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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]

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

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

Recently, significant research attention has been devoted to the study of reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs), which are capable of reconfiguring the wireless propagation environment by exploiting the unique properties of metamaterials-based integrated large arrays of inexpensive antennas. Existing research demonstrates that RISs significantly improve physical layer performance, including wireless coverage, achievable data rate, and energy efficiency. However, the medium access control (MAC) of multiple users accessing an RIS-enabled channel is still in its infancy, while many open issues remain to be addressed. In this article, we present four typical RIS-aided multi-user scenarios with special emphasis on the MAC schemes. We then propose and elaborate on centralized, distributed, and hybrid artificial-in-telligence-assisted MAC architectures in RIS-aid-ed multi-user communications systems. Finally, we discuss some challenges, perspectives, and potential applications of RISs as they are related to MAC design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) has become a promising technology for enhancing the reliability of wireless communications, since an RIS is capable of reflecting the desired signals through appropriate phase shifts. However, the intended signals that impinge upon an RIS are often mixed with interfering signals, which are usually dynamic and unknown. In particular, the received signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) may be degraded by the signals reflected from the RISs that originate from non-intended users. To tackle this issue, we introduce the concept of intelligent spectrum learning (ISL), which uses an appropriately trained convolutional neural network (CNN) at the RIS controller to help the RISs infer the interfering signals directly from the incident signals. By capitalizing on the ISL, a distributed control algorithm is proposed to maximize the received SINR by dynamically configuring the active/inactive binary status of the RIS elements. Simulation results validate the performance improvement offered by deep learning and demonstrate the superiority of the proposed ISL-aided approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) are an emerging transmission technology for application to wireless communications. RISs can be realized in different ways, which include (i) large arrays of inexpensive antennas that are usually spaced half of the wavelength apart; and (ii) metamaterial-based planar or conformal large surfaces whose scattering elements have sizes and inter-distances much smaller than the wavelength. Compared with other transmission technologies, e.g., phased arrays, multi-antenna transmitters, and relays, RISs require the largest number of scattering elements, but each of them needs to be backed by the fewest and least costly components. Also, no power amplifiers are usually needed. For these reasons, RISs constitute a promising software-defined architecture that can be realized at reduced cost, size, weight, and power (C-SWaP design), and are regarded as an enabling technology for realizing the emerging concept of smart radio environments (SREs). In this paper, we (i) introduce the emerging research field of RIS-empowered SREs; (ii) overview the most suitable applications of RISs in wireless networks; (iii) present an electromagnetic-based communication-theoretic framework for analyzing and optimizing metamaterial-based RISs; (iv) provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of research; and (v) discuss the most important research issues to tackle. Owing to the interdisciplinary essence of RIS-empowered SREs, finally, we put forth the need of reconciling and reuniting C. E. Shannon’s mathematical theory of communication with G. Green’s and J. C. Maxwell’s mathematical theories of electromagnetism for appropriately modeling, analyzing, optimizing, and deploying future wireless networks empowered by RISs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) that enables the control of wireless propagation environment has recently emerged as a promising cost-effective technology for boosting the spectral and energy efficiency of future wireless communication systems. Prior works on IRS are mainly based on the ideal phase shift model assuming full signal reflection by each of its elements regardless of the phase shift, which, however, is practically difficult to realize. In contrast, we propose in this paper a practical phase shift model that captures the phase-dependent amplitude variation in the element-wise reflection design. Based on the proposed model and considering an IRS-aided multiuser system with one IRS deployed to assist in the downlink communications from a multi-antenna access point (AP) to multiple single-antenna users, we formulate an optimization problem to minimize the total transmit power at the AP by jointly designing the AP transmit beamforming and the IRS reflect beamforming, subject to the users’ individual signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) constraints. Iterative algorithms are proposed to find suboptimal solutions to this problem efficiently by utilizing the alternating optimization (AO) as well as penalty-based optimization techniques. Moreover, to draw essential insight, we analyze the asymptotic performance loss of the IRS-aided system that employs practical phase shifters but assumes the ideal phase shift model for beamforming optimization, as the number of IRS elements goes to infinity. Simulation results unveil substantial performance gains achieved by the proposed beamforming optimization based on the practical phase shift model as compared to the conventional ideal model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

In this correspondence paper, a variable-rate coding scheme is proposed for an uplink NOMA system. Specifically, each user employs a multilevel irregular repeat-accumulate (IRA) coding scheme, which consists of multiple common component IRA encoders. The variable-rate coding scheme is realized by flexibly adjusting the number of component IRA encoders allocated to each user. We design this common component IRA encoder based on extrinsic information transfer analysis to achieve an overall good multi-user decoding performance. The advantages of our proposed scheme are as follows: first, simple implementation of rate variation, second, flexible design of multilevel IRA coding, i.e., the well-designed component IRA encoders does not need to be re-designed when any user changes its rate, third, fair decoding convergence of each user, and finally, capacity-approaching performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a sparse signal estimation algorithm that is suitable for many wireless communication systems, especially for the future millimeter wave and underwater communication systems. This algorithm is not only asymptotically optimal, but also robust to the distribution of nonzero entries of the sparse signal. Then, we derive its upper bound and lower bound, and show that the mean square error of the proposed algorithm can approach the minimum mean square error bound when the signal noise ratio goes to infinite or zero. Numerical simulations verify our theoretical analysis and also show that the proposed algorithm converges faster than existing algorithms, e.g., turbo-type signal recovery-discrete fourier transform, approximate message passing, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the energy efficiency (EE) of a downlink multicell massive distributed antenna system (DAS) in the presence of pilot contamination (PC), where the antennas are clustered on the remote radio heads (RRHs). We employ a practical power consumption model by considering the transmit power, the circuit power, and the backhaul power, in contrast to most of the existing works which focus on colocated antenna systems (CASs), where the backhaul power is negligible. For a given average user rate, we consider the problem of maximizing the EE with respect to the number of antennas of each RRH $n$, the number of RRHs $M$, and the number of users $K$ and study the impact of system parameters on the optimal $n$, $M$, and $K$. Specifically, by applying random matrix theory, we derive the closed-form expressions of the optimal $n$ and find the solution of the optimal $M$ and $K$ under a simplified channel model with maximum ratio transmission. From the results, we find that, to achieve the optimal EE, a large number of antennas is needed for a given user rate and PC. As the number of users increases, EE can be improved further by having more RRHs and antennas. Moreover, if the backhauling power is not large, a massive DAS can be more energy efficient than a massive CAS. These insights provide a useful guide to the practical deployment of massive DASs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, secure communication aided by a multiantenna cooperative jammer is investigated. Under very practical but adverse assumptions, i.e., no instantaneous jammer–eavesdropper channel state information (CSI) and imperfect instantaneous jammer–receiver CSI, the residual interference from the jammer to the legitimate receiver appears, even with spatial beamforming. Then, this paper analyzes the impact of imperfect CSI on the function of cooperative jamming and derives closed-form expressions of multiple secrecy performance metrics, including ergodic secrecy rate, secrecy outage capacity, and interception probability. Interestingly, it is found that two antennas at the jammer is always optimal. Furthermore, some insights are obtained through asymptotic analysis, e.g., the secrecy performance is saturated as the source transmit power increases, the ergodic secrecy rate is a linear function of CSI feedback bits in the region of high transmit power at the source/jammer, and interception probability is independent of transmit power at the source and is a decreasing function of transmit power at the jammer. Finally, theoretical claims are validated by simulation results. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

High-frame-rate (HFR) video technology is becoming widely implemented in popular multimedia applications (e.g., Youtube and cloud gaming) to provide a smooth viewing experience, while transmission control protocol (TCP) is pervasively adopted as the transport-layer solution for video communications to achieve firewall traversal and network friendliness. However, it is severely challenging to effectively deliver real-time HFR video over TCP: 1) HFR video streaming features high transmission rate, enhanced frame density, and stringent delay constraint and 2) the packet retransmission and congestion control mechanisms in TCP may cause frequent throughput fluctuations and deadline violations. Motivated by addressing these critical issues, this research presents an application-layer forward error correction (FEC) framework dubbed Raptor coded HFR video over TCP (ROCHET). First, we develop a mathematical model to analyze the frame-level distortion of systematic Raptor code-based HFR video communication over TCP in wireless networks. Second, we propose a joint approximate distortion estimation and Raptor coding adaption solution to minimize the sum of total distortion. The proposed ROCHET is able to effectively leverage unequal error protection and TCP state analysis to enhance streaming video quality. We conduct the performance evaluation through extensive emulations in Exata involving real-time HFR video encoded with H.264 codec. Compared with the existing FEC coding schemes, ROCHET achieves appreciable improvements in terms of video peak signal-to-noise ratio, goodput, and frame success rate. Thus, ROCHET is recommended for TCP-based HFR video transmission over wireless networks. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A novel air-to-ground (ATG) communication system, which is based on adaptive modulation and beamforming enabled by automatic dependent surveillance—broadcast (ADS-B) and multilateration techniques, is presented in this paper. From an aircraft geolocation perspective, the proposed multilateration technique uses the time-difference-of-arrival (TDOA), angle-of-arrival (AOA), and frequency-difference-of-arrival (FDOA) features within the ADS-B signal to implement the hybrid geolocation mechanism. Moreover, this hybrid mechanism aims for the optimal selection of multilateration sensors to provide a precise aircraft geolocation estimate by minimizing the geometric dilution-of-precision (GDOP) metric and imparts significant resilience to the current ADS-B-based geolocation framework to withstand any form of attack involving aircraft impersonation and ADS-B message infringement. From an ATG communication perspective, the ground base stations can use this hybrid aircraft geolocation estimate to dynamically adapt their modulation parameters and transmission beampattern in an effort to provide a high-data-rate secure ATG communication link. Additionally, we develop a hardware prototype that is highly accurate in estimating AOA data and facilitating TDOA and FDOA extraction associated with the received ADS-B signal. This hardware setup for the ADS-B-based ATG system is analytically established and validated with commercially available universal software-defined radio peripheral units. This hardware setup displays 1.5° AOA estimation accuracy, whereas the simulated geolocation accuracy is approximately 30 m over 100 nautical miles for a typical aircraft trajectory. The adaptive modulation and beamforming approach assisted by the proposed GDOP-minimization-based multilateration strategy achieves significant enhancement in throughput and reduction in packet error rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Delivering high-quality mobile video with the limited radio resources is challenging due to the time-varying channel status and stringent Quality of Service (QoS) requirements. Multi-homing support enables mobile terminals to establish multiple simultaneous associations for enhancing transmission performance. In this paper, we study the multi-homed communication of delay-constrained High Definition (HD) video in heterogeneous wireless networks. The low-delay encoded HD video streaming consists exclusively of Intra (I) and Predicted (P) frames. In the capacity-limited wireless networks, it is highly possible the large-size I frames experience deadline violations and induce severe quality degradations. To address the challenging problem, we propose a novel scheduling framework dubbed del Ay Stringent COded Transmission (ASCOT) that featured by frame-level data protection and allocation over multiple wireless access networks. First, we perform online video distortion estimation to simulate multi-homed transmission impairments according to the feedback channel status and input video data. Second, we control the frame protection level by adapting the Forward Error Correction (FEC) coding redundancy and video data allocation to achieve target quality. The performance of the proposed ASCOT is evaluated through semi-physical emulations in Exata using real-time H.264 video streaming. Experimental results show that ASCOT outperforms existing transmission schemes in improving the video PSNR (Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio), reducing the end-to-end delay, and increasing the goodput. Or conversely, ASCOT achieves the same video quality with approximately $20$ percent bandwidth conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We study the Relay-based Cooperative Data Exchange (RCDE) problem, where initially each client has access to a subset of a set of n original packets, referred to as their side information, and wants to retrieve all other original packets via cooperation. Unlike traditional Cooperative Data Exchange (CDE), in our proposed relay-based model, clients can only cooperate via a relay. The data exchange is completed over two phases, namely Uploading Phase and Downloading Phase. In the Uploading Phase, the clients will encode the original packets and transmit the coded packets to the relay. In the Downloading Phase, the relay will reencode the received packets and multicast the reencoded packets, each to a subgroup of clients. The coded packets in the two phases are carefully selected so that each client can retrieve all n original packets with minimum total transmission delay, based on its initial side information and on the coded packets it receives from the relay. In addition, we assume that the bandwidths between the relay and different clients are different, and that the upload/download bandwidths between the relay and the same client are also different. We establish a coding scheme that has the minimum total delay and show that it can be found in polynomial time, for sufficiently large underlying fields. We also design a heuristic algorithm that has a low complexity with binary field size. Our simulations show that the performance of the binary solution is very close to that of the optimal solution. All coding schemes considered in this work are scalar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider the problem of high-definition (HD) video transmission in a heterogeneous wireless network from a video server to a multihomed client. On the one hand, a single wireless network is limited in the transmission performance (e.g., available bandwidth and link delay); On the other hand, the HD video streaming is characterized by the high transmission rate and large-size video frames. Thus, the end-to-end video frame delay becomes a severely challenging problem which is critical for the real-time video applications. In this paper, we propose a novel scheduling approach named sub-frame-level (SFL), which deliberately splits the large-size video frames into sub-frames and dispatches each of them onto a different wireless network to the multihomed client. This approach is able to improve the frame-level delay for enhancing video quality. We formulate the optimization problem of video streaming allocation for minimizing the end-to-end delay based on the network calculus and derive its solution with the water filling algorithm. We evaluate the performance of the proposed SFL through the Exata emulations using real-time H.264 video streaming. Emulation results show that SFL outperforms the existing frame-level scheduling approaches in improving the frame-level delay as well as in enhancing video quality in terms of peak signal-to-noise ratio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The massive proliferation of wireless infrastructures with complementary characteristics prompts the bandwidth aggregation for Concurrent Multipath Transfer (CMT) over heterogeneous access networks. Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) is the standard transport-layer solution to enable CMT in multihomed communication environments. However, delivering high-quality streaming video with the existing CMT solutions still remains problematic due to the stringent quality of service (QoS) requirements and path asymmetry in heterogeneous wireless networks. In this paper, we advance the state of the art by introducing video distortion into the decision process of multipath data transfer. The proposed distortion-aware concurrent multipath transfer (CMT-DA) solution includes three phases: 1) per-path status estimation and congestion control; 2) quality-optimal video flow rate allocation; 3) delay and loss controlled data retransmission. The term ‘flow rate allocation’ indicates dynamically picking appropriate access networks and assigning the transmission rates. We analytically formulate the data distribution over multiple communication paths to minimize the end-to-end video distortion and derive the solution based on the utility maximization theory. The performance of the proposed CMT-DA is evaluated through extensive semi-physical emulations in Exata involving H.264 video streaming. Experimental results show that CMT-DA outperforms the reference schemes in terms of video peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), goodput, and inter-packet delay. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we consider the problem of power control for sum-rate maximization on multiple interfering links [transmitter–receiver pairs (Tx–RX)] under a sum power constraint. We consider a single-frequency network, where all pairs are operating in the same frequency band, thereby creating interference with each other. We study the power-allocation problem for sum-rate maximization with and without quality-of-service (QoS) requirements on individual links. When the objective is only sum-rate maximization without QoS guarantees, we develop an analytic solution to decide optimal power allocation for a two-TX–RX-pair problem. We also develop a low-complexity iterative algorithm for a three-TX–RX-pair problem. For a generic N>\3 TX–RX pair problem, we develop two low-complexity suboptimal power-allocation algorithms. The first algorithm is based on the idea of making clusters of two or three TX–RX pairs and then leveraging the power-allocation results obtained for the two- and three-TX–RX-pair problems. The second algorithm is developed by using a high signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) approximation, and this algorithm can be also implemented in a distributed manner by individual TXs. We then consider the same problem but with additional QoS guarantees for individual links. We again develop an analytic solution for the two-TX–RX-pair problem and a distributed algorithm for N>\2 TX–RX pairs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we dynamically select the transmission rate and design wireless network coding to improve the quality of services, such as delay for time-critical applications. In a network coded system, with a low transmission rate and, hence, a longer transmission range, more packets may be encoded, which increases the coding opportunity. However, a low transmission rate may incur extra transmission delay, which is intolerable for time-critical applications. We design a novel joint rate selection and wireless network coding (RSNC) scheme with a delay constraint to maximize the total benefit (where we can define the benefit based on the priority or importance of a packet for example) of the packets that are successfully received at the destinations without missing their deadlines. We prove that the proposed problem is NP-hard and propose a novel graph model to mathematically formulate the problem. For the general case, we propose a transmission metric and design an efficient algorithm to determine the transmission rate and coding strategy for each transmission. For a special case when all delay constraints are the same, we study pairwise coding and present a polynomial-time pairwise coding algorithm that achieves an approximation ratio of \1 -(\1/e) to the optimal pairwise coding solution, where $e$ is the base of the natural logarithm. Finally, simulation results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed RSNC scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In cognitive radio (CR) networks, spectrum sensing is a crucial technique for discovering spectrum opportunities for secondary users (SUs). The quality of spectrum sensing is evaluated by both sensing accuracy and sensing efficiency. Here, sensing accuracy is represented by the false-alarm probability and the detection probability, whereas sensing efficiency is represented by the sensing overhead and network throughput. In this paper, we propose a group-based cooperative medium access control (MAC) protocol called GC-MAC, which addresses the tradeoff between sensing accuracy and efficiency. In GC-MAC, the cooperative SUs are grouped into several teams. During a sensing period, each team senses a different channel while SUs in the same team perform the joint detection on the targeted channel. The sensing process will not stop unless an available channel is discovered. To reduce the sensing overhead, an SU-selecting algorithm is presented to choose selectively the cooperative SUs based on the channel dynamics and usage patterns. Then, an analytical model is built to study the sensing accuracy–efficiency tradeoff under two types of channel conditions: a time-invariant channel and a time-varying channel. An optimization problem that maximizes achievable throughput is formulated to optimize the important design parameters. Both saturation and nonsaturation situations are investigated with respect to throughput and sensing overhead. Simulation results indicate that the proposed protocol is able to significantly decrease sensing overhead and increase network throughput with guaranteed sensing accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we present a novel matrix decomposition method, called generalized multi-unitary decomposition (GMUD), and use it to achieve robust multi-antenna multi-user multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO) precoding with limited and partial channel information feedback. GMUD transforms complex matrix {H} into \bf H = \bf P\theta,\, r{\bf R}r{\bf Q}\theta,\, r^{H}, where \bf Rr is a lower triangular matrix, and \bf P\theta,\, r and \bf Q\theta,\, r are unitary matrices. A unique feature of GMUD is that it gives multiple solutions of the unitary matrices \bf P\theta,\, r and \bf Q\theta,\, r based on two parameters, namely the direction parameter \theta and magnitude parameter r. This property enables the GMUD precoder to steer the precoding vectors of different users to jointly optimize their performance. Compared with regularized-inverse precoding (an existing multi-user MIMO precoding technique that we have extended to handle multiple receive antennas), the advantages of GMUD precoding are that it requires only partial channel state information (CSI) from the users, and its performance is robust to CSI quantization. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we design an efficient resource-allocation strategy for a multiuser multiple-input–multiple-output (MU-MIMO) rateless-coded cognitive radio network (CRN) with quality-of-service (QoS) provisioning. We consider a limited feedback MU-MIMO CRN, where zero-forcing beamforming (ZFBF) is performed under imperfect channel state information (CSI) at a cognitive base station to mitigate both inter- and intranetwork interferences. To minimize the total feedback amount while satisfying the interference constraint and QoS requirements simultaneously, we propose to adaptively adjust the transmit power, select the transmission mode, and choose the feedback codebook size according to the interference constraint, CSI, and QoS requirements. The optimization problem is shown to be an integer programming problem, and we propose a heuristic algorithm that can provide an optimal solution for most practical scenarios. Results show that our resource-allocation strategy can decide the feedback amount and transmission mode adaptively based on the delay requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper investigates achievable information rate and relay precoder design of multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO) amplify-and-forward (AF) relay networks under imperfect channel state information (CSI) including channel estimation (CE) errors and feedback/feedforward (FB/FF) delay errors, without considering the direct link from source to destination. For the first time, we derive the achievable information rate of AF MIMO relay networks under imperfect CSI for two scenarios: In the first scenario, both the source–relay (S-R) and relay–destination (R-D) links are estimated at the destination, whereas in the second scenario, the S-R link is estimated at the relay, and the R-D link is estimated at the destination. We then design a relay precoder that maximizes the approximate achievable information rate, given the average relay power constraint. Numerical results show that Scenario I achieves better average information rate than Scenario II. It is also observed that the accuracy of the CE of the S-R link is more important than that of the R-D link. Finally, the proposed relay precoder can achieve an average achievable information rate higher than the conventional fixed gain relaying scheme, and higher than a relay precoder design treating the estimated CSI as perfect CSI at higher CE and FB/FF delay errors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We investigate the outage probability and average bit error rate (BER) of a dual-hop fixed gain relaying system in the presence of interference and noise at the relay and destination. Our analysis assumes Nakagami- m fading for the source–relay, relay–destination, and interfering channels. We present new closed-form/series expressions for the outage probability, as well as the average BER. It is concluded that the presence of interference results in a floor point in both outage and BER performance. This floor point holds for signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) values higher than a certain threshold such that the larger the difference between the received powers of the useful and interfering signals, the higher the SNR value at which this floor point commences. Moreover, it is shown that the performance is practically not affected by the Nakagami-m shape parameter of the fading at the interfering link. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A novel representation for a two-hop decentralized wireless relay network (DWRN) is proposed, where the relays operate in a completely distributive fashion. The modeling paradigm applies an analogous approach to the description method for double-directional multipath propagation channels and takes into account finite system spatial resolution and extended relay listening/transmitting time. Specifically, the double- and single-directional information azimuth spectra (IAS) are formulated to provide a compact representation of information flows in the DWRN. The proposed analytical framework is then studied from a geometry-based statistical modeling perspective. Finally, we look into the problem of relay network tomography (RNT), which solves an inverse problem to infer the internal structure of an unknown relay network by using the double-directional IAS recorded at multiple measuring nodes exterior to the relay region. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the efficacy of the suggested channel description method and the RNT algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Blind modulation classification (MC) is an integral part of designing an adaptive or intelligent transceiver for future wireless communications. Blind MC has several applications in the adaptive and automated systems of sixth generation (6G) communications to improve spectral efficiency and power efficiency, and reduce latency. It will become a integral part of intelligent software-defined radios (SDR) for future communication. In this paper, we provide various MC techniques for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signals in a systematic way. We focus on the most widely used statistical and machine learning (ML) models and emphasize their advantages and limitations. The statistical-based blind MC includes likelihood-based (LB), maximum a posteriori (MAP) and feature-based methods (FB). The ML-based automated MC includes k-nearest neighbors (KNN), support vector machine (SVM), decision trees (DTs), convolutional neural networks (CNNs), recurrent neural networks (RNNs), and long short-term memory (LSTM) based MC methods. This survey will help the reader to understand the main characteristics of each technique, their advantages and disadvantages. We have also simulated some primary methods, i.e., statistical- and ML-based algorithms, under various constraints, which allows a fair comparison among different methodologies. The overall system performance in terms bit error rate (BER) in the presence of MC is also provided. We also provide a survey of some practical experiment works carried out through National Instrument hardware over an indoor propagation environment. In the end, open problems and possible directions for blind MC research are briefly discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Future wireless networks are expected to constitute a distributed intelligent wireless communications, sensing, and computing platform, which will have the challenging requirement of interconnecting the physical and digital worlds in a seamless and sustainable manner. Currently, two main factors prevent wireless network operators from building such networks: (1) the lack of control of the wireless environment, whose impact on the radio waves cannot be customized, and (2) the current operation of wireless radios, which consume a lot of power because new signals are generated whenever data has to be transmitted. In this paper, we challenge the usual "more data needs more power and emission of radio waves" status quo, and motivate that future wireless networks necessitate a smart radio environment: a transformative wireless concept, where the environmental objects are coated with artificial thin films of electromagnetic and reconfigurable material (that are referred to as reconfigurable intelligent meta-surfaces), which are capable of sensing the environment and of applying customized transformations to the radio waves. Smart radio environments have the potential to provide future wireless networks with uninterrupted wireless connectivity, and with the capability of transmitting data without generating new signals but recycling existing radio waves. We will discuss, in particular, two major types of reconfigurable intelligent meta-surfaces applied to wireless networks. The first type of meta-surfaces will be embedded into, e.g., walls, and will be directly controlled by the wireless network operators via a software controller in order to shape the radio waves for, e.g., improving the network coverage. The second type of meta-surfaces will be embedded into objects, e.g., smart t-shirts with sensors for health monitoring, and will backscatter the radio waves generated by cellular base stations in order to report their sensed data to mobile phones. These functionalities will enable wireless network operators to offer new services without the emission of additional radio waves, but by recycling those already existing for other purposes. This paper overviews the current research efforts on smart radio environments, the enabling technologies to realize them in practice, the need of new communication-theoretic models for their analysis and design, and the long-term and open research issues to be solved towards their massive deployment. In a nutshell, this paper is focused on discussing how the availability of reconfigurable intelligent meta-surfaces will allow wireless network operators to redesign common and well-known network communication paradigms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decade, energy harvesting has emerged as a promising approach to enable self-sufficient and self-sustaining operation for devices in energy-constrained networks by scavenging energy from the ambient environment to power up devices. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Over the last decade, energy harvesting has emerged as a promising approach to enable self-sufficient and self-sustaining operation for low-cost devices in energy-constrained networks by scavenging energy from the ambient environment to power up devices. In wireless sensor networks, small, wireless, autonomous sensors usually operate at ultra-low power. If these wireless sensors, which spread throughout homes or factories, in buildings or even outdoors to monitor all kinds of environmental conditions, are powered by energy harvesting, there are no batteries to replace and no laborious cost associated with replacing them. As such, wireless sensor networks can be deployed in hard-to-reach areas to provide ubiquitous coverage. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]