracy, convergence speed, network scale and robustness to channel estimation error are comprehensively evaluated and compared with existing popular networks, which show that our proposed network is much more efficient in representing, learning and predicting wireless channels in a given communication environment.

The emerging technology of reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) is provisioned as an enabler of smart wireless environments, offering a highly scalable, low-cost, hardware-efficient, and almost energy-neutral solution for dynamic control of the propagation of electromagnetic signals over the wireless medium, ultimately providing increased environmental intelligence for diverse operation objectives. One of the major challenges with the envisioned dense deployment of RISs in such reconfigurable radio environments is the efficient configuration of multiple metasurfaces with limited, or even the absence of, computing hardware. In this article, we consider multiuser and multi-RIS-empowered wireless systems and present a thorough survey of the online machine learning approaches for the orchestration of their various tunable components. Focusing on the sum-rate maximization as a representative design objective, we present a comprehensive problem formulation based on deep reinforcement learning (DRL). We detail the correspondences among the parameters of the wireless system and the DRL terminology, and devise generic algorithmic steps for the artificial neural network training and deployment while discussing their implementation details. Further practical considerations for multi-RIS-empowered wireless communications in the sixth-generation (6G) era are presented along with some key open research challenges. Different from the DRL-based status quo, we leverage the independence between the configuration of the system design parameters and the future states of the wireless environment, and present efficient multiarmed bandits approaches, whose resulting sum-rate performances are numerically shown to outperform random configurations, while being sufficiently close to the conventional deep$Q$network (DQN) algorithm, but with lower implementation complexity.

Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) have been recently considered as a promising candidate for energy-efficient solutions in future wireless networks. Their dynamic and low-power configuration enables coverage extension, massive connectivity, and low-latency communications. Due to a large number of unknown variables referring to the RIS unit elements and the transmitted signals, channel estimation and signal recovery in RIS-based systems are the ones of the most critical technical challenges. To address this problem, we focus on the RIS-assisted wireless communication system and present two joint channel estimation and signal recovery schemes based on message passing algorithms in this paper. Specifically, the proposed bidirectional scheme applies the Taylor series expansion and Gaussian approximation to simplify the sum-product procedure in the formulated problem. In addition, the inner iteration that adopts two variants of approximate message passing algorithms is incorporated to ensure robustness and convergence. Two ambiguities removal methods are also discussed in this paper. Our simulation results show that the proposed schemes show the superiority over the state-of-art benchmark method. We also provide insights on the impact of different RIS parameter settings on the proposed schemes.

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) can be employed in a cell-free system to create favorable propagation conditions from base stations (BSs) to users via configurable elements. However, prior works on RIS-aided cell-free system designs mainly rely on the instantaneous channel state information (CSI), which may incur substantial overhead due to extremely high dimensions of estimated channels. To mitigate this issue, a low-complexity algorithm via the two-timescale transmission protocol is proposed in this paper, where the joint beamforming at BSs and RISs is facilitated via alternating optimization framework to maximize the average weighted sum-rate. Specifically, the passive beamformers at RISs are optimized through the statistical CSI, and the transmit beamformers at BSs are based on the instantaneous CSI of effective channels. In this manner, a closed-form expression for the achievable weighted sum-rate is derived, which enables the evaluation of the impact of key parameters on system performance. To gain more insights, a special case without line-of-sight (LoS) components is further investigated, where a power gain on the order of$\mathcal {O}(M)$is achieved, with$M$being the BS antennas number. Numerical results validate the tightness of our derived analytical expression and show the fast convergence of the proposed algorithm. Findings illustrate that the performance of the proposed algorithm with two-timescale CSI is comparable to that with instantaneous CSI in low or moderate SNR regime. The impact of key system parameters such as the number of RIS elements, CSI settings and Rician factor is also evaluated. Moreover, the remarkable advantages from the adoption of the cell-free paradigm and the deployment of RISs are demonstrated intuitively.

The energy efficiency (EE) of femtocells is always limited by the surrounding radio environments in heterogeneous networks (HetNets), such as walls and obstacles. In this paper, we propose to deploy reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) to improve the EE of femtocells. However, perfect channel state information is more difficult to obtain due to the passive characteristics of RISs and non-cooperative relationship between different tiers. Besides, the low-cost transceivers and reflecting units suffer nontrivial hardware impairments (HWIs) due to the hardware limitations of practical systems. To this end, we investigate a realistic robust beamforming design based on max-min fairness for an RIS-aided HetNet under channel uncertainties and residual HWIs. The joint optimization of transmit beamforming vectors of femto base stations (FBSs) and the phase-shift matrices of RISs is formulated as a non-convex problem to maximize the minimum EE of the femtocell subject to the constraints of the maximum transmit power of FBSs, the quality of service of users, and unit modulus phase-shift constraints of RISs. We develop an iterative block coordinate descent-based algorithm which exploits the semi-definite relaxation, the S-procedure, and the singular value decomposition method. Simulation results reveal that the proposed algorithm outperforms existing algorithms in terms of fairness, EE, and outage probability.

We consider the extra degree of freedom offered by the rotation of the reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) plane and investigate its potential in improving the performance of RIS-assisted wireless communication systems. By considering radiation pattern modeling at all involved nodes, we first derive the composite channel gain and present a closed-form upper bound for the system ergodic capacity over cascade Rician fading channels. Then, we reconstruct the composite channel gain by taking the rotations at the RIS plane, transmit antenna, and receive antenna into account, and extract the optimal rotation angles after investigating their impacts on the capacity. Moreover, we present a location-dependent expression of the ergodic capacity and investigate the RIS deployment strategy, i.e. the joint rotation adjustment and location selection. Finally, simulation results verify the accuracy of the theoretical analyses and deployment strategy. Although the RIS location has a big impact on the performance, our results showcase that the RIS rotation plays a more important role. In other words, we can obtain a considerable improvement by properly rotating the RIS rather than moving it over a wide area. For instance, we can achieve more than 200% performance improvement through rotating the RIS by 42.14°, while an 150% improvement is obtained by shifting the RIS over 400 meters.

This paper investigates a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-aided unsourced random access (URA) scheme for the sixth-generation (6G) wireless networks with massive sporadic traffic devices. First of all, this paper proposes a novel joint active device separation (the message recovery of active device) and channel estimation architecture for the RIS-aided URA. Specifically, the RIS passive reflection is optimized before the successful device separation. Then, by associating the data sequences to multiple rank-one tensors and exploiting the angular sparsity of the RIS-BS channel, the detection problem is cast as a high-order coupled tensor decomposition problem without the need of exploiting pilot sequences. However, the inherent coupling among multiple sparse device-RIS channels, together with the unknown number of active devices make the detection problem at hand deviate from the widely-used coupled tensor decomposition format. To overcome this challenge, this paper judiciously devises a probabilistic model that captures both the element-wise sparsity from the angular channel model and the low-rank property due to the sporadic nature of URA. Then, based on such a probabilistic model, a iterative detection algorithm is developed under the framework of sparse variational inference, where each update iteration is obtained in a closed-form and the number of active devices can be automatically estimated for effectively avoiding the overfitting of noise. Extensive simulation results confirm the excellence of the proposed URA algorithm, especially for the case of a large number of reflecting elements for accommodating a significantly large number of devices.

Increasing concerns on intelligent spectrum sensing call for efficient training and inference technologies. In this paper, we propose a novel federated learning (FL) framework, dubbed federated spectrum learning (FSL), which exploits the benefits of reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) and overcomes the unfavorable impact of deep fading channels. Distinguishingly, we endow conventional RISs with spectrum learning capabilities by leveraging a fully-trained convolutional neural network (CNN) model at each RIS controller, thereby helping the base station to cooperatively infer the users who request to participate in FL at the beginning of each training iteration. To fully exploit the potential of FL and RISs, we address three technical challenges: RISs phase shifts configuration, user-RIS association, and wireless bandwidth allocation. The resulting joint learning, wireless resource allocation, and user-RIS association design is formulated as an optimization problem whose objective is to maximize the system utility while considering the impact of FL prediction accuracy. In this context, the accuracy of FL prediction interplays with the performance of resource optimization. In particular, if the accuracy of the trained CNN model deteriorates, the performance of resource allocation worsens. The proposed FSL framework is tested by using real radio frequency (RF) traces and numerical results demonstrate its advantages in terms of spectrum prediction accuracy and system utility: a better CNN prediction accuracy and FL system utility can be achieved with a larger number of RISs and reflecting elements.

This paper investigates the problem of joint massive devices separation and channel estimation for a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-aided unsourced random access (URA) scheme in the sixth-generation (6G) wireless networks. In particular, by associating the data sequences to a rank-one tensor and exploiting the angular sparsity of the channel, the detection problem is cast as a high-order coupled tensor decomposition problem. However, the coupling among multiple devices to RIS (device-RIS) channels together with their sparse structure make the problem intractable. By devising novel priors to incorporate problem structures, we design a novel probabilistic model to capture both the element-wise sparsity from the angular channel model and the low rank property due to the sporadic nature of URA. Based on the this probabilistic model, we develop a coupled tensor-based automatic detection (CTAD) algorithm under the framework of variational inference with fast convergence and low computational complexity. Moreover, the proposed algorithm can automatically learn the number of active devices and thus effectively avoid noise overfitting. Extensive simulation results confirm the effectiveness and improvements of the proposed URA algorithm in large-scale RIS regime.

In this paper, the problem of optimal passive beamforming design is studied for a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) assisted full-duplex (FD) communication system. In the studied model, two devices communicate with each other using one RIS under the FD mode. Each of the device will receive not only the message from the other device but also the self-interference. The main problem of this work is to minimize the sum transmit power by jointly optimizing the reflection coefficients matrix and the transmit power of devices. To solve this problem, a dual method is proposed, where the dual problem is formulated as a semidefinite programming problem. After solving the dual problem, the phase beamforming of the RIS is obtained in the closed form. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme can reduce up to 66% sum transmit power compared to a conventional RIS assisted half-duplex mode.

Energy efficiency (EE) is a crucial performance metric in wireless-powered backscatter communication networks (WP-BackComNets) for achieving a good tradeoff between data rates and the overall energy consumption, which however has not been sufficiently exploited by the existing works. In this paper, an EE-based maximization resource allocation (RA) problem is studied in a downlink orthogonal frequency division multiple access-based WP-BackComNet, where the circuit power consumption of the backscatter device, the minimum energy harvesting (EH) constraint, and the maximum transmit power constraint of the power station are considered. To deal with the non-convex problem, we firstly transform it into an equivalently subtractive form via Dinkelbach's method. Then, we apply a variable substitution approach to transform the non-convex problem into a convex one, where the closed-form solutions of the reflection coefficient, the transmit power, and the EH time are deduced by using Lagrange dual method. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can achieve better EE performance than other benchmark algorithms.

In this paper, graph attention network (GAT) is firstly utilized for the channel estimation. In accordance with the 6G expectations, we consider a high-altitude platform station (HAPS) mounted reconfigurable intelligent surface-assisted two-way communications and obtain a low overhead and a high normalized mean square error performance. The performance of the proposed method is investigated on the two-way backhauling link over the RIS-integrated HAPS. The simulation results denote that the GAT estimator overperforms the least square in full-duplex channel estimation. Contrary to the previously introduced methods, GAT at one of the nodes can separately estimate the cascaded channel coefficients. Thus, there is no need to use time division duplex mode during pilot signaling in full-duplex communication. Moreover, it is shown that the GAT estimator is robust to hardware imperfections and changes in small scale fading characteristics even if the training data do not include all these variations.

Mobile channel estimation is very challenging as usually it requires more pilots and channel observations to obtain the channel state information (CSI) and the resultant estimation accuracy may decrease with the number of antennas and sub-carriers. Through exploring the long-and-short-term intrinsic spatial and temporal correlation among a set of historic channel instances randomly obtained within a certain communication environment, channel prediction can help increase the CSI accuracy w.r.t. to that obtained from only the pilots, and thus save signaling overhead and computational cost. In this paper, we propose a novel generative Periodic-Activator-enabled Auto Encoder-LSTM network (GPAE-LSTMnet) for accurate channel prediction of mobile MIMO channels, which first compresses the high dimensional channel matrix with high-frequency features to a low dimensional space with relatively low-frequency feature space that has high data smoothness and is suitable for time-series sequence prediction. After that, a LSTM network is used to predict the channel in the low dimensional space, which ensures high accuracy and low computational cost. Experimental results show that our proposed learning structure outperforms existing methods especially when the dimension of CSI to be predicted is relatively high, the time interval of the CSI sequence is relatively long and the number of network parameters is highly limited.

In this paper, the implementation of a distributed primal-dual learning algorithm over realistic wireless networks is investigated. In the considered model, the users and one base station (BS) cooperatively perform a distributed primal-dual learning algorithm for controlling and optimizing wireless networks. In particular, each user must locally update the primal and dual variables and send the updated primal variables to the BS. The BS aggregates the received primal variables and broadcasts the aggregated variables to all users. Since all of the primal and dual variables as well as aggregated variables are transmitted over wireless links, the imperfect wireless links will affect the solution achieved by the distributed primal-dual algorithm. Therefore, it is necessary to study how wireless factors such as transmission errors affect the implementation of the distributed primal-dual algorithm and how to optimize wireless network performance to improve the solution achieved by the distributed primal-dual algorithm. To address these challenges, the convergence rate of the primal-dual algorithm is provided in a closed form while considering the impact of wireless factors such as data transmission errors. Simulation results show that the proposed distributed primal-dual algorithm can reduce the gap between the target and obtained solution compared to the distributed primal-dual learning algorithm without considering imperfect wireless transmission.

Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) have been recently considered as a promising candidate for energy-efficient solutions in future wireless networks. Their dynamic and low-power configuration enables coverage extension, massive connectivity, and low-latency communications. Due to a large number of unknown variables referring to the RIS unit elements and the transmitted signals, channel estimation and signal recovery in RIS-based systems are the ones of the most critical technical challenges. To address this problem, we focus on the RIS-assisted multi-user wireless communication system and present a joint channel estimation and signal recovery algorithm in this paper. Specifically, we propose a bidirectional approximate message passing algorithm that applies the Taylor series expansion and Gaussian approximation to simplify the sum-product algorithm in the formulated problem. Our simulation results show that the proposed algorithm shows the superiority over a state-of-art benchmark method. We also provide insights on the impact of different RIS parameter settings on the proposed algorithms.

Millimeter-wave (mmWave) imaging has attracted much attention due to its potential applications in next generation wireless networks. However, how to design robust and efficient signaling and reconstruction algorithm still remains very challenging. In this paper, with the aid of the newly emerged intelligent reflecting surfaces (IRS), we propose a novel millimeter-wave computational imaging method exploiting the enormous illuminating patterns provided by Reed-Muller (RM) sequences. In particular, we construct a deterministic sensing matrix using the RM sequences with which to stimulate the objects via an intelligent reflecting surface, so as to modulate the amplitude and phase of the incident wave indirectly and increase the electromagnetic degrees of freedom. Compared with Zadoff-Chu sequence, Hadamard sequence and random sequence modulated signal illumination method, our proposed approach converges faster and achieves nearly the same accuracy as the illuminations increase, and has less hardware overhead.

In this paper, we try to solve the problem of wireless channel prediction in a fixed area based only on position information of user's equipment. It is the first time that such a problem is proposed and discussed. Different from recent channel prediction methods which need a sequence of measured channel state information (CSI) as known factor, we view this task as a generative problem. A large amount of CSI data measured in the historical communication process can be made use of directly. For solving this problem in a data-driven way, a novel physics-inspired learning structure (C-GRBF) is proposed which fits the physics process of channel impulse response formulating perfectly. Scattering environment information is learned as parameters of the network and the principle of electromagnetic wave propagation is implicit represented by the structure of the network. In the meantime, the reason why conventional universal learning structures fail in solving this problem is analyzed. Experimental results show great performance in prediction accuracy, convergence speed and network robustness of the proposed learning structure.

Recently, millimeter wave (mmWave) imaging has received widespread attention. However, due to its nonlinearity and ill-posedness, it is challenging to reconstruct the precise electromagnetic properties of unknown targets from the measured scattered fields. In this paper, a new concentrative intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) aided computational imaging scheme is proposed. In the scheme, by dividing the region of imaging (ROI) into pixels, the imaging process is transformed into a compressed sensing problem. This paper proposes a fast block sparse Bayesian learning (BSBL) algorithm, which exploits the block sparsity of the reflection vector of ROI, and reduces the computational complexity through the generalized approximate message passing (GAMP) algorithm. Finally, the simulation results validate the performance advantages of the proposed algorithm and the efficiency of IRS in the imaging process.

Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs) have been recently considered as an energy-efficient solution for future wireless networks. Their dynamic and low-power configuration enables coverage extension, massive connectivity, and low-latency communications. Channel estimation and signal recovery in RIS-based systems are among the most critical technical challenges, due to the large number of unknown variables referring to the RIS unit elements and the transmitted signals. In this paper, we focus on the downlink of a RIS-assisted multi-user Multiple Input Single Output (MISO) communication system and present a joint channel estimation and signal recovery scheme based on the PARAllel FACtor (PARAFAC) decomposition. This decomposition unfolds the cascaded channel model and facilitates signal recovery using the Bilinear Generalized Approximate Message Passing (BiG-AMP) algorithm. The proposed method includes an alternating least squares algorithm to iteratively estimate the equivalent matrix, which consists of the transmitted signals and the channels between the base station and RIS, as well as the channels between the RIS and the multiple users. Our selective simulation results show that the proposed scheme outperforms a benchmark scheme that uses genie-aided information knowledge. We also provide insights on the impact of different RIS parameter settings on the proposed scheme.

Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA)-based device-to-device (D2D) network has attracted widespread attention since it can address the problem of spectrum shortage in the next-generation communication networks. However, the robust resource allocation problem in this network has not been well investigated. In this paper, we aim for maximizing the energy efficiency (EE) of a NOMA-based D2D network with simultaneous wireless information and power transfer technique under imperfect channel state information. The considered problem is modeled as a non-convex optimization problem that considers the maximum tolerable outage probability of each D2D user (DU), the successive interference cancellation decoding order, and the maximum transmit power of base station and DUs, where the transmit power, power splitting factor, and resource block assignment factor are jointly optimized. Since the formulated mixed-integer fractional programming problem with outage probability constraints is non-convex and difficult to solve, we firstly transform it into a non-probabilistic problem through a relaxation approach, and then, transform it into a convex one by using the variable-substitution approach and Dinkelbach's method. Finally, an EE-based iterative algorithm is proposed to solve this intractable problem. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm has a fast convergence and low outage probability.

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) is a promising reflective radio technology for improving the coverage and rate of future wireless systems by reconfiguring the wireless propagation environment. The current work mainly focuses on the physical layer design of RIS. However, enabling multiple devices to communicate with the assistance of RIS is a crucial challenging problem. Motivated by this, we explore RIS-assisted communications at the medium access control (MAC) layer and propose an RIS-assisted MAC framework. In particular, RIS-assisted transmissions are implemented by prenegotiation and a multidimension reservation (MDR) scheme. Based on this, we investigate RIS-assisted single-channel multiuser (SCMU) communications. Wherein the RIS regarded as a whole unity can be reserved by one user to support the multiple data transmissions, thus achieving high efficient RIS-assisted connections at the user. Moreover, under frequency-selective channels, implementing the MDR scheme on the RIS group division, RIS-assisted multichannel multiuser (MCMU) communications are further explored to improve the service efficiency of the RIS and decrease the computation complexity. Besides, a Markov chain is built based on the proposed RIS-assisted MAC framework to analyze the system performance of SCMU/MCMU. Then the optimization problem is formulated to maximize the overall system capacity of SCMU/MCMU with energy-efficient constraint. The performance evaluations demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of each.

Energy efficiency (EE) is a significant performance indicator in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-assisted communication networks for providing a balance between power consumption minimization and transmission rate maximization. However, most of the current works focus on the transmission rate maximization under perfect channel state information (CSI) and exact coordinate information, which is too ideal in practical systems due to channel estimation errors and coordinate estimation errors. Thus, robust resource allocation algorithms with imperfect CSI and coordinate information are critically important to reduce users’ outages and improve system robustness. In this article, a robust EE maximization problem with channel uncertainties and coordinate uncertainties is formulated for an energy harvesting-based device-to-device (D2D) communication underlaying UAV-assisted network under some necessary constraints, which involve the outage probability constraints of ground terminals, the flight altitude constraint of the UAV, the minimum harvested energy constraints of D2D users, and the transmission time constraint. Both radio resource allocation and the flight altitude are jointly optimized based on the worst case approach. The considered nonconvex problem is transformed into a convex one by exploiting variable relaxation and variable substitution approaches. The Lagrange dual theory is used to derive the closed-form expressions of robust resource allocation. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm by comparing it with the benchmark algorithms in terms of EE and robustness.

The aerial-terrestrial communication system constitutes an efficient paradigm for supporting and complementing terrestrial communications. However, the benefits of such a system cannot be fully exploited, especially when the line-of-sight (LoS) transmissions are prone to severe deterioration due to complex propagation environments in urban areas. The emerging technology of reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) has recently become a potential solution to mitigate propagation-induced impairments and improve wireless network coverage. Motivated by these considerations, in this paper, we address the coverage and link performance problems of the aerial-terrestrial communication system by proposing an RIS-assisted transmission strategy. In particular, we design an adaptive RIS-assisted transmission protocol, in which the channel estimation, transmission strategy, and data transmission are independently implemented in a frame. On this basis, we formulate an RIS-assisted transmission strategy optimization problem as a mixed-integer non-linear program (MINLP) to maximize the overall system throughput. We then employ multi-task learning to speed up the solution to the problem. Benefiting from multi-task learning, the computation time is reduced by about four orders of magnitude. Numerical results show that the proposed RIS-assisted transmission protocol significantly improves the system throughput and reduces the transmit power.

Wireless communication in the TeraHertz band (0.1--10 THz) is envisioned as one of the key enabling technologies for the future sixth generation (6G) wireless communication systems scaled up beyond massive multiple input multiple output (Massive-MIMO) technology. However, very high propagation attenuations and molecular absorptions of THz frequencies often limit the signal transmission distance and coverage range. Benefited from the recent breakthrough on the reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) for realizing smart radio propagation environment, we propose a novel hybrid beamforming scheme for the multi-hop RIS-assisted communication networks to improve the coverage range at THz-band frequencies. Particularly, multiple passive and controllable RISs are deployed to assist the transmissions between the base station (BS) and multiple single-antenna users. We investigate the joint design of digital beamforming matrix at the BS and analog beamforming matrices at the RISs, by leveraging the recent advances in deep reinforcement learning (DRL) to combat the propagation loss. To improve the convergence of the proposed DRL-based algorithm, two algorithms are then designed to initialize the digital beamforming and the analog beamforming matrices utilizing the alternating optimization technique. Simulation results show that our proposed scheme is able to improve 50\% more coverage range of THz communications compared with the benchmarks. Furthermore, it is also shown that our proposed DRL-based method is a state-of-the-art method to solve the NP-hard beamforming problem, especially when the signals at RIS-assisted THz communication networks experience multiple hops.

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) is a promising solution to build a programmable wireless environment with reconfigurable passive elements, which can achieve high spectral and energy efficiency. In this paper, we investigate the ergodic capacity of RIS-assisted multi-user multiple-input single-output (MISO) wireless systems in both uplink and downlink scenarios. Unlike most of prior works, where instantaneous channel state information (CSI) is assumed, we consider the realistic scenario with only statistical CSI. For both scenarios, we first present an analytical expressions for the ergodic sum capacity of the system. Based on which, the joint power control (or transmit beamforming) and phase shift design problem maximizing the ergodic sum capacity is formulated. Capitalizing on the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM), fractional programming (FP) and alternating optimization (AO) methods, efficient suboptimal solutions are obtained for the non-convex design problems. Simulation results are presented to validate the accuracy of the analytical ergodic sum capacity expressions and evaluate the impact of key system parameters such as CSI, Rician$K$factor, number of RIS elements, and RIS location on the ergodic capacity performance. The findings suggest that the proposed statistical CSI design achieves decent performance compared with the instantaneous CSI based design. Moreover, a signal hot spot can be created when placing the RIS close to the users.

Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs) have been recently considered as an energy-efficient solution for future wireless networks due to their fast and low-power configuration, which has increased potential in enabling massive connectivity and low-latency communications. Accurate and low-overhead channel estimation in RIS-based systems is one of the most critical challenges due to the usually large number of RIS unit elements and their distinctive hardware constraints. In this paper, we focus on the uplink of a RIS-empowered multi-user Multiple Input Single Output (MISO) uplink communication systems and propose a channel estimation framework based on the parallel factor decomposition to unfold the resulting cascaded channel model. We present two iterative estimation algorithms for the channels between the base station and RIS, as well as the channels between RIS and users. One is based on alternating least squares (ALS), while the other uses vector approximate message passing to iteratively reconstruct two unknown channels from the estimated vectors. To theoretically assess the performance of the ALS-based algorithm, we derived its estimation Cramér-Rao Bound (CRB). We also discuss the downlink achievable sum rate computation with estimated channels and different precoding schemes for the base station. Our extensive simulation results show that our algorithms outperform benchmark schemes and that the ALS technique achieves the CRB. It is also demonstrated that the sum rate using the estimated channels always reach that of perfect channels under various settings, thus, verifying the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed estimation algorithms.

This article investigates the problem of resource allocation for multiuser communication networks with a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted wireless transmitter. In this network, the sum transmit power of the network is minimized by controlling the phase beamforming of the RIS and transmit power of the base station. This problem is posed as a joint optimization problem of transmit power and RIS control, whose goal is to minimize the sum transmit power under signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) constraints of the users. To solve this problem, a dual method is proposed, where the dual problem is obtained as a semidefinite programming problem. After solving the dual problem, the phase beamforming of the RIS is obtained in the closed form, while the optimal transmit power is obtained by using the standard interference function. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme can reduce up to 94% and 27% sum transmit power compared to the maximum ratio transmission (MRT) beamforming and zero-forcing (ZF) beamforming techniques, respectively.

With the rapid development of autonomous driving technologies, it becomes difficult to reconcile the conflict between ever-increasing demands for high process rate in the intelligent automotive tasks and resource-constrained on-board processors. Fortunately, vehicular edge computing (VEC) has been proposed to meet the pressing resource demands. Due to the delay-sensitive traits of automotive tasks, only a heterogeneous vehicular network with multiple access technologies may be able to handle these demanding challenges. In this article, we propose an intelligent task offloading framework in heterogeneous vehicular networks with three Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communication technologies, namely Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC), cellular-based V2X (C-V2X) communication, and millimeter wave (mmWave) communication. Based on stochastic network calculus, this article firstly derives the delay upper bounds of different offloading technologies with certain failure probabilities. Moreover, we propose a federated Q-learning method that optimally utilizes the available resources to minimize the communication/computing budgets and the offloading failure probabilities. Simulation results indicate that our proposed algorithm can significantly outperform the existing algorithms in terms of resource cost and offloading failure probability.

With recent advances on the dense low-Earth orbit (LEO) constellation, the LEO satellite network has become one promising solution for providing global coverage for Internet-of-Things (IoT) services. Confronted with the sporadic transmission from randomly activated IoT devices, we consider the random access (RA) mechanism and propose a grant-free RA (GF-RA) scheme to reduce the access delay to the mobile LEO satellites. A Bernoulli–Rician message passing with expectation–maximization (BR-MP-EM) algorithm is proposed for this terrestrial–satellite GF-RA system to address the user activity detection (UAD) and channel estimation (CE) problem. This BR-MP-EM algorithm is divided into two stages. In the inner iterations, the Bernoulli messages and Rician messages are updated for the joint UAD and CE problem. Based on the output of the inner iterations, the expectation–maximization (EM) method is employed in the outer iterations to update the hyperparameters related to the channel impairments. Finally, simulation results show the UAD and CE accuracy of the proposed BR-MP-EM algorithm, as well as the robustness against the channel impairments.

Recently, the reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS), benefited from the breakthrough on the fabrication of programmable meta-material, has been speculated as one of the key enabling technologies for the future six generation (6G) wireless communication systems scaled up beyond massive multiple input multiple output (Massive-MIMO) technology to achieve smart radio environments. Employed as reflecting arrays, RIS is able to assist MIMO transmissions without the need of radio frequency chains resulting in considerable reduction in power consumption. In this paper, we investigate the joint design of transmit beamforming matrix at the base station and the phase shift matrix at the RIS, by leveraging recent advances in deep reinforcement learning (DRL). We first develop a DRL based algorithm, in which the joint design is obtained through trial-and-error interactions with the environment by observing predefined rewards, in the context of continuous state and action. Unlike the most reported works utilizing the alternating optimization techniques to alternatively obtain the transmit beamforming and phase shifts, the proposed DRL based algorithm obtains the joint design simultaneously as the output of the DRL neural network. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm is not only able to learn from the environment and gradually improve its behavior, but also obtains the comparable performance compared with two state-of-the-art benchmarks. It is also observed that, appropriate neural network parameter settings will improve significantly the performance and convergence rate of the proposed algorithm.

One of the fundamental challenges to realize massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) communications is the accurate acquisition of channel state information for a plurality of users at the base station. This is usually accomplished in the UpLink (UL) direction profiting from the time division duplexing mode. In practical base station transceivers, there exist inevitably nonlinear hardware components, like signal amplifiers and various analog filters, which complicates the calibration task. To deal with this challenge, we design a deep neural network for channel calibration between the UL and DownLink (DL) directions. During the initial training phase, the deep neural network is trained from both UL and DL channel measurements. We then leverage the trained deep neural network with the instantaneously estimated UL channel to calibrate the DL one, which is not observable during the UL transmission phase. Our numerical results confirm the merits of the proposed approach, and show that it can achieve performance comparable to conventional approaches, like the Agros method and methods based on least squares, that however assume linear hardware behavior models. More importantly, considering generic nonlinear relationships between the UL and DL channels, it is demonstrated that our deep neural network approach exhibits robust performance, even when the number of training sequences is limited.

The adoption of a Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS) for downlink multi-user communication from a multi-antenna base station is investigated in this paper. We develop energy-efficient designs for both the transmit power allocation and the phase shifts of the surface reflecting elements, subject to individual link budget guarantees for the mobile users. This leads to non-convex design optimization problems for which to tackle we propose two computationally affordable approaches, capitalizing on alternating maximization, gradient descent search, and sequential fractional programming. Specifically, one algorithm employs gradient descent for obtaining the RIS phase coefficients, and fractional programming for optimal transmit power allocation. Instead, the second algorithm employs sequential fractional programming for the optimization of the RIS phase shifts. In addition, a realistic power consumption model for RIS-based systems is presented, and the performance of the proposed methods is analyzed in a realistic outdoor environment. In particular, our results show that the proposed RIS-based resource allocation methods are able to provide up to $300\%$ higher energy efficiency, in comparison with the use of regular multi-antenna amplify-and-forward relaying.

This paper considers a low-complexity Gaussian message passing (GMP) Multi-User Detection (MUD) scheme for a coded massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system with non-orthogonal multiple access (massive MIMO-NOMA), in which a base station with$N_{s}$antennas serves$N_{u}$sources simultaneously in the same frequency. Both$N_{u}$and$N_{s}$are large numbers, and we consider the overloaded cases with$N_{u}>N_{s}$. The GMP for MIMO-NOMA is a message passing algorithm operating on a fully-connected loopy factor graph, which is well understood to fail to converge due to the correlation problem. The GMP is attractive as its complexity order is only linearly dependent on the number of users, compared to the cubic complexity order of linear minimum mean square error (LMMSE) MUD. In this paper, we utilize the large-scale property of the system to simplify the convergence analysis of the GMP under the overloaded condition. We prove that thevariancesof the GMP definitely converge to the mean square error (MSE) of the LMMSE multi-user detection. Second, themeansof the traditional GMP will fail to converge when$N_{u}/N_{s}< (\sqrt {2}-1)^{-2}\approx 5.83$. Therefore, we propose and derive a new convergent GMP called scale-and-add GMP (SA-GMP), which always converges to the LMMSE multi-user detection performance for any$N_{u}/N_{s}>1$, and show that it has a faster convergence speed than the traditional GMP with the same complexity. Finally, the numerical results are provided to verify the validity and accuracy of the theoretical results presented.

This paper investigates the use of a Passive Intelligent Mirrors (PIM) to operate a multi-user MISO downlink communication. The transmit powers and the mirror reflection coefficients are designed for sum-rate maximization subject to individual QoS guarantees to the mobile users. The resulting problem is non-convex, and is tackled by combining alternating maximization with the majorization-minimization method. Numerical results show the merits of the proposed approach, and in particular that the use of PIM increases the system throughput by at least 40%, without requiring any additional energy consumption.

Low-cost message passing (MP) algorithm has been recognized as a promising technique for sparse vector recovery. However, the existing MP algorithms either focus on mean square error (MSE) of the value recovery while ignoring the sparsity requirement, or support error rate (SER) of the sparse support (non-zero position) recovery while ignoring its value. A novel low-complexity Bernoulli-Gaussian MP (BGMP) is proposed to perform the value recovery as well as the support recovery. Particularly, in the proposed BGMP, support-related Bernoulli messages and value- related Gaussian messages are jointly processed and assist each other. In addition, a strict lower bound is developed for the MSE of BGMP via the genie-aided minimum mean-square-error (GA-MMSE) method. The GA-MMSE lower bound is shown to be tight in high signal-to-noise ratio. Numerical results are provided to verify the advantage of BGMP in terms of final MSE, SER and convergence speed.

This paper considers a low-complexity Gaussian Message Passing Iterative Detection (GMPID) algorithm for Multiple-Input Multiple-Output systems with Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (MIMO-NOMA), in which a base station with $N_r$ antennas serves $N_u$ sources simultaneously. Both $N_u$ and $N_r$ are very large numbers and we consider the cases that $N_u>N_r$. The GMPID is based on a fully connected loopy graph, which is well understood to be not convergent in some cases. The large-scale property of the MIMO-NOMA is used to simplify the convergence analysis. Firstly, we prove that the variances of the GMPID definitely converge to that of Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE) detection. Secondly, two sufficient conditions that the means of the GMPID converge to a higher MSE than that of the MMSE detection are proposed. However, the means of the GMPID may still not converge when $ N_u/N_rN_r$ with a faster convergence speed. Finally, numerical results are provided to verify the validity of the proposed theoretical results.