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arXiv · 2604.06855

Multi-User Symbol Detection with XL Reception: Dynamic Metasurface Antennas with Low Resolution ADCs

Abstract

Dynamic Metasurface Antennas (DMAs) have been recently proposed as a cost- and energy-efficient front-end solution for eXtremely Large (XL) antenna array systems, supporting scalable Analog and Digital (A/D) beamforming while using a reduced number of Radio-Frequency (RF) chains. This array architecture is commonly realized as partially connected hybrid A/D beamformers, in which non-overlapping subarrays are linked to separate RF chains, each attached to a waveguide hosting multiple metamaterials. In this work, we study uplink multi-user communications where each RF chain of an XL DMA receiver is equipped with a $b$-bit resolution Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC). We cast a Mean Squared Error (MSE) minimization problem for the design of the hybrid A/D combiner aimed at multi-user symbol detection, which is intrinsically non-convex due to the structural constraints imposed by the DMA hardware. By exploiting the Bussgang decomposition and a tractable modeling framework, we propose an efficient joint design of the hybrid A/D combining parameters. Our numerical evaluations showcase that XL DMA receivers can perform highly accurate multi-user symbol detection, revealing attractive trade-offs between hardware complexity and MSE performance.

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Rahul K. Pal, Soumya P. Dash, Barathram Ramkumar, George C. Alexandropoulos. 2026-04-08. Multi-User Symbol Detection with XL Reception: Dynamic Metasurface Antennas with Low Resolution ADCs. https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.06855

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