We study the energy efficiency of pinching-antenna systems (PASSs) by developing a consistent formulation for power distribution in these systems. The per-antenna power distribution in PASSs is not controlled explicitly by a power allocation policy, but rather implicitly through tuning of pinching couplings and locations. Both these factors are tunable: (i) pinching locations are tuned using movable elements, and (ii) couplings can be tuned by varying the effective coupling length of the pinching elements. While the former is feasible to be addressed dynamically in settings with low user mobility, the latter cannot be addressed at a high rate. We thus develop a class of hybrid dynamic-static algorithms, which maximize the energy efficiency by updating the system parameters at different rates. Our experimental results depict that dynamic tuning of pinching locations can significantly boost energy efficiency of PASSs.

The Pinching-Antenna System (PASS) reconfigures wireless channels through \emph{pinching beamforming}, in which the active positions of pinching antennas (PAs) along dielectric waveguides are optimized to shape the radiation pattern. This article investigates the performance of PASS-enabled tri-hybrid beamforming, where pinched waveguides are integrated with a hybrid digital-analog beamformer to mitigate path loss and enhance spectral efficiency. The channel capacity of the proposed system is characterized by deriving the optimal tri-hybrid beamformer at both the digital and analog domains, as well as the optimal placement of PAs. Closed-form upper and lower bounds of the channel capacity are obtained, leading to a capacity scaling law with respect to the number of PAs. Numerical results verify the tightness of the derived bounds and demonstrate that applying PASS to tri-hybrid beamforming yields a significant performance gain over conventional hybrid beamforming under the same number of radio-frequency chains.

Dynamic metasurface antennas (DMAs) have emerged as a promising solution for alleviating the high power consumption, hardware cost, and physical size of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) architectures. This paper investigates a DMA-enabled multicast system with finite-alphabet inputs, considering the availability of either instantaneous or statistical channel state information (CSI). For the instantaneous CSI scenario, a multicast rate (MR) maximization problem is formulated, and an efficient two-stage equivalent precoder approximation (EPA)–based algorithm is proposed to jointly optimize the digital precoder and the DMA weight matrix. For the statistical CSI scenario, the ergodic MR (EMR) maximization problem is considered. To gain fundamental insights into the system design, asymptotic analyses of the EMR are conducted in the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regime. The results reveal that the EMR converges to a finite constant as the SNR approaches infinity, with the convergence rate (CR) determined by the diversity order and the array gain. Motivated by these analytical insights, an array gain maximization problem is formulated and an EPA-based algorithm is proposed. Numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms, validate the correctness of the derived high-SNR EMR analysis, and confirm the effectiveness of using DMA to enhance multicast transmission.

Pinching-antenna systems (PASSs) are a recent flexible-antenna technology that is realized by attaching simple components, referred to aspinching elements, to dielectric waveguides. This work explores the potential of deploying PASS for uplink and downlink transmission in multiuser MIMO settings. For downlink PASS-aided communication, we formulate the optimal hybrid beamforming, in which the digital precoding matrix at the access point and the pinching locations on the waveguides are jointly optimized to maximize the achievable weighted sum-rate. We discuss the key challenges in this design problem and propose two low-complexity algorithms to iteratively update the precoding matrix and activated pinching locations.We further formulate the design problem for uplink transmission in a PASS and develop an iterative scheme for the underlying hybrid multiuser detection problem. We validate the proposed schemes through extensive numerical experiments. The results demonstrate that using a PASS, the throughput in both uplink and downlink is significantly enhanced compared to baseline MIMO architectures, such as massive MIMO and classical hybrid analog-digital designs. This highlights the great potential of the PASS, making it a promising reconfigurable antenna technology for next-generation wireless systems.

With the increasing carrier frequency in next-generation wireless networks, conventional discrete aperture arrays (DAPA) are unable to fully meet the growing demands of sixth-generation wireless networks. To provide a higher degree of freedom, the continuous-aperture array (CAPA) technique emerges as a promising solution for next-generation networks. In this article, a CAPA-aided network is proposed to deliver access services to multiple users. The transmission power of a two-user pair in the downlink is optimized by using the Fourier transformation to derive tractable results. With the aid of Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) conditions, closed-form expressions for both orthogonal multiple access (OMA) and non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) are derived. Time division multiple access (TDMA) and spatial division multiple access (SDMA) are also considered as OMA schemes. Furthermore, DAPA is included as a benchmark for comparison. Our analytical and numerical results demonstrate the following: i) The proposed KKT-based approach achieves optimal performance in transmission power; ii) The minimal required transmission power for NOMA is lower than that for the OMA benchmark schemes; iii) A performance gap is observed between CAPA and DAPA in both NOMA and OMA, emphasizing the advantages of CAPA-aided networks.

The fundamental sensing limit of pinching-antenna systems (PASS) is studied from a Bayesian Cramér-Rao bound (BCRB) perspective. Compared to conventional CRB, the BCRB is independent of the exact values of sensing parameters and is not restricted by the unbiasedness of estimators, thus offering a global lower bound for evaluating sensing performance. A system where multiple targets transmit uplink pilots to a single-waveguide PASS under a time-division multiple access (TDMA) scheme is analyzed. In the single-target scenario, our analysis reveals a unique mismatch between the sensing centroid (i.e., the PA position that minimizes the BCRB) and the distribution centroid (i.e., the center of the target’s prior distribution), underscoring the necessity of pinching beamforming, i.e., repositioning PAs along the waveguide. In the multi-target scenario, two scheduling protocols are proposed: 1) pinch switching (PS), which performs separate pinching beamforming for each time slot, and 2) pinch multiplexing (PM), which applies a single pinching beamforming across all slots. Based on these protocols, both the total power minimization problem under a BCRB threshold and the min-max BCRB problem under a total power constraint are formulated. By leveraging Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) conditions, these problems are equivalently converted into a search over PA positions and solved using an element-wise algorithm. Numerical results show that: i) PASS, endowed with large-scale reconfigurability, can significantly enhance the sensing performance compared with conventional fixed-position arrays, and ii) PS provides more robust performance than PM at the cost of higher computational complexity.

A segmented waveguide-enabled pinching-antenna system (SWAN) is proposed, in which a segmented waveguide composed of multiple short dielectric waveguide segments is employed to radiate or receive signals through the pinching antennas (PAs) deployed on each segment. Based on this architecture, three practical operating protocols are proposed: segment selection (SS), segment aggregation (SA), and segment multiplexing (SM). For uplink SWAN communications, where one PA is activated per segment, the segmented structure eliminates the inter-antenna radiation effect, i.e., signals captured by one PA may re-radiate through other PAs along the same waveguide. This yields a tractable and physically consistent uplink signal model for a multi-PA pinching-antenna system (PASS), which has not been established for conventional PASS using a single long waveguide. Building on this model, PA placement algorithms are proposed to maximize the uplink signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Closed-form expressions for the received SNR under the three protocols are derived, and the corresponding scaling laws with respect to the number of segments are analyzed. It is proven that the segmented architecture reduces both the average PA-to-user distance and the PA-to-feed distance, thereby mitigating both large-scale path loss and in-waveguide propagation loss. These results are extended to downlink SWAN communications, where multiple PAs are activated per segment, and PA placement methods are proposed to maximize the downlink received SNR under the three protocols. Numerical results demonstrate that: i) among the three protocols, SM achieves the best performance, followed by SA and then SS; and ii) for all protocols, the proposed SWAN achieves a higher SNR than conventional PASS with a single long waveguide in both uplink and downlink scenarios.

The Pinching-Antenna SyStem (PASS) reconstructs wireless channels throughpinching beamforming, wherein the activated positions of pinching antennas along dielectric waveguides are optimized to shape the radiation pattern. The aim of this article is to analyze the performance limits of employing PASS in integrated sensing and communications (ISAC). Specifically, a PASS-assisted ISAC system is considered, where a pinched waveguide is utilized to simultaneously communicate with a user and sense a target. Closed-form expressions for the achievable communication rate (CR) and sensing rate (SR) are derived to characterize the information-theoretic limits of this dual-functional operation. i) For the single-pinch case, closed-form solutions for the optimal pinching antenna location are derived undersensing-centric (S-C),communications-centric (C-C), andPareto-optimaldesigns. On this basis, the CR-SR trade-off is characterized by deriving the full CR-SR rate region, which is shown to encompass that of conventional fixed-antenna systems. ii) For the multiple-pinch case, an antenna location refinement method is applied to obtain the optimal C-C and S-C pinching beamformers. As a further advance, inner and outer bounds on the achievable CR-SR region are derived using an element-wise alternating optimization technique and by invoking Cauchy-Schwarz and Karamata’s inequalities, respectively. Numerical results demonstrate that: i) the derived bounds closely approximate the true CR-SR region; and ii) PASS can achieve a significantly larger rate region than conventional-antenna systems.

The pinching-antenna system (PASS) reconfigures wireless links through pinching beamforming, in which the activated locations of pinching antennas (PAs) along dielectric waveguides are optimized. This article investigates the application of PASS in multicast communication systems, where pinching beamforming is designed to maximize the multicast rate. i) In the single-waveguide scenario, a closed-form solution for the optimal activated location is derived under the assumption of a single PA and linearly distributed users. Based on this, a closed-form expression for the achievable multicast rate is obtained and proven to be larger than that of conventional fixed-location antenna systems. For the general multiple-PA case with arbitrary user distributions, an element-wise alternating optimization (AO) algorithm is proposed to design the pinching beamformer. ii) In the multiple-waveguide scenario, an AO-based method is developed to jointly optimize the transmit and pinching beamformers. Specifically, the transmit beamformer is updated using a majorization-minimization (MM) framework together with second-order cone programming (SOCP), while the pinching beamformer is optimized via element-wise sequential refinement. Numerical results are provided to demonstrate that: i) PASS achieves significantly higher multicast rates than conventional fixed-location antenna systems, particularly when the number of users and spatial coverage increase; ii) increasing the number of PAs further improves the multicast performance of PASS.

This article addresses the design of multigroup multicast communications in the pinching-antenna system (PASS). A PASS-enabled multigroup transmission framework is proposed to maximize multicast rates under a couple of transmission architectures: waveguide-division (WD) and waveguide-multiplexing (WM). 1) For WD, an element-wise sequential optimization strategy is proposed forpinching beamforming, i.e., optimizing the activated positions of pinching antennas along dielectric waveguides. Meanwhile, a log-sum-exp projected gradient descent algorithm is proposed for transmit power allocation across waveguides. 2) For WM, a majorization-minimization (MM)-based framework is proposed to tackle the problem’s non-smoothness and non-convexity. On this basis, a low-complexity element-wise sequential optimization method is developed for pinching beamforming using the MM surrogate objective. Furthermore, the optimal transmit beamformer structure is derived from the MM surrogate objective using the Lagrange duality, with an efficient transmit beamforming algorithm proposed using projected adaptive gradient descent. Numerical results demonstrate that: i) both WD and WM architectures in PASS achieve significant multicast rate improvements over conventional MIMO techniques, especially for systems with large service areas; ii) WM is more robust than WD in dense deployments, while WD excels when user groups are spatially separated.

This article investigates secure multicast communications in pinching-antenna systems (PASS), where pinching beamforming is enabled by adaptively adjusting pinching antenna (PAs) positions along waveguides to improve multicast security. Specifically, a PASS-based secure multicast framework is proposed, in which joint optimization of transmit and pinching beamforming is conducted to maximize the secrecy multicast rate. i) For the single-group multicast scenario, an alternating optimization (AO) framework is employed, where the pinching beamformer is updated via an element-wise sequential optimization method. The transmit beamformer is designed via a semidefinite relaxation (SDR) formulation for an upper-bound solution, while a Dinkelbach-alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) offers a low-complexity alternative. ii) For the multi-group multicast scenario, transmit and pinching beamformers are alternately optimized under a majorization-minimization (MM) framework. The transmit beamformer is obtained via SDR or an efficient second-order cone programming (SOCP) method, while the pinching beamformer is updated through MM-based element-wise sequential update strategy. Numerical results are provided to demonstrate that: (i) PASS consistently outperform conventional fixed-location antenna architectures in terms of secrecy performance across various configurations; and (ii) the performance advantage of PASS over fixed-location architectures becomes more significant with increased service region, larger antenna arrays, and higher user and eavesdropper densities.

Unlike conventional systems using a fixed-location antenna, the channel capacity of the pinching-antenna system (PASS) is determined by the activated positions of pinching antennas. This article characterizes the capacity region of multiuser PASS, where a single pinched waveguide is deployed to enable both uplink and downlink communications. The capacity region of the uplink channel is first characterized. i) For the single-pinch case, closed-form expressions are derived for the optimal antenna activation position, along with the corresponding capacity region and the achievable data rate regions under time-division multiple access (TDMA) and frequency-division multiple access (FDMA). It is proven that the capacity region of PASS encompasses that of conventional fixed-antenna systems, and that the FDMA rate region contains the TDMA rate region. ii) For the multiple-pinch case, inner and outer bounds on the capacity region are derived using an element-wise alternating antenna position optimization technique and the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality, respectively. The achievable FDMA rate region is also derived using the same optimization framework, while the TDMA rate region is obtained through an antenna position refinement approach. The analysis is then extended to the downlink PASS using the uplink-downlink duality framework. It is proven that the relationships among the downlink capacity and rate regions are consistent with those in the uplink case. Numerical results demonstrate that: i) the derived bounds closely approximate the exact capacity region, ii) PASS yields a significantly enlarged capacity region compared to conventional fixed-antenna systems, and iii) in the multiple-pinch case, TDMA and FDMA are capable of approaching the channel capacity limit.

The performance of linear receive beamforming in continuous-aperture array (CAPA)-based uplink communications is analyzed. Three continuous beamforming techniques are proposed under the criteria of maximum-ratio combining (MRC), zero-forcing (ZF), and minimum mean-squared error (MMSE). i) ForMRC beamforming, a closed-form expression for the beamformer is derived to maximize per-user signal power. The achieved uplink rate and mean-squared error (MSE) in detecting received data symbols are analyzed. ii) ForZF beamforming, a closed-form beamformer is derived based on channel correlation to eliminate interference. As a further advance, its optimality in maximizing effective channel gain while ensuring zero inter-user interference is proven. iii)MMSE beamformingis established as the optimal linear receive approach for CAPAs in terms of maximizing per-user rate and minimizing MSE. Closed-form expressions are derived for the MMSE beamformer and the achievable sum-rate and sum-MSE. It is mathematically proven that all proposed beamformers lie within the signal subspace spanned by users’ spatial responses. Numerical results demonstrate that CAPAs outperform conventional spatially-discrete arrays (SPDAs) by achieving higher sum-rates and lower sum- MSEs under the proposed linear beamforming techniques.

The pinching-antenna system (PASS) reconstructs wireless channels through pinching beamforming, i.e., optimizing the activated locations of pinching antennas (PAs) along the waveguide. The aim of this article is to investigate the joint design of baseband beamforming and pinching beamforming. A low-complexity element-wise sequential optimization framework is proposed to address the sum-rate maximization problem in PASS-enabled downlink and uplink channels. i) For the downlink scenario, maximum ratio transmission (MRT), zero-forcing (ZF), and minimum mean square error (MMSE) beamforming schemes are employed as baseband beamformers. For each beamformer, a closed-form expression for the downlink sum-rate is derived as a single-variable function with respect to the pinching beamformer. Based on this, a sequential optimization method is proposed, where the positions of the PAs are updated element-wise using a low-complexity one-dimensional search. ii) For the uplink scenario, signal detection is performed using maximum ratio combining (MRC), ZF, and MMSE combiners. A closed-form sum-rate expression is derived for each linear combiner, and a similar element-wise design is applied to optimize the pinching beamforming. Numerical results are provided to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method and demonstrate that: (i) For all considered linear beamformers, the proposed PASS architecture outperforms conventional fixed-antenna systems in terms of sum-rate performance; (ii) in both downlink and uplink channels, ZF achieves performance close to that of MMSE and significantly outperforms MRT or MRC; and (iii) the proposed element-wise design eliminates the need for alternating updates between the baseband and pinching beamformers, thereby ensuring low computational complexity.

Continuous aperture array (CAPA) is considered a promising technology for 6G networks, offering the potential to fully exploit spatial degrees of freedom (DoFs) and achieve the theoretical limits of channel capacity. This paper investigates the performance gain of a CAPA-based downlink secure transmission system, where multiple legitimate user terminals (LUTs) coexist with multiple eavesdroppers (Eves). The system’s secrecy performance is evaluated using a weighted secrecy sum-rate (WSSR) under a power constraint. We then propose two solutions for the secure current pattern design. The first solution is a block coordinate descent (BCD) optimization method based on fractional programming (FP), which introduces a continuous-function inversion theory corresponding to matrix inversion in the discrete domain. This approach derives a closed-form expression for the optimal source current pattern. Based on this, it can be found that the optimal current pattern is essentially a linear combination of the channel spatial responses, thus eliminating the need for complex integration operations during the algorithm’s optimization process. The second solution is a heuristic algorithm based on zero-forcing (ZF), which constructs a zero-leakage current pattern using the channel correlation matrix. It further employs a water-filling approach to design an optimal power allocation scheme that maximizes the WSSR. In high signal-to-noise ratio regions, this solution gradually approaches the first solution, ensuring zero leakage while offering lower computational complexity. Simulation results demonstrate that: 1) CAPA-based systems achieve better WSSR compared to discrete multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. 2) The proposed methods, whether optimization-based or heuristic, provide significant performance improvements over existing state-of-the-art Fourier-based discretization methods, while considerably reducing computational complexity.

An efficient beamforming design is proposed for continuous aperture array (CAPA)-based point-to-point multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. In contrast to conventional spatially discrete array (SPDA)-MIMO systems, whose optimal beamforming can be obtained using singular-value decomposition, CAPA-MIMO systems require solving the eigendecomposition of a Hermitian kernel operator, which is computationally prohibitive. To address this challenge, an explicit closed-form expression for the achievable rate of CAPA-MIMO systems is first derived as a function of the continuous transmit beamformer. Subsequently, an iterative weighted minimum mean-squared error (WMMSE) algorithm is proposed, directly addressing the CAPA-MIMO beamforming optimization without discretization approximation. Closed-form updates for each iteration of the WMMSE algorithm are derived via the calculus of variations (CoV) method. For low-complexity implementation, an equivalent matrix-based iterative solution is introduced using Gauss-Legendre quadrature. Our numerical results demonstrate that 1) CAPA-MIMO achieves substantial performance gain over the SPDA-MIMO, 2) the proposed WMMSE algorithm enhances performance while significantly reducing computational complexity compared to state-of-the-art Fourier-based approaches, and 3) the proposed WMMSE algorithm enables practical realization of parallel, non-interfering transmissions.

An analytical and optimization framework on rate-Cramér-Rao bound (CRB) tradeoff is proposed in this paper for the continuous-aperture array (CAPA)-based integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) system. To evaluate the dual-functional performance, the sensing CRB and communication rate are analyzed concerning the induced electromagnetic (EM) waves of CAPAs. For rate-CRB region characterization, the spatially continuous beamforming of transmit CAPA is optimized under three cases: i) A novel closed-form expression for the optimal CAPA beamformer is derived under the single-user single-target scenario, proven to be aligned within the space spanned by the EM-based sensing and communication channels; ii) A general subspace-based beamforming design approach is proposed to address the intractable continuity, converting the continuous beamforming design in spatial domain to discrete weight design in subspace domain and resorting to the semidefinite relaxation for the globally optimal solution; iii) Moreover, the general beamforming design is specialized to both the low-complexity zero-forcing (ZF) and the conventional spatially discrete array (SPDA)-based designs. Numerical results demonstrate that: i) The proposed subspace-based approach can realize efficient and effective beamforming design for reduced mutual interference, enhanced sensing performance, and guaranteed communication rate; ii) The general CAPA beamforming design achieves broader rate-CRB region than the ZF-oriented design and reaches the ultimate performance of the SPDA-based system.

A continuous-aperture array (CAPA)-based secure transmission framework is proposed to enhance physical layer security. Continuous current distributions, or beamformers, are designed to maximize the secrecy transmission rate under a power constraint and to minimize the required transmission power for achieving a specific target secrecy rate. On this basis, the fundamental secrecy performance limits achieved by CAPAs are analyzed by deriving closed-form expressions for the maximum secrecy rate (MSR) and minimum required power (MRP), along with the corresponding optimal current distributions. To provide further insights, asymptotic analyses are performed for the MSR and MRP, which reveals that i) for the MSR, the optimal current distribution simplifies to maximal ratio transmission (MRT) beamforming in the low-SNR regime and to zero-forcing (ZF) beamforming in the high-SNR regime; ii) for the MRP, the optimal current distribution simplifies to ZF beamforming in the high-SNR regime. The derived results are specialized to the typical array structures, e.g., planar CAPAs and planar spatially discrete arrays (SPDAs). The rate and power scaling laws are further analyzed by assuming an infinitely large CAPA. Numerical results demonstrate that: i) the proposed secure continuous beamforming design outperforms MRT and ZF beamforming in terms of both achievable secrecy rate and power efficiency; ii) CAPAs achieve superior secrecy performance compared to conventional SPDAs.

A continuous-aperture array (CAPA)-based integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) framework is proposed for both downlink and uplink scenarios. Within this framework, continuous operator-based signal models are employed to describe the sensing and communication processes. The performance of communication and sensing is analyzed using two information-theoretic metrics: the communication rate (CR) and the sensing rate (SR). 1) For downlink ISAC, three continuous beamforming designs are proposed: i) the communications-centric (C-C) design that maximizes the CR, ii) the sensing-centric (S-C) design that maximizes the SR, and iii) the Pareto-optimal design that characterizes the Pareto boundary of the CR-SR region. A low-complexity signal subspace-based approach is proposed to derive the closed-form optimal beamformers for the considered designs. On this basis, closed-form expressions are derived for the achievable CRs and SRs, and the downlink rate region achieved by CAPAs is characterized. 2) For uplink ISAC, the C-C and S-C successive interference cancellation-based methods are proposed to manage inter-functionality interference. Using the subspace approach closed-form expressions for the optimal detectors as well as the achievable CRs and SRs are derived. The uplink SR-CR region is characterized based on the time-sharing technique. Numerical results demonstrate that, for both downlink and uplink, CAPA-based ISAC achieves higher CRs and SRs as well as larger CR-SR regions compared to conventional spatially discrete array-based ISAC.

This article investigates the integration of movable antennas (MAs) into multicast communication systems. By discretizing the motion of the MAs, a novel MA-assisted multicast transmission architecture is formulated. An alternating optimization (AO) algorithm based on successive convex approximation is proposed to optimize the transmit beamforming and antenna positions. To gain further insights, the two-user case is examined, and a closed-form expression for the optimal beamformer is derived. On this basis, a low-complexity greedy search algorithm is developed to optimize the placement of the MAs. Furthermore, under the assumption of a line-of-sight propagation environment, a branch-and-bound algorithm is designed to determine the globally optimal antenna configuration with reduced complexity compared to exhaustive search. Numerical simulations confirm that the proposed methods effectively enhance the achievable multicast rate.

A comprehensive performance analysis is conducted for pinching-antenna systems (PASS) under non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) transmission. Specifically, a downlink scenario is investigated, in which a pinching antenna is dynamically activated along a dielectric waveguide to serve two users located in separate rooms. The wireless links between the pinching antenna and the users are modeled using a line-of-sight (LoS) and non- line-of-sight (NLoS) propagation conditions, respectively. Closed- form expressions are derived for the outage probabilities (OPs) of the two users. Furthermore, asymptotic analyses in the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regime are conducted to reveal the achievable diversity orders. Numerical simulations validate the accuracy of the theoretical analysis and demonstrate that: 1) Compared with conventional antenna systems (CASS), the OP of the LoS user in PASS is significantly reduced in the middle SNR regime and approaches zero as SNR increases; 2) Since the diversity orders of the NLoS user in CASS and PASS are the same, the movement of the pinching antenna has no significant effect on the OP of the NLoS user.

The performance of linear receive beamforming in continuous-aperture array (CAPA)-based uplink communications is investigated. Three continuous beamforming strategies are proposed based on the principles of maximum-ratio combining (MRC), zero-forcing (ZF), and maximum signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) (i.e., optimal beamforming). For MRC beamforming, closed-form expressions for both the beamformer and the achievable sum-rate are derived. For ZF beamforming, a closed-form solution is developed using channel correlation to effectively eliminate inter-user interference. For optimal beamforming, a closed-form beamformer is obtained by solving an operator-based Rayleigh quotient maximization problem, and the associated achievable sum-rate is characterized. Numerical results confirm that CAPAs outperform traditional spatially-discrete arrays (SPDAs), achieving superior sum-rate performance under all three beamforming schemes.

This paper studies the application of pinching-antenna systems (PASS) in multicast communications. The minimum-rate maximization problem is formulated, and both single-pinching antenna (PA) and multiple-PA deployment over a single waveguide are considered. 1) For the single-PA scenario, a closed-form solution is derived for one-dimensional user distributions, and a candidate-point search strategy is proposed for arbitrary user placements. 2) For the multiple-PA scenario, the pinching beamforming is optimized through a low-complexity greedy search approach. Numerical results demonstrate that: i) PASS achieves a higher multicast rate compared to conventional fixed-antenna systems; ii) the proposed approaches substantially reduce computational complexity compared to traditional exhaustive search algorithms.

A novel movable antenna (MA)-aided secure transmission framework is proposed to enhance the secrecy transmission rate without relying on the eavesdropper’s channel state information. Within this framework, a joint beamforming and jamming scheme is proposed, where the power of the confidential signal is minimized by optimizing the positions of the MAs, and the residual power is used to jam the eavesdropper. An efficient gradient-based method is employed to solve this non-convex problem. Numerical results are provided to demonstrate the superiority of the MA-based framework over systems using traditional fixed-position antennas in secure transmission.

The diversity and multiplexing performance of continuous aperture array (CAPA)-based multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channels is analyzed. Angular-domain fading models are derived, and an angular-domain transmission framework is proposed to support CAPA-based MIMO communications. Asymptotic expressions are derived for the achievable outage probability (OP) and average data rate (ADR), and insights into the diversity-multiplexing trade-off (DMT) and associated array gain are provided. Further, the performance of CAPAs is compared with that of conventional spatially discrete arrays (SPDAs) to highlight the advantages of CAPAs. Analytical and numerical results demonstrate that: i) CAPAs achieve lower OP and higher ADR than SPDAs; ii) CAPAs attain the same DMT as SPDAs with half-wavelength antenna spacing but with a higher array gain; and iii) CAPAs outperform SPDAs in DMT when the antenna spacing exceeds half a wavelength.

The beamforming optimization for maximizing weighted sum-rate (WSR) in continuous aperture array (CAPA)-based multi-user communications is studied. In particular, the transmit beamformers of CAPA are modelled as continuous source current patterns, rendering the beamforming optimization problem as a non-convex integral-based functional programming problem. In contrast to the state-of-the-art Fourier-based method that requires numerous Fourier basis functions to approximate the functional programming, a low-complexity calculus of variations (CoV)-based method is proposed to solve the functional programming problem for WSR maximization directly, where the optimal form of the continuous source patterns is derived. Based on this optimal form, a low-complexity integral-free iterative algorithm is developed. Our numerical results validate the effectiveness of the proposed designs. It is revealed that compared to the state-of-the-art Fourier-based method, the proposed CoV based method not only improves WSR performance but also reduces computational complexity by up to hundreds of times for large CAPA apertures and high frequencies.

Enabled by metamaterials, continuous aperture array (CAPA) has been proven to play a crucial role in communication performance enhancement, while its potentials in integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) systems have not been investigated. This paper investigates the performance analysis and optimization of CAPA-based ISAC systems for simultaneous user communication and target sensing. To be specific, communication and sensing rates are evaluated based on electromagnetic channels and a Pareto-optimal problem is formulated for beamforming optimization. Closed-form solutions to CAPA-oriented beamforming are derived under communication-, sensing-, and Pareto-optimal cases, and the attainable ISAC rate region is obtained. Numerical results verify that CAPA-based systems can achieve the ultimate sensing and communication performance of spatially discrete array (SPDA)-based systems and significantly expand the ISAC rate region for Pareto optimality.

A framework of holographic MIMO (HMIMO) based integrated sensing and communications (ISAC), i.e., holographic ISAC (HISAC), is proposed. An accurate spherical wave-based model is utilized to characterize sensing link. The spacial correlation introduced by the densely spaced antennas of the HMIMO is incorporated when modeling the communication channel. Based on the proposed framework, closed-form expressions are derived for sensing rates (SRs), communication rates (CRs), and outage probabilities under different beamforming strategies to investigate fundamental information theoretical limits for HISAC. Further insights are gained by examining high signal-to-noise ratio slopes and diversity orders. A Pareto optimal design is proposed to characterize the attainable SR-CR region. Numerical results reveal that HISAC outperforms the conventional MIMO based ISAC and the HMIMO based frequency-division sensing and communications system in terms of both sensing and communications.

A closed-form expression for the secrecy capacity under near-field communications is derived and compared with its far-field counterpart. To gain further insights, the capacity scaling law is revealed by assuming an infinitely large transmit array and an infinitely high power. Both analytical and numerical results demonstrate that, different from the far-field scenario, i) nearfield communications expand the areas where secure transmission is feasible, specifically when the eavesdropper is located in the same direction as the intended receiver; ii) as the number of transmit antennas increases, the near-field secrecy capacity is capped at a finite value, adhering to the principle of energy conservation.

A Pinching-Antenna SyStem (PASS)-assisted integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) framework is established, where a pinched waveguide is utilized to simultaneously communicate with a user and sense a target. Closed-form expressions for the achievable communication rate (CR) and sensing rate (SR) are derived to characterize the information-theoretic limits of this dual-functional operation. Closed-form solutions for the optimal pinching antenna location are derived under sensing-centric (S-C), communications-centric (C-C), and Pareto-optimal designs. On this basis, the CR-SR trade-off is characterized by deriving the full CR-SR rate region. Numerical results demonstrate that PASS can achieve a larger rate region than conventional fixed-antenna systems.

The aim of this article is to investigate the performance of near-field integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) systems using rotatable movable antennas (RMAs). In the proposed RMA-enabled system, the positions and rotations of antennas at the base station (BS) are dynamically adjusted to enhance both communication and sensing capabilities. Two designs are explored: 1) a sensing-centric design that minimizes the Cramér–Rao bound (CRB) with signal-to-interference-plus-noise (SINR) ratio constraints and 2) a communication-centric design that maximizes the sum-rate with a CRB constraint. To solve the formulated optimization problems, two alternating optimization (AO)-based algorithms are proposed capitalizing on the semidefinite relaxation (SDR) method and the particle swarm optimization (PSO) method. Numerical results demonstrate that: 1) the proposed rotatable MA (RMA)-enabled system outperforms the conventional fixed-position antenna and nonrotatable movable antenna (MA) systems in both sensing-centric and communication-centric designs and RMAs’ rotations show a higher performance gain in communication-centric design and 2) the proposed optimization methods achieve the Pareto boundary in both sensing-centric and communication-centric designs.

Dynamic metasurface antennas (DMAs) offer the potential to achieve large-scale antenna arrays with low power consumption and reduced hardware costs, making them a promising technology for future communication systems. This paper investigates the spectral efficiency (SE) of DMA-enabled multiuser multiple-input single-output (MISO) systems in both uplink and downlink transmissions, using only statistical channel state information (CSI) to maximize the ergodic sum rate of multiple users. For the uplink system, we consider two decoding rules: minimum mean square error (MMSE) with and without successive interference cancellation (SIC). For both decoders, we derive closed-form surrogates to substitute the original expressions of ergodic sum rate and formulate tractable optimization problems for designing DMA weights. Then, a weighted MMSE (WMMSE)-based algorithm is proposed to maximize the ergodic sum rate. For the downlink system, we derive an approximate expression for the ergodic sum rate and formulate a hybrid analog/digital beamforming optimization problem that jointly optimizes the digital precoder and DMA weights. A penalty dual decomposition (PDD)-based algorithm is proposed by leveraging the fractional programming framework. Numerical results validate the accuracy of the derived surrogates and highlight the superiority of the proposed algorithms over baseline schemes. It is shown that these algorithms are effective across various DMA settings and are particularly well-suited for system design in fast time-varying channels.

A novel frequency diverse array (FDA)-assisted secure transmission framework is proposed, which leverages additional frequency offsets to enhance physical layer security. Specifically, an FDA-assisted wiretap channel is considered, where the transmit beamforming and frequency offsets at each antenna are jointly optimized. A novel alternating optimization-based method is introduced to address the non-convex problem of secure transmission, focusing on minimizing transmit power and maximizing the secrecy rate. Numerical results are provided to demonstrate the superiority of the FDA-based framework compared to systems employing traditional phased array antennas in secure transmission.

The optimal beamforming design for multi-user continuous aperture array (CAPA) systems is proposed. In contrast to conventional spatially discrete array (SPDA), the beamformer for CAPA is a continuous function rather than a discrete vector or matrix, rendering beamforming optimization a non-convex integral-based functional programming. To address this challenging issue, the closed-form optimal structure of the CAPA beamformer is first derived for maximizing generic system utility functions, by addressing the inversion of continuous functions and using the Lagrangian duality and the calculus of variations. The derived optimal structure is a linear combination of the continuous channel responses for CAPA, with the linear weights determined by the channel correlations. As a further advance, a monotonic optimization method is proposed for obtaining globally optimal CAPA beamforming based on the derived optimal structure. More particularly, a closed-form fixed-point iteration is proposed to obtain the globally optimal solution to the power minimization problem for CAPA beamforming. Furthermore, based on the optimal structure, the low-complexity maximum ratio transmission (MRT), zero-forcing (ZF), and minimum mean-squared error (MMSE) designs for CAPA beamforming are derived. It is theoretically proved that: 1) the MRT and ZF designs are asymptotically optimal in low and high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regimes, respectively, and 2) the MMSE design is optimal for signal-to-leakage-plus-noise ratio (SLNR) maximization. Our numerical results validate the effectiveness of the proposed designs and reveal that:i)CAPA achieves significant communication performance gain over SPDA, andii)the MMSE design achieves nearly optimal performance in most cases, while the MRT and ZF designs achieve nearly optimal performance in specific cases.

The Pinching-Antenna SyStem (PASS) is a revolutionary flexible antenna technology designed to enhance wireless communication by establishing strong line-of-sight (LoS) links, reducing free-space path loss and enabling antenna array reconfigurability. PASS uses dielectric waveguides with low propagation loss for signal transmission, radiating via a passive pinching antenna, which is a small dielectric element applied to the waveguide. This paper first proposes a physics-based hardware model for PASS, where the pinching antenna is modeled as an open-ended directional coupler, and the electromagnetic field behavior is analyzed using coupled-mode theory. A simplified signal model characterizes the coupling effect between multiple antennas on the same waveguide. Based on this, two power models are proposed: equal power and proportional power models. Additionally, a transmit power minimization problem is formulated/studied for the joint optimization of transmit and pinching beamforming under both continuous and discrete pinching antenna activations. Two algorithms are proposed to solve this multimodal optimization problem: the penalty-based alternating optimization algorithm and a low-complexity zero-forcing (ZF)-based algorithm. Numerical results show that 1) the ZF-based low-complexity algorithm performs similarly to the penalty-based algorithm, 2) PASS reduces transmit power by over 95% compared to conventional and massive MIMO, 3) discrete activation causes minimal performance loss but requires a dense antenna set to match continuous activation, and 4) the proportional power model yields performance comparable to the equal power model.

A holographic multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO)-based integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) framework is proposed for both downlink and uplink scenarios. The spatial correlation is incorporated into the communication channel modeling, while a spherical wave-based model is used to characterize the sensing link. By considering both instantaneous and statistical channel state information, closed-form expressions are derived for sensing rates (SRs), communication rates (CRs), and outage probabilities under various ISAC designs. This enables an investigation into the theoretical performance limits of the proposed holographic MIMO-based ISAC (HISAC) framework. Further insights are gained by examining the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) slopes and diversity orders. Specifically: I) for the downlink case, a sensing-centric (S-C) design and a communications-centric (C-C) design are investigated using different beamforming strategies, and a Pareto optimal design is proposed to characterize the attainable SR-CR region; II) for the uplink case, the S-C design and the C-C design differ in the interference cancellation order between the communication and sensing signals, with the rate region obtained through a time-sharing strategy. Numerical results are provided to demonstrate that HISAC systems outperform both conventional MIMO-based ISAC systems and holographic MIMO-based frequency-division sensing and communications systems, underscoring the superior performance of the HISAC framework.

A general fading model for multipath channels between two non-parallel continuous-aperture arrays (CAPAs) is proposed. Building on this model, the performance of diversity and multiplexing achieved by CAPAs over fading channels is analyzed. i) For multiple-input single-output (MISO) and singleinput multiple-output (SIMO) channels, Landau’s eigenvalue theorem is applied to analyze the autocorrelation of the spatial response. Closed-form expressions are derived for the outage probability (OP) and ergodic channel capacity (ECC). Asymptotic analyses in the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regime are conducted to reveal the maximal achievable diversity and multiplexing gains. The diversity-multiplexing trade-off (DMT) is characterized, along with the array gain within the DMT framework. ii) For multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channels, a wavenumber-domain-based transmission framework is proposed to leverage the spatial degrees of freedom offered by CAPAs. Asymptotic approximations for the OP and ECC are derived, and the DMT is explored. The performance of CAPAs is further compared with that of conventional spatially-discrete arrays (SPDAs). Analytical and numerical results demonstrate that: i) CAPAs achieve a lower OP and higher ECC than SPDAs; ii) CAPAs achieve the same DMT as SPDAs with antenna spacing no larger than half a wavelength while attaining a higher array gain; and iii) CAPAs outperform SPDAs with antenna spacing greater than half a wavelength in terms of DMT.

The beamforming optimization in continuous aperture array (CAPA)-based multi-user communications is studied. In contrast to conventional spatially discrete antenna arrays, CAPAs can exploit the full spatial degrees of freedom (DoFs) by emitting information-bearing electromagnetic (EM) waves through continuous source current distributed across the aperture. Nevertheless, such an operation renders the beamforming optimization problem as a non-convex integral-based functional programming problem, which is challenging for conventional discrete optimization methods. A couple of low-complexity approaches are proposed to solve the functional programming problem. 1) Calculus of variations (CoV)-based approach: Closed-form structure of the optimal continuous source patterns are derived based on CoV, inspiring a low-complexity integral-free iterative algorithm for solving the functional programming problem. 2) Correlation-based zero-forcing (Corr-ZF) approach: Closed-form ZF source current patterns that completely eliminate the inter-user interference are derived based on the channel correlations. By using these patterns, the original functional programming problem is transformed to a simple power allocation problem, which can be solved using the classical water-filling approach with reduced complexity. Our numerical results validate the effectiveness of the proposed designs and reveal that: 1) compared to the state-of-the-art Fourier-based discretization approach, the proposed CoV-based approach not only improves communication performance but also reduces computational complexity by up to hundreds of times for large CAPA apertures and high frequencies, and 2) the proposed Corr-ZF approach achieves asymptotically optimal performance compared to the CoV-based approach.

A continuous-aperture array (CAPA)-based integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) framework is proposed in this paper, where CAPA transceivers are optimized to enhance both target sensing and user communication performance. Novel expressions for achievable communication and sensing rates are derived and CAPA-oriented beamforming is designed to balance the dual-functional Pareto-optimal tradeoff in two scenarios: i) For the single-user single-target case, closed-form continuous beamformers are derived based on communication-, sensing-, and Pareto-optimal criteria to reveal the interrelation of the ISAC rate region with the antenna aperture and channel gains; ii) For the multi-user multi-target case, a general CAPA-ISAC beamforming design algorithm is developed to achieve the Pareto optimality. Beamformer design in the continuous spatial domain is transformed into weight design in the discrete wavenumber domain using Fourier series expansions. Furthermore, alternating optimization, successive convex approximation, and difference of convex techniques are employed to tackle the coupling and non-convexity issues. Numerical results demonstrate that: i) The proposed CAPA-ISAC framework significantly improves both sensing and communication performance and expands the ISAC Pareto rate region; ii) CAPAs exhibit superior beamforming capabilities and reach the ultimate performance limits of spatially discrete arrays (SPDAs).

The channel capacity of near-field (NF) communications is characterized by considering three types of line-of-sight multiuser channels: I) multiple access channel (MAC), II) broadcast channel (BC), and III) multicast channel (MC). For NF MAC and BC, closed-form expressions are derived for the sum-rate capacity as well as the capacity region under a two-user scenario. These results are further extended to scenarios with an arbitrary number of users. For NF MC, closed-form expressions are derived for the two-user channel capacity and the capacity upper bound with more users. Further insights are gleaned by exploring special cases, including scenarios with infinitely large array apertures, co-directional users, and linear arrays. For comparison, the MAC and BC sum-rates achieved by typical linear combiners and precoders are also analyzed. Theoretical and numerical results are presented and compared with far-field communications to demonstrate that: I) the NF capacity of these three channels converges to finite values rather than growing unboundedly as the number of array elements increases; II) the capacity of the MAC and BC with co-directional users can be improved by using the additional range dimensions in NF channels to reduce inter-user interference (IUI); and III) the MC capacity benefits less from the NF effect compared to the MAC and BC, as multicasting is less sensitive to IUI.

The secrecy performance in both near-field and far-field communications is analyzed using two fundamental metrics: the secrecy capacity under a power constraint and the minimum power requirement to achieve a specified secrecy rate target. 1) For the secrecy capacity, a closed-form expression is derived under a discrete-time memoryless setup. This expression is further analyzed under several far-field and near-field channel models, and the capacity scaling law is revealed by assuming an infinitely large transmit array and an infinitely high power. A novel concept of “depth of insecurity” is proposed to evaluate the secrecy performance achieved by near-field beamfocusing. It is demonstrated that increasing the number of transmit antennas reduces this depth and thus improves the secrecy performance. 2) Regarding the minimum required power, a closed-form expression is derived and analyzed within far-field and near-field scenarios. Asymptotic analyses are performed by setting the number of transmit antennas to infinity to unveil the power scaling law. Numerical results are provided to demonstrate that: i) compared to far-field communications, near-field communications expand the areas where secure transmission is feasible, specifically when the eavesdropper is located in the same direction as the intended receiver; ii) as the number of transmit antennas increases, neither the secrecy capacity nor the minimum required power scales or vanishes unboundedly, adhering to the principle of energy conservation.

The capacity limits of continuous-aperture array (CAPA)-based wireless communications are characterized. To this end, an analytically tractable transmission framework is established for both uplink and downlink CAPA systems. Based on this framework, closed-form expressions for the single-user channel capacity are derived. The results are further extended to a multiuser case by characterizing the capacity limits of a two-user channel and proposing the associated capacity-achieving decoding and encoding schemes. In the uplink case, the capacity-achieving detectors and sum-rate capacity are derived, and the capacity region is characterized. In the downlink case, the uplink-downlink duality is established by deriving the uplink-to-downlink and downlink-to-uplink transformations under the same power constraint, based on which the optimal source current distributions and the achieved sum-rate capacity and capacity region are characterized. For comparison, the uplink and downlink sum-rates achieved by the linear zero-forcing scheme are also analyzed. To gain further insights, several case studies are presented by specializing the derived results into various array structures, including the planar CAPA, linear CAPA, and planar spatially discrete array (SPDA). Numerical results are provided to reveal that the channel capacity achieved by CAPAs converges towards a finite upper bound as the aperture size increases; and CAPAs offer superior capacity over the conventional SPDAs.

The performance of continuous aperture array (CAPA)-based wireless communications is analyzed in an uplink scenario. An analytical framework is proposed to characterize uplink CAPA-based transmission using electromagnetic field theories. On this basis, new expressions are derived for the channel capacity in a single-user scenario and the sum-rate capacity in a multiuser scenario, along with the capacity-achieving decoding schemes. These findings are proved to differ greatly from those established for conventional spatially discrete (SPD) arrays. Numerical results are provided to demonstrate that CAPA offers significant capacity gains compared to the SPD array.

The concept of aperture selection is proposed for continuous aperture array (CAPA)-based communications. The achieved performance is analyzed in an uplink scenario by considering both line-of-sight (LoS) and non-line-of-sight (NLoS) scenarios. In the LoS scenario, the optimal selection strategy is demonstrated to follow the nearest neighbor criterion, and the resulting signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is analyzed. In the NLoS scenario, the achieved outage probability along with the diversity order is revealed. Numerical results are provided to demonstrate that aperture selection effectively maintains satisfactory performance by leveraging selection diversity while simultaneously reducing the implementation complexity of CAPAs.

Capacity limits of near-field (NF) multiple access channel (MAC) is characterized. Closed-form expressions are derived for the sum-rate capacity and the capacity region under a two-user scenario. These results are further extended to scenarios with an arbitrary number of users. Further insights are gleaned by exploring special cases, including scenarios with infinitely large array apertures and co-directional users. Theoretical and numerical results are presented and compared with far-field communications to demonstrate that: i) the NF capacity of the MAC converges to finite values rather than growing unboundedly as the number of array elements increases; ii) the MAC capacity with co-directional users can be improved by using the additional range dimensions in NF channels to reduce inter-user interference.

A pioneering secure transmission scheme is proposed, which harnesses movable antennas (MAs) to optimize antenna positions for augmenting the physical layer security. Particularly, an MA-enabled secure wireless system is considered, where a multi-antenna transmitter communicates with a single-antenna receiver in the presence of an eavesdropper. The beamformer and antenna positions at the transmitter are jointly optimized under two criteria: power consumption minimization and secrecy rate maximization. For each scenario, a novel suboptimal algorithm was proposed to tackle the resulting nonconvex optimization problem, capitalizing on the approaches of alternating optimization and gradient descent. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed MA systems significantly improve physical layer security compared to various benchmark schemes relying on conventional fixed-position antennas (FPAs).

A novel orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)-based private-public communication framework is proposed, which harnesses reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) to improve the sum private and public rates. A two-user RIS-enabled OFDM system is considered, where the total subcarriers are partitioned into three segments, with two exclusively assigned to users for private/secure communications, while the third segment is reserved for public messages. The active beamformer at the transmitter and the passive reflecting beamformer at the RIS are jointly optimized to maximize the summation of the private/secure rate and the public rate. A novel joint design algorithm is proposed by capitalizing on the mathematical structure of the optimal active beamformer, eliminating the need for iterative updates between the transmit beamformer and the RIS-reflecting beamformer. Numerical results underscore the superior computational efficiency of our proposed algorithms compared to state-of-the-art methods based on alternating optimization, all while achieving nearly identical sum-rate performance.

This work studies a low-complexity design for re-configurable intelligent surface (RIS)-aided multiuser multiple-input multiple-output systems. The base station (BS) applies receive antenna selection to connect a subset of its antennas to the available radio frequency chains. For this setting, the BS switching network, uplink precoders, and RIS phase-shifts are jointly designed, such that the uplink sum-rate is maximized. The principle design problem reduces to an NP-hard mixed-integer optimization. We hence invoke the weighted minimum mean squared error technique and the penalty dual decomposition method to develop a tractable iterative algorithm that approxi-mates the optimal design effectively. Our numerical investigations verify the efficiency of the proposed algorithm and its superior performance as compared with the benchmark.

In this paper, a near-field ISAC framework is proposed with an accurate channel model, in which the loss caused by effective aperture and polarization mismatch are considered. Based on the proposed model, sensing and communication (S&C) performance are analyzed in terms of three different designs: the communications-centric design, the sensing-centric design, and the Pareto optimal design. Within each design, sensing rates (SRs) and communication rates (CRs) are derived. Moreover, the attainable SR-CR regions of the near-field ISAC are characterized. Numerical results reveal that 1) the adopted channel model is more accurate than the conventional models within near field; 2) ISAC achieves a more extensive rate region than the conventional frequency-division S&C.

This paper proposes a cluster-based Non-orthogonal multiple access framework for integrated sensing and communications (ISAC). Based on the proposed model, we investigate three typical ISAC precoding designs: sensing-centric design, communications-centric design, and Pareto optimal design. Under each scenario, the sensing rate (SR), communications rate (CR), and their asymptotic expressions in high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regime are derived. High-SNR slopes are also obtained to gain better insights. Finally, the SR-CR rate regions achieved by ISAC and the conventional frequency-division sensing and communications (FDSAC) are studied. Numerical results reveal that ISAC outperforms FDSAC in terms of both SR and CR, and is able to achieve a more extensive rate region.

This paper proposes a framework of multiple-input multiple-output based non-orthogonal multiple access for Integrated sensing and communications (ISAC), which incorporates signal alignment to enhance system performance. Sensing rate (SR) and communication rate (CR) are derived under three different precoding designs: sensing-centric design, communications-centric design, and Pareto optimal design. Moreover, the SR-CR regions achieved by ISAC and frequency-division sensing and communications (FDSAC) are studied. Numerical results reveal that ISAC outperforms FDSAC in terms of both SR and CR and can achieve a broader rate region, clearly showcasing its superiority over the conventional FDSAC.

The evolution of wireless communications has been significantly influenced by remarkable advancements in multiple access (MA) technologies over the past five decades, shaping the landscape of modern connectivity. Within this context, a comprehensive tutorial review is presented, focusing on representative MA techniques developed over the past 50 years. The following areas are explored: 1) the foundational principles and information-theoretic capacity limits of power-domain nonorthogonal multiple access (NOMA) are characterized, along with its extension to multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO)-NOMA; 2) several MA transmission schemes exploiting the spatial domain are investigated, encompassing both conventional space-division multiple access (SDMA)/MIMO-NOMA systems and near-field MA systems utilizing spherical-wave propagation models; 3) application of NOMA to integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) systems is studied. This includes an introduction to typical NOMA-based downlink (DL)/uplink (UL) ISAC frameworks, followed by an evaluation of their performance limits using a mutual information (MI)-based analytical framework; and 4) major issues and research opportunities associated with the integration of MA with other emerging technologies are identified to facilitate MA in the next-generation networks, i.e., next-generation multiple access (NGMA). Throughout this article, promising directions are highlighted to inspire future research endeavors in the realm of MA and NGMA.

Multiple-antenna technologies are advancing toward the development of extremely large aperture arrays and the utilization of extremely high frequencies, driving the progress of next-generation multiple access (NGMA). This evolution is accompanied by the emergence of near-field communications (NFCs), characterized by spherical-wave propagation, which introduces additional range dimensions to the channel and enhances system throughput. In this context, a tutorial-based primer on NFC is presented, emphasizing its applications in multiuser communications and multiple access (MA). The following areas are investigated: 1) the commonly used near-field channel models are reviewed along with their simplifications under various near-field conditions; 2) building upon these models, the information-theoretic capacity limits of NFC-MA are analyzed, including the derivation of the sum-rate capacity and capacity region, and their upper limits for both downlink and uplink scenarios; and 3) a detailed investigation of near-field multiuser beamforming design is presented, offering low-complexity and effective NFC-MA design methodologies in both the spatial and wavenumber (angular) domains. Throughout these investigations, near-field MA is compared with its far-field counterpart to highlight its superiority and flexibility in terms of interference management, thereby laying the groundwork for achieving NGMA.

Over-the-air federated learning (OTA-FL) is an emerging technique to reduce the computation and communication overload caused by the orthogonal transmissions of the model updates in conventional federated learning (FL). This reduction is achieved at the expense of introducing aggregation error that can be efficiently suppressed by means of receive beamforming via large array-antennas. This paper studies OTA-FL in massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems with limited number of radio frequency (RF)-chains. For this setting, the beamforming for over-the-air model aggregation needs to be addressed jointly with antenna selection. This leads to an NP-hard problem due to its combinatorial nature. We develop three different algorithms to solve the problem. First, we use the penalty dual decomposition (PDD) technique and propose a two-tier algorithm for joint antenna selection and beamforming. The second algorithm interprets the antenna selection task as a sparse recovery problem and invokes the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (Lasso) algorithm to approximate the sparse solution. The third algorithm invokes the same sparse recovery based interpretation, but employs the low-complexity method of fast iterative soft-thresholding to find a sparse solution. Convergence and complexity analysis is presented for all the algorithms. The numerical investigations depict that the two algorithms based on the sparse recovery interpretation outperform the PDD-based algorithm, when the number of RF-chains at the edge server is much smaller than its array size. However, as the number of RF-chains increases, the PDD-based algorithm outperforms. Our simulations further depict that learning performance with all the antennas being active at the parameter server (PS) can be closely tracked by selecting less than 20% of the antennas at the PS.

The novel active simultaneously transmitting and reflecting surface (ASTARS) has recently received a lot of attention due to its capability to conquer the multiplicative fading loss and achieve full-space smart radio environments. This paper introduces the ASTARS to assist non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) communications, where the paring users are uniformly distributed within the service area. We design the independent reflection/transmission phase-shift controllers of ASTARS to align the phases of cascaded channels at pairing users. We derive new approximate and asymptotic expressions of the outage probability and ergodic data rate for ASTARS-NOMA networks in the presence of perfect/imperfect successive interference cancellation (pSIC/ipSIC). The diversity orders and multiplexing gains for ASTARS-NOMA are derived to provide more insights. Furthermore, the system throughputs of ASTARS-NOMA are investigated in both delay-tolerant and delay-limited transmission modes. The numerical results are presented and show that: 1) ASTARS-NOMA with pSIC outperforms ASTARS assisted-orthogonal multiple access (ASTARS-OMA) in terms of outage probability and ergodic data rate; 2) The outage probability of ASTARS-NOMA with pSIC/ipSIC can be further reduced within a certain range by increasing the power amplification factors; and 3) The system throughputs of ASTARS-NOMA are superior to that of ASTARS-OMA in both delay-limited and delay-tolerant transmission modes.

Integrated Sensing and Communications (ISAC) surpasses the conventional frequency-division sensing and communications (FDSAC) in terms of spectrum, energy, and hardware efficiency, with potential for greater enhancement through integration of non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA). Leveraging these advantages, a multiple-input multiple-output NOMA-ISAC framework is proposed in this paper, in which the technique of signal alignment is adopted. The performance of the proposed framework for both downlink and uplink is analyzed. 1) The downlink ISAC is investigated under three different precoding designs: a sensing-centric (S-C) design, a communications-centric (C-C) design, and a Pareto optimal design. 2) For the uplink case, two scenarios are investigated: a S-C design and a C-C design, which vary based on the order of interference cancellation between the communication and sensing signals. In each of these scenarios, key performance metrics including sensing rate (SR), communication rate (CR), and outage probability are investigated. For a deeper understanding, the asymptotic performance of the system in the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) region is also explored, with a focus on the high-SNR slope and diversity order. Finally, the SR-CR rate regions achieved by ISAC and FDSAC are studied. Numerical results reveal that in both downlink and uplink cases, ISAC outperforms FDSAC in terms of sensing and communications performance and is capable of achieving a broader rate region, clearly showcasing its superiority.

This paper analyzes the performance of a downlink integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) system, where nonorthogonal multiple access (NOMA) is exploited to mitigate inter-user interference. Closed-form expressions are derived to evaluate the outage probability, ergodic communication rate, and sensing rate. Furthermore, asymptotic analyses are carried out to unveil diversity orders and high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) slopes of the considered NOMA-ISAC system. As the further advance, the achievable sensing-communication rate region of ISAC is characterized. It is proved that ISAC system is capable of achieving a larger rate region than the conventional frequency-division sensing and communications (FDSAC) system.

This paper analyzes the ergodic mutual information (EMI) of an intelligent reflecting surface (IRS)-aided multiple-input single-output system with finite-alphabet inputs relying on two- timescale channel state information. For the sake of unveiling important system design insights, asymptotic analyses are performed on the EMI in the regime of high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). It is found that the EMI converges to some constant in the high-SNR regime and the rate of convergence is determined by the diversity order and the array gain. On this basis, two efficient algorithms are proposed to design the phase shifts of the IRS in order to improve the array gain as well as the EMI. All the analytical results are verified through computer simulations.

This paper investigates the performance of active reconfigurable intelligent surface (ARIS) assisted non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) networks over cascaded Nakagami-m fading channels. The effects of hardware impairments (HIS) and the number of reflection elements on ARIS-NOMA networks with imperfect successive interference cancellation (ipSIC) and perfect successive interference cancellation (pSIC) are considered. More specifically, we derive the expressions of outage probability with ipSIC/pSIC for ARIS-NOMA-HIS networks. According to the approximated analyses, the diversity orders and high signal-tonoise ratio (SNR) slopes for a pair of non-orthogonal users are attained in detail. The simulation results are presented to verify that the outage behaviors of ARIS-NOMA-HIS networks precede that of ARIS-aided orthogonal multiple access (OMA), passive reconfigurable intelligent surface (PRIS) aided OMA, and other conventional cooperative communication.

Antenna selection can handle the cost and complexity issues in massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channels. In this article, the sum-rate capacity of a multiuser massive MIMO uplink channel is analyzed. A mathematically tractable sum-rate capacity upper bound is derived for the considered system. Furthermore, for a sufficiently large base station (BS) antenna number, a deterministic equivalent (DE) of the sum-rate capacity bound is derived. Based on this DE, the sum-rate capacity is shown to grow double logarithmically with the number of BS antennas. Numerical experiments confirm the validity of the analytical results.

It is widely believed that large IRS-aided MIMO settings maintain the fundamental features of massive MIMO systems. This work gives a rigorous proof that confirms this belief. We show that using a large passive IRS, the end-to-end MIMO channel between the transmitter and the receiver always hardens, even if the IRS elements are strongly correlated. For fading direct and reflection links between the transmitter and the receiver, our derivations demonstrate that for a large number of reflecting elements on the IRS, the capacity of the end-to-end channel is accurately approximated by a real-valued Gaussian random variable whose variance goes to zero as the number of IRS elements grows unboundedly large. The order of this drop depends on how the physical dimensions of the IRS grow. We derive this order explicitly. Numerical experiments show that the closed-form approximation very closely matches the histogram of the capacity term, even in practical scenarios. As a sample application of the results, we characterize the dimensional trade-off between the transmitter and the IRS. The result is intuitive: For a target performance, the larger the IRS is, the fewer transmit antennas are required.

Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) have emerged as a promising technique to enhance the system spectral efficiency. This paper investigates the ergodic channel capacity (ECC) of an RIS-aided multiple-input multiple-output channel under the assumption that the transmitter-RIS, RIS-receiver, and transmitter-receiver channels contain deterministic line-of-sight paths. Novel expressions are derived to characterize the upper and lower bounds of the ECC. To unveil more system insights, asymptotic analyses are performed to the system ECC in the limit of large signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and number of reflecting elements (REs). Theoretical analyses suggest that the RIS’s deployment can shape the ECC curve by influencing its high-SNR power offset and the ECC can get improved by increasing the number of REs.

Transmit antenna selection (TAS) is an emerging technology in physical layer security. To provide new insights into the achievable secrecy performance of TAS in practical communication systems, this paper investigates the average secrecy rate (ASR) and secrecy outage probability (SOP) under practical modulation schemes in TAS aided multiple-input multiple-output multiple-antenna eavesdropper (MIMOME) wiretap channels over Rayleigh fading. Particularly, this research concentrates more on the square M-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM). Furthermore, in the considered MIMOME channel, a single antenna is selected to transmit the secret message, and selection combining (SC) or maximal-ratio combining (MRC) is utilized at the legitimate receiver and the eavesdropper. Based on this system model, novel expressions for the ASR and SOP are formulated to characterize the secrecy performance of the finite-alphabet driven MIMOME channel. Besides exact analysis, an asymptotic analysis is performed using the considered performance metrics in high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regime. Theoretical analyses suggest that the asymptotic ASR and SOP converge to finite constants in high SNR regime due to the discrete constellation constraint, and we find that the asymptotic behaviour of discrete inputs differs from that of Gaussian inputs. Furthermore, we derive concise expressions to characterize the rate of convergence (ROC) of the ASR and SOP, respectively. To unveil more system design insights, we discuss the relationship between the ROC and several important system parameters such as the antenna number and the modulation order.

To analyze the achievable performance of antenna selection (AS) in practical multi-antenna systems, this paper studies the receive antenna selection (RAS) in single-input multiple-output (AS-SIMO) systems under discrete inputs. We first propose an approximate expression to evaluate the instantaneous mutual information (MI) of M-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM) signaling over additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channels. Then, by exploiting this approximate formula, we develop a closed-form formula for the ergodic MI in AS-SIMO systems with M-QAM signaling. Additionally, we also analyze the asymptotic MI for a large number of receive antennas Nr. This asymptotic analysis suggests that the scaling rate of the MI with Nr becomes zero rate in contrast to the double logarithmic rate under Gaussian inputs. Besides, our result is also extended to discuss the mutual information of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems having discrete inputs with receive antenna selection, and an upper bound for the MI is derived. Finally, the derived result is applied to analyze several performance measures of the discrete inputs driven ASSIMO systems. Specifically, it is first used to discuss the relationship between the ergodic MI and the number of active antennas. Our investigation shows that this relationship follows Pareto principle, i.e., 80% of the MI of full-antenna selection can be achieved via 20% of the total antennas. Then, our proposed approximation is employed to analytically study the effective MI which takes channel estimation (CE) into consideration, indicating that CE is a main limit of large-scale systems. Moreover, the energy efficiency (EE) is explored on the basis of our results, and we find there exists an optimal number of active antennas to maximize the energy efficiency. In addition to theoretical derivations, all the analytical results are validated by numerical simulations.

This paper studies the receive antenna selection in massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. The receiver, equipped with a large-scale antenna array whose size is much larger than that of the transmitter, selects a subset of antennas to receive messages. An asymptotic approximated upper capacity bound is derived in the limit of massive MIMO systems over independent and identical distributed Rayleigh flat fading channel, assuming that the channel state information (CSI) is only available at the receiver. Compared with the conventional derivations, this approximate result requires much less computing with the guarantee of considerably high precision. Furthermore, the asymptotic theory is separately applied to two scenarios which is based on whether the total amount of the selected antennas exceeds that of the transmit antennas. Besides analytical derivations, simulation results are provided to demonstrate the approximation precision of the asymptotic results and the tightness of the capacity bound.

This paper studies the secrecy performance of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wiretap channels, also termed as multiple-input multiple-output multiple-eavesdropper (MIMOME) channels, under transmit antenna selection (TAS) and BPSK/QPSK modulations. In the main channel between the transmitter and the legitimate receiver, a single transmit antenna is selected to maximize the instantaneous Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) at the receiver. At the receiver and the eavesdropper, selection combining (SC) is utilized. Additionally, suppose that the transmitted message is modulated by BPSK/QPSK modes. We first derive the closed-form approximated expression for the ergodic secrecy rate under Rayleigh fading, assuming that the channel state information of the eavesdropper (CSIE) is available at the transmitter. Next, analytical formulas for the approximated and asymptotic secrecy outage probability are also developed when CSIE is unavailable (NCSIE). Simulation results are provided to demonstrate the approximation precision of the derived results above. Furthermore, the asymptotic results reveal that the secrecy diversity order degrades into 0 due to the finite-alphabet inputs, which is totally different from that driven by the Gaussian inputs.

This paper studies the transmit antenna selection in massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wiretap channels, also termed as multiple-input multiple-output multiple-eavesdropper (MIMOME) channels. The transmitter, equipped with a large-scale antenna array whose size is much larger than that of the legitimate receiver and eavesdropper, selects a subset of antennas to transmit messages. A branch-and-bound (BAB) search based algorithm for antenna selection in independent and identical distributed Rayleigh flat fading channel is proposed to maximize the secrecy capacity between the transmitter and the legitimate receiver when the transmit power is equally allocated into the selected antennas. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm is separately applied to two scenarios which is based on whether the channel side information of the eavesdropper (CSIE) is available at the transmitter. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm has the same performance as the exhaustive search under both scenarios but with much lower complexity.