Search

The trend toward using increasingly large arrays of antenna elements continues. However, fitting more antennas into the limited space available on user equipment (UE) within the currently popular Frequency Range 1 spectrum presents a significant challenge. This limitation constrains the capacity scaling gains for end users, even when networks can support a higher number of antennas. To address this issue, we explore a user-centric collaborative MIMO approach, termed UE-CoMIMO, which leverages several fixed or portable devices within a personal area to form a virtually expanded antenna array. This paper develops a comprehensive mathematical framework to analyze the performance of UE-CoMIMO. Our analytical results demonstrate that UE-CoMIMO can significantly enhance the system's effective channel response within the current communication system without requiring extensive modifications. Further performance improvements can be realized by optimizing the phase shifters on the expanded antenna arrays at the collaborative devices. These findings are corroborated by ray-tracing simulations. Beyond the simulations, we implemented these collaborative devices and successfully conducted over-the-air validation in a real 5G environment, showcasing the practical potential of UE-CoMIMO. Several practical perspectives are discussed, highlighting the feasibility and benefits of this approach in real-world scenarios., Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, this work has been submitted to IEEE for possible publication

Simultaneously transmitting and reflecting reconfigurable intelligent surface (STAR-RIS) provides a promising way to expand coverage in wireless communications. However, limitation of single STAR-RIS inspire us to integrate the concept of multi-hop transmissions, as focused on RIS in existing research. Therefore, we propose the novel architecture of multi-hop STAR-RISs to achieve a wider range of full-plane service coverage. In this paper, we intend to solve active beamforming of the base station and passive beamforming of STAR-RISs, aiming for maximizing the energy efficiency constrained by hardware limitation of STAR-RISs. Furthermore, we investigate the impact of the on-off state of STAR-RIS elements on energy efficiency. To tackle the complex problem, a Multi-Agent Global and locAl deep Reinforcement learning (MAGAR) algorithm is designed. The global agent elevates the collaboration among local agents, which focus on individual learning. In numerical results, we observe the significant improvement of MAGAR compared to the other benchmarks, including Q-learning, multi-agent deep Q network (DQN) with golbal reward, and multi-agent DQN with local rewards. Moreover, the proposed architecture of multi-hop STAR-RISs achieves the highest energy efficiency compared to mode switching based STAR-RISs, conventional RISs and deployment without RISs or STAR-RISs., Comment: Accepted by Proc. IEEE VTC-fall

The main objective of 5G and beyond networks is to provide an optimal user experience in terms of throughput and reliability, irrespective of location and time. To achieve this, traditional fixed macro base station deployments are being replaced by more innovative and flexible solutions, such as wireless backhaul and relays. This article focuses on the evolution and standardization of these advancements, which are shaping the electromagnetic landscape. Specifically, we explore Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) nodes, which offer a cost-efficient and agile alternative to fiber backhaul. We also discuss Network-Controlled Repeaters (NCRs) and the emergence of Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS) actively adapting the wireless environment. The article provides an overview of the 5G features and ongoing developments in 3GPP Release 18 related to these intelligent EM entities, highlighting the expected evolution of future wireless networks in terms of architecture, operations, and control signals., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, 1 table. This work has been accepted to publish in IEEE Communications Standards Magazine

In 6G, the trend of transitioning from massive antenna elements to even more massive ones is continued. However, installing additional antennas in the limited space of user equipment (UE) is challenging, resulting in limited capacity scaling gain for end users, despite network side support for increasing numbers of antennas. To address this issue, we propose an end-user-centric collaborative MIMO (UE-CoMIMO) framework that groups several fixed or portable devices to provide a virtual abundance of antennas. This article outlines how advanced L1 relays and conventional relays enable device collaboration to offer diversity, rank, and localization enhancements. We demonstrate through system-level simulations how the UE-CoMIMO approaches lead to significant performance gains. Lastly, we discuss necessary research efforts to make UE-CoMIMO available for 6G and future research directions., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, 1 table. This work has been accepted in IEEE Communications Magazine

Factorization Machine (FM) is the most commonly used model to build a recommendation system since it can incorporate side information to improve performance. However, producing item suggestions for a given user with a trained FM is time-consuming. It requires a run-time of $O((N_m \log N_m)^2)$, where $N_m$ is the number of items in the dataset. To address this problem, we propose a quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) scheme to combine with FM and apply quantum annealing (QA) computation. Compared to classical methods, this hybrid algorithm provides a faster than quadratic speedup in finding good user suggestions. We then demonstrate the aforementioned computational advantage on current NISQ hardware by experimenting with a real example on a D-Wave annealer., Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures