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Imperfect Channel State Information at the Transmitter (CSIT) is inevitable in modern wireless communication networks, and results in severe multi-user interference in multi-antenna Broadcast Channel (BC). While the capacity of multi-antenna (Gaussian) BC with perfect CSIT is known and achieved by Dirty Paper Coding (DPC), the capacity and the capacity-achieving strategy of multi-antenna BC with imperfect CSIT remain unknown. Conventional approaches therefore rely on applying communication strategies designed for perfect CSIT to the imperfect CSIT setting. In this work, we break this conventional routine and make two major contributions. First, we show that linearly precoded Rate-Splitting (RS), relying on the split of messages into common and private parts and linear precoding at the transmitter, and successive interference cancellation at the receivers, can achieve larger rate region than DPC in multi-antenna BC with partial CSIT. Second, we propose a novel scheme, denoted as Dirty Paper Coded Rate-Splitting (DPCRS), that relies on RS to split the user messages into common and private parts, and DPC to encode the private parts. We show that the rate region of DPCRS in Multiple-Input Single-Output (MISO) BC with partial CSIT is enlarged beyond that of conventional DPC and that of linearly precoded RS. Gaining benefits from the capability of RS to partially decode the interference and partially treat interference as noise, DPCRS is less sensitive to CSIT inaccuracies, networks loads and user deployments compared with DPC and other existing transmission strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This letter presents two results for multiuser wireless systems employing dirty-paper coding strategies along with greedy scheduling over the broadcast multiple-input multiple-output channel. Specifically, an efficient and suboptimal downlink scheduler is proposed to approximate the maximum sum rate using equal power allocation, and it is shown to approach the maximum sum rate of optimal power allocation for a large number of users under optimal scheduling. The second result demonstrates that the average maximum sum rate can be tightly upper bounded when spatial multiplexing is maximized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) wireless communication systems are fundamental in many intelligent transportation applications, e.g., traffic load control, driverless vehicle, and collision avoidance. Hence, developing appropriate V2V communication systems and standardization require realistic V2V propagation channel models. However, most existing V2V channel modeling studies focus on car-to-car channels; only a few investigate truck-to-car (T2C) or truck-to-truck (T2T) channels. In this paper, a hybrid geometry-based stochastic model (GBSM) is proposed for T2X (T2C or T2T) channels in freeway environments. Next, we parameterize this GBSM from the extensive channel measurements. We extract the multipath components (MPCs) by using a joint maximum likelihood estimation (RiMAX) and then determine the cluster types based on their evolution patterns. We classify the determined clusters into line-of-sight, single-bounce reflections from static interaction objects (IOs), single-bounce reflections from mobile IOs, multiple-bounce reflections, and density multipath components (DMCs). Particularly, we model multiple-bounce reflections as double clusters following the COST 273/COST2100 method. This paper presents the complete parameterization of the channel model. We validate this model by comparing the delay spread and the angular spreads of arrival/departure obtained from the proposed model with the measurement data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the design of a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) optical wireless communication (OWC) link based on vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) arrays is systematically carried out with the aim to support data rates in excess of 1 Tb/s for the backhaul of sixth generation (6G) indoor wireless networks. The proposed design combines direct current optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DCO-OFDM) and a spatial multiplexing MIMO architecture. For such an ultra-high-speed line-of-sight (LOS) OWC link with low divergence laser beams, maintaining alignment is of high importance. In this paper, two types of misalignment error between the transmitter and receiver are distinguished, namely, radial displacement error and orientation angle error, and they are thoroughly modeled in a unified analytical framework assuming Gaussian laser beams, resulting in a generalized misalignment model (GMM). The derived GMM is then extended to MIMO arrays and the performance of the MIMO-OFDM OWC system is analyzed in terms of the aggregate data rate. Novel insights are provided into the system performance based on computer simulations by studying various influential factors such as beam waist, array configuration and different misalignment errors, which can be used as guidelines for designing short range Tb/s MIMO OWC systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) technology is promising to enhance wireless communications services by providing smart radio environment. In this paper, we investigate the RIS aided cellular networks with device-to-device (D2D) users, and maximize the sum of the transmission rate of the D2D communications and the cellular networks from a new perspective. In addition to solving the typical resource allocation problems for D2D communications, this paper further optimize the wireless environment by adjusting the position and phase shift of the RIS. To solve this non-convex problem, we propose a novel decentralized double deep Q-network (D3QN) framework for the resource allocation at users and a centralized DDQN for RIS optimization at the base station (BS), which are verified to achieve the near-optimal performance with lower complexity and enhanced robustness. Simulation results illustrate that the proposed framework can achieve higher transmission rates compared to benchmarks, meanwhile meeting the quality of service (QoS) requirements at the BS and D2D users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS), which consists of many low-cost reflecting elements, can enhance the reception of the desired signal and suppress the interference. Considering the above advantages, this paper investigates the RIS-assisted wireless communication in the presence of an interferer, where a receiver receives the desired signal and interference from a transmitter and an interferer, respectively, and the RIS is deployed to assist this system. First, an interference-limited channel capacity maximization problem is formulated, and a numerical algorithm based on the fraction programming and optimality conditions is proposed to obtain the optimal solution. Then, this paper shows the upper boundary of the maximal capacity with interference and discusses what kind of channel conditions can achieve the upper boundary and the corresponding optimal phase shifts. Next, this paper analyzes the asymptotic behaviors of the maximal capacity in the scenarios that some or all of the number of reflecting elements, antennas at the transmitter, and interferer go to infinity. Finally, this paper generalizes the above results to the multiple interferers scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indoor optical wireless communication (IOWC) is a key technology complementing radio communication in 6G. Typically, the downlink of IOWC is implemented using visible light and uplink is implemented using infrared. Though the downlink of IOWC has been studied well, the uplink of multiple-access IOWC requires further research. In this paper, power allocation strategies in the uplink of IOWC with multiple non-cooperative users is studied. Optimizing power allocation in IOWC that maximize sum-rate with power constraints becomes a non-convex problem. First, this paper proposes an alternating maximization algorithm to compute near optimal power allocation policies for small number of users. Next, a phenomenon of invariance is observed when the number of users in the system is large. Under invariance, the optimal power allocation policy of a user becomes independent of other users, thereby facilitating fast and decentralized computation of power allocation strategies. From simulations, it was observed that the invariance can occur even with five to ten users. For the first time, a rigorous analysis of the invariance phenomenon is provided. An algorithm to compute the optimal power allocation at invariance is proposed; this algorithm is proven to achieve the global maxima in sum-rate without the channel knowledge of other users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies a multiple-input–single-output (MISO) broadcast channel (BC) featuring simultaneous wireless information and power transfer, where a multiantenna access point (AP) delivers both information and energy via radio signals to multiple single-antenna receivers simultaneously, and each receiver implements either information decoding (ID) or energy harvesting (EH). In particular, pseudorandom sequences that are a priori known and therefore can be cancelled at each ID receiver are used as the energy signals, and the information-theoretically optimal dirty paper coding is employed for the information transmission. We characterize the capacity region for ID receivers by solving a sequence of weighted sum-rate (WSR) maximization (WSRMax) problems subject to a maximum sum-power constraint for the AP, and a set of minimum harvested power constraints for individual EH receivers. The problem corresponds to a new form of WSRMax problem in MISO-BC with combined maximum and minimum linear transmit covariance constraints (MaxLTCCs and MinLTCCs), which differs from the celebrated capacity region characterization problem for MISO-BC under a set of MaxLTCCs only and is challenging to solve. By extending the general BC–multiple-access-channel duality, which is only applicable to WSRMax problems with MaxLTCCs, and applying the ellipsoid method, we propose an efficient iterative algorithm to solve this problem globally optimally. Furthermore, we also propose two suboptimal algorithms with lower complexity by assuming that the information and energy signals are designed separately. Finally, numerical results are provided to validate our proposed algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The prospects of using a Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS) to aid wireless communication systems have recently received much attention from academia and industry. Most papers make theoretical studies based on elementary models, while the prototyping of RIS-aided wireless communication and real-world field trials are scarce. In this paper, we describe a new RIS prototype consisting of 1100 controllable elements working at 5.8 GHz band. We propose an efficient algorithm for configuring the RIS over the air by exploiting the geometrical array properties and a practical receiver-RIS feedback link. In our indoor test, where the transmitter and receiver are separated by a 30 cm thick concrete wall, our RIS prototype provides a 26 dB power gain compared to the baseline case where the RIS is replaced by a copper plate. A 27 dB power gain was observed in the short-distance outdoor measurement. We also carried out long-distance measurements and successfully transmitted a 32 Mbps data stream over 500 m. A 1080p video was live-streamed and it only played smoothly when the RIS was utilized. The power consumption of the RIS is around 1 W. Our paper is vivid proof that the RIS is a very promising technology for future wireless communications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper derives the asymptotic distribution of the normalized $k$ -th maximum order statistics of a sequence of non-central chi-square random variables with non-identical non-centrality parameters. We demonstrate the utility of these results in characterizing the signal-to-noise ratio in three different applications in wireless communication systems where the statistics of the $k$ -th maximum channel power over Rician fading links are of interest. Furthermore, we derive simple expressions for the asymptotic outage probability, average throughput, achievable throughput, and average bit error probability. The proposed results are validated via extensive Monte Carlo simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider deploying an intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) to enhance the downlink (DL) energy transfer and uplink (UL) information transmission efficiency for secure multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless powered communication networks (WPCNs). We aim to maximize the secrecy throughput of all users by jointly optimizing the DL/UL time allocation, the energy transmit covariance matrix of hybrid access point (AP), the information transmit beamforming matrix of users and the phase shifts of IRS in DL/UL, subject to constraints of energy/information transmit power at the hybrid AP/users and that of unit-modulus IRS phase shifts for DL/UL. To tackle the non-convex problem, we first transform the original problem into an equivalent form based on the mean-square error (MSE) method given time allocation, and then apply the alternating algorithm to update the optimization variables iteratively. Specifically, the energy covariance matrix and the information beamforming matrix are obtained based on the dual subgradient method. For the IRS phase shifts, we investigate two IRS beamforming reflection setups, namely different DL/UL IRS beamforming and identical DL/UL IRS beamforming. For the former case, the second-order cone programming technique and the Majorization-Minimization algorithm/element by element iterative algorithm are applied to obtain the DL and UL IRS phase shifts, respectively. For the latter case, the IRS phase shifts are obtained by the successive convex approximation technique. To further reduce the computational complexity of the single-user system, we derive the closed-form solutions of IRS phase shifts in each iteration for the two different reflection setups. Simulation results show that all the proposed algorithms can greatly improve the secrecy throughput compared to the conventional system without IRS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intelligent omni-surface (IOS) is a dynamic metasurface that has recently been proposed to achieve full-dimensional communications by realizing the dual function of anomalous reflection and anomalous refraction. Existing research works provide only simplified models for the reflection and refraction responses of the IOS, which do not explicitly depend on the physical structure of the IOS and the angle of incidence of the electromagnetic (EM) waves. Therefore, the available reflection-refraction models are insufficient to characterize the performance of full-dimensional communications. In this paper, we propose a complete and detailed circuit-based reflection-refraction model for the IOS, which is formulated in terms of the physical structure and equivalent circuits of the IOS elements, as well as we validate it with the aid of full-wave EM simulations. Based on the proposed circuit-based model for the IOS, we analyze the asymmetry between the reflection and transmission coefficients. Moreover, the proposed circuit-based model is utilized for optimizing the hybrid beamforming of IOS-assisted networks and hence improving the system performance. To verify the circuit-based model, the theoretical findings, and to evaluate the performance of full-dimensional beamforming, we implement a prototype of IOS and deploy an IOS-assisted wireless communication testbed to experimentally measure the beam patterns and to quantify the achievable rate. The obtained experimental results validate the theoretical findings and the accuracy of the proposed circuit-based reflection-refraction model for IOSs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can be deployed as flying base stations (BSs) to leverage the strength of line-of-sight connections and effectively support the coverage and throughput of wireless communication. This paper considers a multiuser communication system, in which a single-antenna UAV-BS serves a large number of ground users by employing non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA). The max-min rate optimization problem is formulated under total power, total bandwidth, UAV altitude, and antenna beamwidth constraints. The objective of max-min rate optimization is non-convex in all optimization variables, i.e., UAV altitude, transmit antenna beamwidth, power allocation, and bandwidth allocation for multiple users. A path-following algorithm is proposed to solve the formulated problem. Next, orthogonal multiple access (OMA) and dirty paper coding (DPC)-based max-min rate optimization problems are formulated and respective path-following algorithms are developed to solve them. The numerical results show that NOMA outperforms OMA and achieves rates similar to those attained by DPC. In addition, a clear rate gain is observed by jointly optimizing all the parameters rather than optimizing a subset of parameters, which confirms the desirability of their joint optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a part of our ground-breaking work on evaluation of buildings in terms of wireless friendliness at the building-design stage. The main goal is to devise building design practices that provide for a good performance of wireless networks deployed in buildings. In this paper, the interference gain (IG) and power gain (PG) are defined as two figures of merit (FoM) of the wireless performance of buildings. The FoMs bridge the gap between building design and wireless communications industries. An approach to derive exact closed-form equations for these FoMs is proposed for the first time. The derived analytic expressions facilitate straightforward and more computationally efficient numerical evaluation of the proposed FoMs as compared to Monte Carlo simulations for well-known indoor propagation models. It is shown that the derived closed-form expression can be readily employed to evaluate the impact of building properties, such as the sizes and the aspect ratios (ARs) of rooms, on the wireless performance. The proposed approach sheds light to architects on evaluation and design of wireless-friendly building layouts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, two new families of asynchronous channel-hopping (CH) sequences—Symmetric Maximum-Length CH (SML-CH) Sequences and Relaxed Difference Set (RDS) of Maximum-Length CH (RDSML-CH) Sequences—are constructed. For the first time, the maximum-length sequences (also called as m-sequences) are used to create 2-D CH matrices with a reduced number of “jump” columns. The two new constructions carry the desirable properties of maximum rendezvous diversity (MRD) and even channel use (ECU) and, more importantly, have the shortest periods in their categories of constructions. Another contribution is on the embedment of optical orthogonal codes (OOCs) to eliminate “stay” columns in the RDSML-CH matrices, thus resulting in the first and only family of the asynchronous CH sequences that can asymptotically achieve the theoretical period lower bound. To support the RDSML-CH construction, a new shortened RDS algorithm for creating the OOCs with smaller weight-to-length ratios than the existing ones is proposed. Numerical and simulation analyses show that the two new constructions have a good balance of short period, MRD, ECU, short time-to-rendezvous (TTR) mean, small TTR variance, and short maximum-TTR, thus more suitable for practical CR wireless networks than the existing constructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The differential chaos shift keying with code index modulation (CIM-DCSK) using Walsh codes can increase the data rate, but error rate performance degrades over practical multipath channel with high delay spread. To tackle this drawback, this paper proposes a parallel CIM-DCSK (PT-CIM-DCSK), where the first time slot is used to transmit the chaotic reference sequence, and the second slot is used to transmit the multiple sequences carrying data bits. In particular, multiple $q$ chaotic sequences are added for data transmission in parallel, and each sequence is modulated by CIM-DCSK with $m_{c}$ bits. By exploiting the quasi-orthogonal characteristics of permuted chaotic signals, the interference between $q$ sequences can be remarkably suppressed. In this way, given the data rate, PT-CIM-DCSK can achieve a larger length of Walsh segment than the CIM-DCSK, since its parallel transmission compensates the rate. In addition, the error performance of the proposed scheme over the multipath Rayleigh fading channel is theoretically analyzed. The theoretical and consistent simulation results demonstrate that the PT-CIM-DCSK can obtain significant performance gains over the conventional CIM-DCSK, and the gain can be up to 5 dB in multipath fading channel with high delay. This is because the larger Walsh segment of PT-CIM-DCSK provides the enhanced robustness against multipath effect. The performance superiority of the proposed scheme is further verified in practical ultra-wideband (UWB) wireless industrial scenarios, which suggests promising for low-cost and low-complexity wireless communication applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) is a promising new technology that is able to create a favorable wireless signal propagation environment by collaboratively reconfiguring the passive reflecting elements yet with low hardware and energy cost. In IRS-aided wireless communication systems, channel modeling is a fundamental task for communication algorithm design and performance optimization, which however is also very challenging since in-depth domain knowledge and technical expertise in radio signal propagations are required, especially for modeling the high-dimensional cascaded base station (BS)-IRS and IRS-user channels (also referred to as the reflected channels). In this paper, we propose a model-driven generative adversarial network (GAN)-based channel modeling framework to autonomously learn the reflected channel distribution, without complex theoretical analysis or data processing. The designed GAN (also named as IRS-GAN) is trained to reach the Nash equilibrium of a minimax game between a generative model and a discriminative model. For the single-user case, we propose to incorporate the special structure of the reflected channels into the design of the generative model. While for the multiuser case, we extend the IRS-GAN and present a multiuser IRS-GAN (abbreviated as IRS-GAN-M), where the distributions of the reflected channels associated with different users are learned simultaneously with reduced number of network parameters (as compared to the naive scheme that assigns a dedicated IRS-GAN for each user). Moreover, theoretical analysis is presented to prove that the minimax game in the IRS-GAN-M framework has a global optimum if the generative and discriminative models are given with enough capacity. Simulation results are presented to validate the effectiveness of the proposed IRS-GAN framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wireless communications are vulnerable to cyber attackers, which now have the flexibility to choose their type of attack. In this paper, combined with intelligent reflect surface (IRS), we jointly optimize base station beamforming and IRS reflected beamforming to counter smart attackers, thereby improving system security. Considering that attackers can flexibly choose their attack methods, such as jamming or eavesdropping, we make the base station intelligent by using reinforcement learning, which can predict the attack methods of attackers and choose whether to add artificial noise into the transmitted signals. At the same time, the interaction between the base station and the smart attackers are established as a non-cooperative game, the Nash equilibrium of the game is derived. Based on this, the base station anti-smart attackers strategy based on Deep Q-learning (DQN) is proposed, which can restrain the attack of the attacker to improve the security of the system. It can be verified from the simulation results that the proposed anti-smart attackers strategy can effectively enhance the secrecy rate of the wireless communication system, resist the attacker’s attack, and intelligently transmit artificial noise to improve system security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computation over multiple access channels (CoMAC) has been proposed to solve the problem of spectrum scarcity in wireless networks, which combines communication and computation efficiently using the superposition property of wireless channels. In this paper, we consider a multi-cluster CoMAC network, whose performance is affected by the inter-cluster interference and the non-uniform fading. To minimize the sum mean squared error of signals aggregated at different fusion centers (FCs), we propose a transceiver design for multi-cluster CoMAC. Specifically, we adopt a uniform-forcing transmitter design to formulate the receiver design as a quadratic sum-of-ratios problem with nonconvex quadratic constraints. Then, we propose a branch-and-bound algorithm to find its optimal solution with a given error tolerance. To solve the problem in a decentralized way, we develop a distributed algorithm based on the primal decomposition theory. Each subproblem is solved by using the successive convex approximation method. Further combining Lagrange duality, we derive the optimal solution structure of each subproblem, based on which we can find the solution with lower complexity. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed distributed transceiver design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider performance enhancement of asymmetrically-clipped optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (ACO-OFDM) and related optical OFDM schemes, which are variations of OFDM in intensity-modulated optical wireless communications. Unlike most existing studies on specific designs of improved receivers, this paper investigates information theoretic limits of all possible receivers. For independent and identically distributed (IID) complex Gaussian inputs, we obtain an exact characterization of information rate of ACO-OFDM with improved receivers for all SNRs. It is proved that the high-SNR gain of improved receivers asymptotically achieve 1/4 bits per channel use, which is equivalent to 3 dB in electrical SNR or 1.5 dB in optical SNR; as the SNR decreases, the maximum achievable SNR gain of improved receivers decreases monotonically to a non-zero low-SNR limit, corresponding to an information rate gain of 36.3%. For practically used constellations, we derive an upper bound on the gain of improved receivers. Numerical results demonstrate that the upper bound can be approached to within 1 dB in optical SNR by combining existing improved receivers and coded modulation. We also show that our information theoretic analyses can be extended to Flip-OFDM and PAM-DMT. Our results imply that, for the considered schemes, improved receivers may reduce the gap to channel capacity significantly at low-to-moderate SNR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Massive multiple-input multiple-output (M-MIMO) aided positioning technologies have been recently recognized as promising solutions to fulfil the high accuracy requirement of indoor localization systems. In this paper, exploiting a distributed M-MIMO framework, we propose to employ a deep belief network (DBN) to analyze the received signal strengths (RSS) generated by a diffraction model, where the impact from interfering persons on the targeted user equipment (UE) is considered. Next, the preliminary DBN estimates are forwarded to a long-short term memory network (LSTMN), where the trajectory information of the targeted UE can be extracted based on much less historical trajectory information than existing solutions. Then, the three-dimension (3D) coordinates of the UE’s positions can be estimated with a back propagation neural network (BPNN) which combines the outputs of DBN and LSTMN. Finally, extensive simulation results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed BPNN scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To realize high energy-efficient, high spectrum-efficient, and high-throughput data transmission, a multi-carrier differential chaos shift keying communication system with hybrid index modulation, referred to as HIM-MC-DCSK system, is proposed in this paper. In the HIM-MC-DCSK system, we intelligently integrate the carrier-number-index technique and carrier-index technique into the MC-DCSK modulation in order to significantly boost the transmission efficiency in wireless communication systems. Especially, we use a pair of orthogonal signals to represent the active and inactive subcarriers in the HIM-MC-DCSK system so as to exploit all the subcarriers to transmit information bits. In addition, the theoretical bit-error-rate (BER) expressions of the HIM-MC-DCSK system are derived over additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) and multipath Rayleigh fading channels. Also, the data rate, spectrum efficiency, energy efficiency, and complexity of the proposed system are carefully analyzed. Monte-Carlo simulations not only verify the accuracy of the theoretical analysis but also illustrate the superiority of the proposed system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to their ability to create favorable line-of-sight (LoS) propagation environments, intelligent reflecting surfaces (IRSs) are regarded as promising enablers for future millimeter-wave (mm-wave) wireless communication. In this paper, we investigate channel estimation for IRS-assisted mm-wave multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless systems. By leveraging the sparsity of mm-wave channels in the angular domain, we formulate the channel estimation problem as an $\ell _{1}$ -norm regularized optimization problem with fixed-rank constraints. To tackle the non-convexity of the formulated problem, an efficient algorithm is proposed by capitalizing on alternating minimization and manifold optimization (MO), which yields a locally optimal solution. To further reduce the computational complexity of the estimation algorithm, we propose a compressive sensing- (CS-) based channel estimation approach. In particular, a three-stage estimation protocol is put forward where the subproblem in each stage can be solved via low-complexity CS methods. Furthermore, based on the acquired channel state information (CSI) of the cascaded channel, we design a passive beamforming algorithm for maximization of the spectral efficiency. Simulation results reveal that the proposed MO-based estimation (MO-EST) and beamforming algorithms significantly outperform two benchmark schemes while the CS-based estimation (CS-EST) algorithm strikes a balance between performance and complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) has been regarded as a promising and revolutionary technology for future wireless communication systems owing to its capability of tailoring signal propagation environment in an energy/spectrum/ hardware-efficient manner. However, most existing studies on IRS optimizations are based on a simple and ideal reflection model that is impractical in hardware implementation, which thus leads to severe performance loss in realistic wideband/multi-band systems. To deal with this problem, in this paper we first propose a more practical and more tractable IRS reflection model that describes the difference of reflection responses for signals at different frequencies. Then, we investigate the joint transmit beamforming and IRS reflection beamforming design for an IRS-assisted multi-cell multi-band system. Both power minimization and sum-rate maximization problems are solved by exploiting popular second-order cone programming (SOCP), Riemannian manifold, minimization-majorization (MM), weighted minimum mean square error (WMMSE), and block coordinate descent (BCD) methods. Simulation results illustrate the significant performance improvement of our proposed joint transmit beamforming and reflection design algorithms based on the practical reflection model in terms of power saving and rate enhancement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The incorporation of intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) into wireless communication systems can extend the coverage and enhance the data transmission rate. This paper studies the joint transceiver and IRS designs in IRS-assisted multi-input multi-output (MIMO) systems under both perfect channel state information (CSI) and imperfect CSI. Specifically, the transmit precoder, reflection coefficients at the IRS, and receive equalizer are jointly optimized to minimize the data detection mean square error (MSE), subject to the transmission power constraint and the modulus constraints for IRS reflection coefficients. The design problems, non-convex and challenging, are tackled under the framework of alternating optimization. For the design with perfect CSI, we successively optimize the IRS reflection coefficients given the precoder and present the closed-form optimal angle of one reflection coefficient given the others. For the robust design with imperfect CSI, we first average the detection MSE over channel uncertainties by using a generalized statistical CSI error model. Then, the averaged MSE is approximated by a more tractable upper bound. Subsequently, the robust design problem is elaborately transformed into a form similar to the problem with perfect CSI. Numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed designs as compared to various benchmark schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Caching at the wireless edge nodes is a promising way to boost the spatial and spectral efficiency, for the sake of alleviating networks from content-related traffic. Coded caching originally introduced by Maddah-Ali and Niesen significantly speeds up communication efficiency by transmitting multicast messages simultaneously useful to multiple users. Most prior works on coded caching are based on the assumption that each user may request all content in the library. However, in many applications the users are interested only in a limited set of content that depends on their location. For example, assisted self-driving vehicles may access super High-Definition maps of the area through which they are travelling. Motivated by these considerations, this paper formulates the coded caching problem for location-based content with edge cache nodes. The considered problem includes a content server with access to ${\mathsf N}$ location-based files (e.g., High-Definition maps), ${\mathsf K}$ edge cache nodes located at different regions, and ${\mathsf K}$ users (i.e., vehicles) each of which is in the serving region of one cache node and can retrieve the cached content of this cache node with negligible cost. Depending on the location, each user only requests a file from a location-dependent subset of the library. The objective is to minimize the worst-case load (i.e., the worst-case number of broadcasted bits from the content server among all possible demands). For this novel coded caching problem, we propose a highly non-trivial converse bound under uncoded cache placement (i.e., each cache node directly copies some library bits in its cache), which shows that a simple achievable scheme is optimal under uncoded cache placement. In addition, this achievable scheme is also proved to be generally order optimal within a factor of 3. Finally, we extend the coded caching problem for location-based content to the multiaccess coded caching topology originally proposed by Hachem et al., where each user is connected to ${\mathsf L}$ nearest cache nodes. When ${\mathsf L}\geq 2$ , we characterize the exact optimality on the worst-case load. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a novel general sixth-generation (6G) irregular-shaped geometry-based stochastic model (IS-GBSM) for millimeter wave (mmWave) massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communication systems. The proposed IS-GBSM can model spherical wavefront propagation, high delay resolution, and three-dimensional (3D) space-time-frequency non-stationarity of channels with time-space consistency, and thus can be applied to integrated communication and sensing systems. To capture the 3D non-stationarity with channel consistency, a new hybrid method combining geometric and parametric methods is developed. Based on the geometric method, i.e., visibility region (VR), the smooth and consistent appearance and disappearance of clusters during array-time evolution are modeled. With the help of the parametric method, a frequency-dependent path gain is introduced, and a visible factor based on uniform continuity theorem and bounded variation function is further proposed to capture the soft cluster power handover during cluster array-time evolution. Key channel statistics of the proposed IS-GBSM are derived and investigated. Simulation results demonstrate that the space-time-frequency non-stationarity is modeled and time-space consistency is captured. Finally, the utility of the proposed IS-GBSM is verified by the excellent agreement between simulation results and measurement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Edge federated learning (FL) is an emerging paradigm that trains a global parametric model from distributed datasets based on wireless communications. This paper proposes a unit-modulus over-the-air computation (UMAirComp) framework to facilitate efficient edge federated learning, which simultaneously uploads local model parameters and updates global model parameters via analog beamforming. The proposed framework avoids sophisticated baseband signal processing, leading to low communication delays and implementation costs. Training loss bounds of UMAirComp FL systems are derived and two low-complexity large-scale optimization algorithms, termed penalty alternating minimization (PAM) and accelerated gradient projection (AGP), are proposed to minimize the nonconvex nonsmooth loss bound. Simulation results show that the proposed UMAirComp framework with PAM algorithm achieves a smaller mean square error of model parameters’ estimation, training loss, and test error compared with other benchmark schemes. Moreover, the proposed UMAirComp framework with AGP algorithm achieves satisfactory performance while reduces the computational complexity by orders of magnitude compared with existing optimization algorithms. Finally, we demonstrate the implementation of UMAirComp in a vehicle-to-everything autonomous driving simulation platform. It is found that autonomous driving tasks are more sensitive to model parameter errors than other tasks since the neural networks for autonomous driving contain sparser model parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a novel intelligent reflecting surface (IRS)-assisted wireless powered communication network (WPCN) architecture is proposed for power-constrained Internet-of-Things (IoT) smart devices, where IRS is exploited to improve the performance of WPCN under imperfect channel state information (CSI). We formulate a hybrid access point (HAP) transmit energy minimization problem by jointly optimizing time allocation, HAP energy beamforming, receiving beamforming, user transmit power allocation, IRS energy reflection coefficient and information reflection coefficient under the imperfect CSI and non-linear energy harvesting model. On account of the high coupling of optimization variables, the formulated problem is a non-convex optimization problem that is difficult to solve directly. To address the above-mentioned challenging problem, alternating optimization (AO) technique is applied to decouple the optimization variables to solve the problem. Specifically, through AO, time allocation, HAP energy beamforming, receiving beamforming, user transmit power allocation, IRS energy reflection coefficient and information reflection coefficient are divided into three sub-problems to be solved alternately. The difference-of-convex (DC) programming is used to solve the non-convex rank-one constraint in solving IRS energy reflection coefficient and information reflection coefficient. Numerical simulations verify the superiority of the proposed optimization algorithm in decreasing HAP transmit energy compared with other benchmark schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate the performance of an RIS-aided wireless communication system subject to outdated channel state information that may operate in both the near- and far-field regions. In particular, we take two RIS deployment strategies into consideration: (i) the centralized deployment, where all the reflecting elements are installed on a single RIS and (ii) the distributed deployment, where the same number of reflecting elements are placed on multiple RISs. For both deployment strategies, we derive accurate closed-form approximations for the ergodic capacity, and we introduce tight upper and lower bounds for the ergodic capacity to obtain useful design insights. From this analysis, we unveil that an increase of the transmit power, the Rician- $K$ factor, the accuracy of the channel state information and the number of reflecting elements help improve the system performance. Moreover, we prove that the centralized RIS-aided deployment may achieve a higher ergodic capacity as compared with the distributed RIS-aided deployment when the RIS is located near the base station or near the user. In different setups, on the other hand, we prove that the distributed deployment outperforms the centralized deployment. Finally, the analytical results are verified by using Monte Carlo simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates an intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) aided secure wireless powered communication network (WPCN), where a transmitter first harvests energy from a power station (PS), and then uses the collected energy to transmit information to multiple internet of things (IoT) devices in the form of multicast in the presence of multiple eavesdroppers. An IRS is deployed to enhance the efficiency of wireless energy transfer (WET) and secure wireless information transfer (WIT). Considering that the PS and transmitter belong to different service providers, we model this energy interaction through a Stackelberg game and propose an IRS-aided energy trading and secure communication (IRS-ETSC) scheme, in which the transmitter needs to pay an energy price as an incentive for the PS energy service. Specifically, the transmitter as the leader can control the energy price, WET time, two-stage phase shifts, and beamforming vector, while the PS as the follower can adjust the transmit power. To solve the non-convex leader game problem, we propose a two-step approach to decompose the original problem into two subproblems. The first subproblem can be solved independently by an efficient alternating optimization (AO) based algorithm, in which the closed-form optimal beamforming vector and energy phase shifts are alternately optimized. Then, the second subproblem is relaxed by semidefinite relaxation (SDR) and solved by an iterative algorithm based on block coordinate descent (BCD), where the optimal energy price, optimal WET time, and suboptimal information phase shifts can be obtained by golden section method and successive convex approximation (SCA) respectively. Both subproblems can converge to a stationary point. Numerical results show that compared with the traditional non-IRS scheme, the proposed IRS-ETSC scheme achieves utility improvement for both the PS and transmitter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fifth-generation (5G) wireless communications confront explosive growth in mobile data demand and massive intensive user equipment (UE) connections. The optimization of base station (BS) array orientations in large-scale networks can provide high potential performance gain to meet these requirements. However, traditional schemes are highly dependent on experience and difficult in implementation due to their demand on repeated drive tests and large amounts of data samples. In this paper, via exploiting UE locations and channel direction information, we propose an intelligent network optimization framework to maximize the long-term network rate performance. For the augmentation of limited drive test data, a deep Gaussian process regression (DGPR) model is designed to construct a scenario-specific channel modeling. In addition, via a domain-knowledge driven fusion of convolutional neural network (CNN) and multi-layer perceptron (MLP), we propose a multi-branch deep neural network (DNN) to accurately map BS array orientations and concise channel measurements to the network performance. Finally, based on the scenario-specific modeling, an efficient gradient search approach is proposed to optimize BS array orientations via neural network (NN) backpropagation. Both simulations and field tests in 5G experimental networks validate the effectiveness and efficiency of our proposed framework, especially with limited drive test data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates power allocation for minimizing the average bit error probability (BEP) in hybrid communication systems, more specifically hybrid power line/wireless systems (HPWSs). In this regard, a brief discussion of HPWSs is presented in order to point out the complementary characteristics of power line and wireless media. By considering orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing and maximal-ratio combining, optimization problems associated with the minimization of the average BEP in hybrid communication systems are formulated under two distinct transmission power constraints, called sum power and sum power-channel constraints. For both constraints, it is demonstrated that at most one medium should be used for data transmission over subchannels with the same index in order to minimize the average BEP in hybrid communication systems. Based on this finding, power allocation algorithms are derived for this purpose in HPWSs. Numerical analyses are then used to validate the proposed algorithms by comparing them with interior-point-based power allocation algorithms. In addition, performance comparisons show the advantage of the proposals over alternative algorithms from the literature, including previous algorithms proposed for maximizing the achievable data rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) consisting of a large number of programmable near-passive units has been a hot topic in wireless communications due to its capability in providing smart radio environments to enhance the communication performance. However, the existing research are mainly based on simplistic channel models, which will, in principle, lead to inaccurate analysis of the system performance. In this paper, we propose a general three-dimensional (3D) wideband non-stationary end-to-end channel model for RIS assisted multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communications, which takes into account the physical properties of RIS, such as unit numbers, unit sizes, array orientations and array configurations. By modeling the RIS by a virtual cluster, we describe the end-to-end channel by a superposition of virtual line-of-sight (V-LoS), single-bounced non-LoS (SB-NLoS), and double-bounced NLoS (DB-NLoS) components. We also derive an equivalent cascaded channel model and show the equivalence between end-to-end and cascaded modeling of RIS channels. Then, a sub-optimal solution with low complexity is used to derive the RIS reflection phases. The impact of physical properties of RIS, such as unit numbers, unit sizes, array orientations, array configurations and array relative locations, on channel statistical characteristics has been investigated and analyzed, the results demonstrate that the proposed model is helpful for characterizing the RIS-assisted communication channels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cloud-based cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (CFmMIMO) technology, which exploits a large number of distributed antennas to cooperatively serve multiple users, constitutes an appealing technique for B5G/6G wireless communications. However, the distributed nature of cloud-based CFmMIMO imposes great challenges in analyzing the error probability bounds, and very few efforts have so far been paid to optimize the detector design. In this paper, we try to add a stroke to this blank by analyzing the symbol error rate (SER) and design near-optimal detection algorithms. Specifically, considering non-identical large-scale coefficients and channel estimation errors, we first leverage the pairwise error probability to derive an asymptotic SER bound for uplink cloud-based CFmMIMO systems, which is verified by simulation results. Furthermore, motivated by the concepts of successive interference cancellation (SIC) and error correction mechanism (ECM), we design two distinct types of near-optimal detectors for cloud-based CFmMIMO systems and analyze their complexity and convergence performance. Finally, extensive simulation results show that our proposed SIC and ECM based detectors outperform conventional matched filtering (MF) and minimum mean squred error (MMSE) counterparts. In particular, the MMSE-SIC and MMSE-ECM detectors approach the derived asymptotic bound, and the MF-ECM detector strikes a balance between the SER and complexity in ultra CFmMIMO scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology has enabled increased efficiency and capacity of wireless communication systems. When the downlink channel to user terminals (UTs) is known at the base station (BS), the BS can precode transmission to simplify detection at the UTs. In frequency division duplexed (FDD) systems, obtaining CSI at the transmitter to fully exploit the advantages of massive MIMO is complicated, since the number of channel coefficients to be trained and fed back from the UT is very large. This is exacerbated in the case where the channel is time varying, where frequent retraining and feedback is required. However, if the channel coefficients are spatially correlated, the amount of feedback required can be reduced significantly. In this paper, we consider the case where the channel coefficients from the BS to the UTs are spatially correlated, and show that efficient allocation of training power based on eigenvalues of the channel correlation matrix significantly boosts achievable rates. Further, we show that using Kalman filters to track the evolving channel coefficients reduces the need to retrain channels, and the reduced training requirement translates to higher data rates. Simulations confirm that optimal training and tracking channel modes enhances rates significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many applications of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) require deploying sensors in hostile environments, where an adversary may eavesdrop communications. To secure communications in WSNs, the $q$ -composite key predistribution scheme has been proposed in the literature. In this paper, we investigate secure $k$ -connectivity in WSNs operating under the $q$ -composite scheme, in consideration of the unreliability of wireless links. Secure $k$ -connectivity ensures that any two sensors can find a path in between for secure communication, even when $k-1$ sensors fail. We present conditions on how to set the network parameters such that the network has secure $k$ -connectivity asymptotically almost surely. The result is given in the form of a sharp zero–one law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prospective authors are requested to submit new, unpublished manuscripts for inclusion in the upcoming event described in this call for papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prospective authors are requested to submit new, unpublished manuscripts for inclusion in the upcoming event described in this call for papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A call for papers on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Wireless Communications Letters (WCL), a joint publication of the IEEE Communications Society, the IEEE Signal Processing Society, and the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society, is presented.

Caching is a promising technique for 5G networks to reduce the backhual traffic and increase the overall network efficiency. In this paper, we study the caching placement policy with consideration of cooperative transmission for a two-hop relay-enabled device-to-device (D2D) network. In the caching placement phase, the probabilistic caching placement policy is considered, and in the content transmission phase, the hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) scheme with soft information combining [i.e., energy accumulation (EA) and mutual-information accumulation (MIA)] is utilized to improve the content retrieval experience. Cache-aided successful transmission probability (CSTP) is adopted as the main performance metric in this paper. By using tools from stochastic geometry, analytical expressions for the CSTP under different transmission schemes are derived. In moderate or high SIR regime, the optimal caching placement policy is identified based on the analytical expression and the CSTP performance is maximized accordingly. Evaluation results suggest that the MIA-based caching strategy performs better as opposed to existing strategies in most cases, but this outperformance vanishes when the transmission environment becomes severe or when users’ requests become concentrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The future connectivity landscape, and notably, the 5G wireless systems will feature Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC). The coupling of high reliability and low latency requirements in URLLC use cases makes the wireless access design very challenging, in terms of both the protocol design and of the associated transmission techniques. This paper aims to provide a broad perspective on the fundamental tradeoffs in URLLC, as well as the principles used in building access protocols. Two specific technologies are considered in the context of URLLC: massive MIMO and multi-connectivity, also termed interface diversity. This paper also touches on the importance of the proper statistical methodology for designing and assessing extremely high-reliability levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel approach is here presented to superimpose a low-priority data stream on a high-priority data stream for OFDM systems. The main improvement with respect to conventional hierarchical modulation, which is included with the same purpose in various wireless technologies, is that the low-priority data stream can be decoded from the received subcarrier symbols without any previous equalization for multipath fading channels. As a consequence, the expected performance is nearly invariant of the channel estimation method used to equalize the channel. The low-priority stream is inserted adopting a gain-invariant dirty paper coding based on Rational Dither Modulation, which was proposed for data hiding applications. In this paper an analysis of the developed system is presented and several simulations have been carried out using DVB-T system parameters to verify the validity of the proposed approach. The experimental results show the better performance of the proposed method with respect to that of a conventional hierarchical modulation, particularly when the accuracy of the estimated channel response decreases. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Ultra-Reliable and Low-Latency Communications (URLLC) has attracted considerable attention because of its potential applications in factory automation, automated driving, and telesurgery anticipated for the era of the sixth-Generation (6G) networks. In URLLC with random channel gains and a hard delay constraint, the scheduling of backlogged queues and finite blocklength coding in the physical layer will make it very challenging to specify its performance limits. In this paper, we focus our attention on the asymptotic cross-layer analysis of URLLC when the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) is sufficiently high. More specifically, we find that a fundamental tradeoff exists among the service capability, latency, and error probability in the high SNR regime, which is characterized by a gain conservation equation. The main result of this work reveals that the sum of our defined service rate gain, real-time gain, and reliability gain is equal to one under the optimal policy. Numerical simulations are also exploited to validate that the derived gain conservation equation holds even with bounded random arrival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To expedite research progress on terahertz (THz) communications, we analyze the outage performance of THz communication systems by a compound channel model in this paper. Different from existing models, the compound channel model incorporates the effects of spreading loss, molecular absorption loss, shadowing, and multi-path fading via a composite distribution. By using this model, we maintain an equilibrium of the outage performance analysis between mathematical tractability and the fidelity of realistic THz channels. Specifically, by utilizing the compound channel model, outage performance analysis can get rid of sophisticated case-specific channel modeling relying on field measurement and the ray-tracing assessment. To facilitate the application of the proposed channel model, we also design a maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) based channel parameter estimation approach for the compound channel model. The analytical results of outage performance by using the compound channel model are given in closed form and verified by numerical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) are envisioned to be a disruptive wireless communication technique that is capable of reconfiguring the wireless propagation environment. In this paper, we study a free-space RIS-assisted multiple-input single-output (MISO) communication system in far-field operation. To maximize the received power from the physical and electromagnetic nature point of view, a comprehensive optimization, including beamforming of the transmitter, phase shifts of the RIS, orientation and position of the RIS is formulated and addressed. After exploiting the property of line-of-sight (LoS) links, we derive closed-form solutions of beamforming and phase shifts. For the non-trivial RIS position optimization problem in arbitrary three-dimensional space, a dimensional-reducing theory is proved. The simulation results show that the proposed closed-form beamforming and phase shifts approach the upper bound of the received power. The robustness of our proposed solutions in terms of the perturbation is also verified. Moreover, the RIS significantly enhances the performance of the mmWave/THz communication system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate a secure mobile edge computing (MEC) network in the presence of multiple eavesdroppers, where multiple users can offload parts of their tasks to the computational access point (CAP). The multiple eavesdroppers may overhear the confidential task offloading, which leads to information leakage. In order to address this issue, we present the minimization problem of the secrecy outage probability (SOP), by jointly taking into account the constraints from the latency and energy consumption. With the aim to improve the system secrecy performance, we then introduce three user selection criteria to choose the best user among multiple ones. Specifically, criterion I maximizes the locally computational capacity, while criterion II and III maximize the secrecy capacity and data rate of main links, respectively. For these criteria, we further analyze the system secrecy performance by deriving analytical and asymptotic expressions for the SOP, from which we can conclude important insights for the system design. Finally, simulation and analytical results are provided to verify the proposed analysis. The results show that the three criteria can efficiently safeguard the MEC networks, compared to the traditional local computing and fully offloading, especially with a large value of user number. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the concept of opportunistic bits (OBs) is developed in short-packet communications and investigated from a finite blocklength perspective. In the OB-based transmission, the data unit of a packet is divided into two parts: OBs and conventional bits (CBs). The OBs are not physically transmitted but used to indicate the index of the time slot (TS) when the packet containing CBs is transmitted. The loading of a bulk of OB-based packets into multiple TSs can be modelled as a Repeated Balls-into-Bins process with a multi-queue storage. If the bulk is not large enough, certain combination(s) of OBs will not appear, which leaves certain TS(s) empty and hence reduces the TS load efficiency. To evaluate the OB-based transmission performance, we formulate its maximal payload rate and TS load efficiency. With the aid of these two formulations, the energy gain, the goodput, and the latency of OB-based short-packet communications are derived and obtained in analytical forms. For achieving further insights, illustrative numerical results on the resource utilisation efficiency and the performance not only substantiate the advantages of the OB-based transmission over the conventional but also provide useful tools and specifications for its design in massive short-packet communications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Covert wireless communications aim to hide the existence of transmission behavior from watchful adversaries to enhance security. In this paper, we propose a spectrum mask based covert communication strategy in Internet of Things (IoT) networks, where the overt channels are leveraged to enhance the covertness. Specifically, the legitimate IoT transmitter superimposes its own message on the overt channel to avoid being detected by the warden. We assume that proper Gaussian signaling (PGS) is adopted at the overt channel, and improper Gaussian signaling (IGS) is adopted at the legitimate transmitter to improve the covert transmission performance. To maximize the covert rate of the legitimate IoT system, a joint transmit power and IGS factor optimization problem is formulated under the constraints of covertness requirement. The metric of minimum error detection probability, that represents the worst-case for the legitimate transmitter, is utilized to measure the covertness. By exploiting the piece-wise monotonic properties of the objective function and the constraints, we derive the optimal transmit power and IGS factor pairs in both the IGS and PGS schemes. Finally, extensive numerical results are presented to demonstrate that the IGS scheme can improve the covert rate compared to the PGS scheme under a given covertness constraint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]