A Majorization-Minimization Framework for Activity Detection in Mixed Near-and-Far-Field Random Access

Abstract

Grant-free random access in massive machine-type communications requires detecting a small active set from length-L uplink pilots received at an M-antenna base station. Classical covariance-based detectors are largely built on the far-field (FF) model, where the M antenna-domain observations are treated as independent snapshots, and inference reduces to an L $\times$ L covariance description. This model becomes inadequate in mixed near-field (NF) and FF access, where NF devices induce device-specific structured spatial covariances and the aggregate observation no longer fits the FF snapshot structure. In this paper, we develop a unified covariance-aware Rician framework for activity detection that treats FF and NF devices by a single likelihood model. Within this framework, we propose a majorization-minimization projected gradient descent (MM-PGD) detector for the resulting relaxed likelihood. For scalable exact likelihood evaluation, we further derive a Kronecker-Woodbury implementation that exploits the mixed NF/FF covariance structure, and avoids factorizing the full LM $\times$ LM covariance matrix. Numerical results show that MM-PGD is on par with the strongest coordinate-wise baseline in the all-FF limit, while its advantage becomes more pronounced as the fraction of NF users increases under the tested regimes.