arXiv subjects

Dimitrios Tyrovolas

Publications and source records attributed to Dimitrios Tyrovolas.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Curved Waveguide-Enabled Pinching-Antenna System (C-PAS): Communication Performance Analysis

Existing studies on the pinching-antenna system (PAS) assume that waveguides are deployed straight, which fails to serve communication regions with curved boundaries. To address this limitation, this paper proposes a curved waveguide-enabled pinching-antenna system (C-PAS), where the waveguide is placed along the building ceiling in an arc to maximize the line-of-sight (LoS) coverage. On this basis, the optimal pinching-antenna (PA) placement strategy and the nearest PA placement strategy are presented. The optimal strategy distinguishes between scenarios, i.e., with or without inner-wall blockage, and derives a closed-form solution for the optimal PA position to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) received at the user. Meanwhile, the nearest strategy aligns the PA with the angular position of a user in polar coordinates, thereby accommodating the curved geometry of the region. Furthermore, the outage probability (OP) and the average rate (AR) are analyzed for each strategy, and the corresponding analytical expressions are derived, respectively. The results show that the optimal PA placement strategy achieves better OP and AR performance than the nearest strategy, particularly under large waveguide loss coefficient or waveguide height. Moreover, for a service region of fixed area, there exists an optimal sector angle or inner-wall radius that either minimizes the outage probability or maximizes the average rate. Furthermore, the choice of a waveguide bending radius is influenced by the transmit power of the base station, where a smaller bending radius is preferable at high power and the middle arc performs best at low power.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2026

Vertical Pinching Antenna Systems (V-PAS) Aided UAV Communications

To address the limitation that existing horizontal pinching antenna systems (PAS) are primarily designed for ground users and confined to two-dimensional (2D) coverage, this paper proposes deploying a pinching antenna (PA) along the facade of urban buildings to construct a vertical pinching antenna system (V-PAS) for ultra-low-altitude unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communications. The proposed architecture employs a dielectric waveguide continuously deployed along the full height of buildings, extending the coverage capability of PAS from the 2D plane to three-dimensional (3D) airspace, ensuring a stable line-of-sight (LoS) link. We define the concept of pinching multiplicative path loss (PMPL) to characterize the cascaded multiplicative attenuation of the waveguide and free-space path losses. It is found that PMPL is insensitive to vertical distance, rendering V-PAS highly adaptive to building heights. Furthermore, accurate and asymptotic closed-form expressions for outage probability and ergodic rate under lossy waveguide conditions are derived, respectively, and the symmetry and optimality of system performance with respect to the midpoint of the access point (AP) height are discovered and proved. The results show that V-PAS achieves performance advantages over the benchmark without PA in most ultra-low-altitude UAV communication scenarios. Only under extremely high transmission power and large UAV operational area may the outage probability of V-PAS with a lossy waveguide be inferior to that of the benchmark without PA, but the ergodic rate of V-PAS still maintains an advantage. By contrast, V-PAS with a lossless waveguide outperforms the benchmark without PA in UAV communications, representing the theoretical performance upper bound of V-PAS.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2026

Non-Uniform Codebook Design for Optical IRS-Assisted VLC Systems

Optical intelligent reflecting surfaces (OIRS) can improve the coverage of indoor visible light communication (VLC) systems, however, practical deployment requires a finite offline codebook to avoid repeated real-time optimisation of mirror orientations. A uniform codebook with fixed angular steps does not provide uniform coverage on the user plane, because the mapping from steering angles to reflection locations on the user plane is nonlinear. To address this problem, this paper proposes a geometric-optics-based non-uniform codebook design for OIRS-assisted VLC systems. The proposed method constructs an individual codebook for each IRS element according to its geometric position, so that the reflected beams are distributed more uniformly over the user plane. The codebook accuracy is evaluated using the Frobenius norm of the channel error matrix. Simulation results show that the proposed design provides more uniform spatial mapping with fewer codewords than the uniform codebook, and that the sweep-angle resolution has a stronger effect on the codebook accuracy than the tilt-angle resolution.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2026

Quantized Zero-Energy RIS: Residual Phase Modeling and Outage Analysis

Zero-energy reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (zeRISs) have recently emerged as a promising solution for enabling energy-efficient and scalable programmable wireless environments (PWEs) by harvesting their operational energy from impinging radio-frequency signals. However, the operation of zeRIS-assisted systems is inherently constrained by the coupling between energy harvesting and signal reflection, a dependency that becomes more intricate under practical hardware limitations such as finite-resolution phase control. In this paper, we develop a comprehensive analytical framework for zeRIS-assisted communication systems operating under quantized phase shifts and harvest-and-reflect (HaR) schemes. Specifically, we analyze the joint energy-data rate outage probability and the energy efficiency under time switching and element splitting schemes, considering both transmitter-side and user-side deployment scenarios. By explicitly modeling the residual phase error induced by quantization and incorporating its statistical properties into the analysis, we show that quantization jointly affects energy harvesting and signal reflection, thereby inducing non-trivial trade-offs. As a result, the presented framework enables accurate performance evaluation and reveals critical design trade-offs for the selection of the phase resolution, and the applied HaR scheme in zeRIS-assisted wireless networks.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2026

SCROOGE: A Physics-Aware Framework for Efficient Orchestration of RIS-Assisted Networks

Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs) are emerging as a key enabler of Programmable Wireless Environments for 6G, but their practical integration into operational networks still lacks orchestration mechanisms that can jointly support resource allocation, energy efficiency, and admission control with low online complexity. This paper presents SCROOGE, a physics-aware orchestration framework for multi-user RIS-assisted networks that operates on information generated offline during RIS codebook compilation, namely optimal codebook entries and per-element influence scores. Rather than relying on online optimization or idealized fading-based abstractions, SCROOGE exploits physics-derived descriptors to support low-latency operating-phase decisions that remain compatible with network-level control requirements. Specifically, SCROOGE introduces: i) an influence-aware, tier-consistent resource-allocation mechanism that combines user priority and element importance in the construction of a common RIS configuration; ii) an energy-efficiency mechanism that deactivates globally low-influence elements; and iii) an admission-control mechanism that accepts or rejects candidate users based on tier-aware compatibility with the currently deployed RIS state.

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arXiv2026

RF-Fencing: A Novel RIS-Based Service for Proactive Covert Communications

Programmable wireless environments (PWEs), empowered by reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISes), have emerged as a transformative paradigm for next-generation networks, enabling deterministic control over electromagnetic (EM) propagation to enhance both performance and security. In this work, we introduce RF-Fencing, a novel RIS-enabled PWE service that enforces spatially selective control over wireless transmissions, simultaneously suppressing unwanted signal exposure while sustaining robust connectivity for legitimate users. To realize this vision, we develop SHIELD, a lightweight and scalable algorithm that orchestrates multiple RIS units by multiplexing precompiled codebook entries with real-time, low-complexity optimization. Through extensive evaluations across diverse frequencies, RIS configurations, and deployment scenarios, SHIELD demonstrates both far-field directional control and near-field quiet-zone creation, thereby enhancing network security. Our findings reveal that SHIELD effectively balances proactive covert communication with service delivery by dynamically managing multiple signal suppression and delivery areas, while enabling the realization of EM quiet zones with minimal impact on surrounding regions, ultimately establishing RF-Fencing as a practical RIS-based foundation for privacy-preserving and adaptive wireless environments in future 6G networks.

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arXiv2026

Enabling mmWave Communications with VCSEL-Based Light-Emitting Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces

This paper proposes a light-emitting reconfigurable intelligent surface (LeRIS) architecture that integrates vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) to jointly support user localization and mmWave communication. By leveraging the directional Gaussian beams and dual-mode diversity of VCSELs, we derive a closed-form method for estimating user position and orientation using only three VCSEL sources. These estimates are then used to configure LeRIS panels for directional mmWave beamforming, enabling optimized wave propagation in programmable wireless environments. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed system achieves millimeter-level localization accuracy and maintains high spectral efficiency. These findings establish VCSEL-integrated LeRIS as a scalable and multifunctional solution for future 6G programmable wireless environments.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2026

Constellation Design for Robust Interference Mitigation

This paper investigates symbol detection for single-carrier communication systems operating in the presence of additive interference with Nakagami-m statistics. Such interference departs from the assumptions underlying conventional detection methods based on Gaussian noise models and leads to detection mismatch that fundamentally affects symbol-level performance. In particular, the presence of random interference amplitude and non-uniform phase alters the structure of the optimal decision regions and renders standard Euclidean distance-based detectors suboptimal. To address this challenge, we develop the maximum-likelihood Gaussian-phase approximate (ML-G) detector, a low-complexity detection rule that accurately approximates maximum-likelihood detection while remaining suitable for practical implementation. The proposed detector explicitly incorporates the statistical properties of the interference and induces decision regions that differ significantly from those arising under conventional metrics. Building on the ML-G framework, we further investigate constellation design under interference-aware detection and formulate an optimization problem that seeks symbol placements that minimize the symbol error probability subject to an average energy constraint. The resulting constellations are obtained numerically and adapt to the interference environment, exhibiting non-standard and asymmetric structures as interference strength increases. Simulation results demonstrate clear symbol error probability gains over established benchmark schemes across a range of interference conditions, particularly in scenarios with dominant additive interference.

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arXiv2026

When Simultaneous Localization and Mapping Meets Wireless Communications: A Survey

This paper surveys the state-of-the-art in the nexus of SLAM and Wireless Communications, attributing the bidirectional impact of each with a focus on visual SLAM (V-SLAM) integration. We provide an overview of key concepts related to wireless signal propagation, geometric channel modeling, and radio frequency (RF)-based localization and sensing. In addition to this, we show image processing techniques that can detect landmarks, proactively predicting optimal paths for wireless channels. Several dimensions are considered, including the prerequisites, techniques, background, and future directions and challenges of the intersection between SLAM and wireless communications. We analyze estimation and control approaches such as Bayesian filters, feature-based pose estimation, perception-aware motion control, spatial methods for signal processing such as vector fields, and key technological aspects. We expose techniques and items towards enabling a highly effective retrieval of the autonomous robot state. Among other interesting findings, we observe that monocular V-SLAM would benefit from RF relevant information, as the latter can serve as a proxy for the scale ambiguity resolution. Conversely, we find that wireless communications in the context of 5G and beyond can potentially benefit from visual odometry that is central in SLAM. Moreover, we examine other sources besides the camera for SLAM and describe the twofold relation with wireless communications. Finally, integrated solutions performing joint communications and SLAM appear to be in their infancy: theoretical and practical advancements are required to add higher-level localization and semantic perception capabilities to RF and multi-antenna technologies.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2026

Physics-Aware RIS Codebook Compilation for Near-Field Beam Focusing under Mutual Coupling and Specular Reflections

Next-generation wireless networks are envisioned to achieve reliable, low-latency connectivity within environments characterized by strong multipath and severe channel variability. Programmable wireless environments (PWEs) address this challenge by enabling deterministic control of electromagnetic (EM) propagation through software-defined reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs). However, effectively configuring RISs in real time remains a major bottleneck, particularly under near-field conditions where mutual coupling and specular reflections alter the intended response. To overcome this limitation, this paper introduces MATCH, a physics-based codebook compilation algorithm that explicitly accounts for the EM coupling among RIS unit cells and the reflective interactions with surrounding structures, ensuring that the resulting codebooks remain consistent with the physical characteristics of the environment. Finally, MATCH is evaluated under a full-wave simulation framework incorporating mutual coupling and secondary reflections, demonstrating its ability to concentrate scattered energy within the focal region, confirming that physics-consistent, codebook-based optimization constitutes an effective approach for practical and efficient RIS configuration.

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arXiv2026

A Tutorial on Controlling Metasurfaces from the Network Perspective

Metasurfaces have emerged as transformative electromagnetic structures for wireless communications, enabling the real-time control over wave propagation, yielding potential for improved data rates, privacy, energy efficiency and even precise environmental sensing. This tutorial offers a perspective on controlling metasurfaces by treating them as components of a larger networked system. Towards this end, we first review the physical principles of metasurfaces and their various applications, followed by an exploration of manufacturing approaches for creating these structures. Then, aligning with standard network layer concepts, we describe the modeling of metasurfaces as wave routers, enabling us to describe systems of metasurfaces using graph theory. This approach enables the development of a performance objective framework for optimizing these systems, while classes of heuristic and path-finding-driven algorithms are discussed as practical solvers. The paper also examines the integration of metasurfaces with communication systems, by presenting their overall workflow, discussing its relation to ongoing standardization efforts, as well as defining a context for their integration to network simulators, using Omnet++ as a driving example. Finally, the paper explores future directions for research in this field, identifying graph-theoretic, standardization and integration challenges, relating to several networking disciplines including AI-driven applications.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2026

A novel RF-enabled Non-Destructive Inspection Method through Machine Learning and Programmable Wireless Environments

Contemporary industrial Non-Destructive Inspection (NDI) methods require sensing capabilities that operate in occluded, hazardous, or access restricted environments. Yet, the current visual inspection based on optical cameras offers limited quality of service to that respect. In that sense, novel methods for workpiece inspection, suitable, for smart manufacturing are needed. Programmable Wireless Environments (PWE) could help towards that direction, by redefining the wireless Radio Frequency (RF) wave propagation as a controllable inspector entity. In this work, we propose a novel approach to Non-Destructive Inspection, leveraging an RF sensing pipeline based on RF wavefront encoding for retrieving workpiece-image entries from a designated database. This approach combines PWE-enabled RF wave manipulation with machine learning (ML) tools trained to produce visual outputs for quality inspection. Specifically, we establish correlation relationships between RF wavefronts and target industrial assets, hence yielding a dataset which links wavefronts to their corresponding images in a structured manner. Subsequently, a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) derives visual representations closely matching the database entries. Our results indicate that the proposed method achieves an SSIM 99.5% matching score in visual outputs, paving the way for next-generation quality control workflows in industry.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2025

How Many Pinching Antennas Are Enough?

Programmable wireless environments (PWEs) have emerged as a key paradigm for next-generation communication networks, aiming to transform wireless propagation from an uncontrollable phenomenon into a reconfigurable process that can adapt to diverse service requirements. In this framework, pinching-antenna systems (PASs) have recently been proposed as a promising enabling technology, as they allow the radiation location and effective propagation distance to be adjusted by selectively exciting radiating points along a dielectric waveguide. However, most existing studies on PASs rely on the idealized assumption that pinching-antenna (PA) positions can be continuously adjusted along the waveguide, while realistically only a finite set of pinching locations is available. Motivated by this, this paper analyzes the performance of two-state PASs, where the PA positions are fixed and only their activation state can be controlled. By explicitly accounting for the spatial discreteness of the available pinching points, closed-form analytical expressions for the outage probability and the ergodic achievable data rate are derived. In addition, we introduce the pinching discretization efficiency to quantify the performance gap between discrete and continuous pinching configurations, enabling a direct assessment of the number of PAs required to approximate the ideal continuous case. Finally, numerical results validate the analytical framework and show that near-continuous performance can be achieved with a limited number of PAs, offering useful insights for the design and deployment of PASs in PWEs.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2025

Constellation Design and Detection under Generalized Hardware Impairments

This paper presents a maximum-likelihood detection framework that jointly mitigates hardware (HW) impairments in both amplitude and phase. By modeling transceiver distortions as residual amplitude and phase noise, we introduce the approximate phase-and-amplitude distortion detector (PAD-D), which operates in the polar domain and effectively mitigates both distortion components through distortion-aware weighting. The proposed detector performs reliable detection under generalized HW impairment conditions, achieving substantial performance gains over the conventional Euclidean detector (EUC-D) and the Gaussian-assumption phase noise detector (GAP-D), which is primarily designed to address phase distortions. In addition, we derive a closed-form high-SNR symbol error probability (SEP) approximation, which offers a generic analytical expression applicable to arbitrary constellations. Simulation results demonstrate that the PAD-D achieves up to an order-of-magnitude reduction in the error floor relative to EUC-D and GAP-D for both high-order quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) and super amplitude phase-shift keying (SAPSK) constellations, establishing a unified and practical framework for detection under realistic transceiver impairments. Building on this framework, we further develop optimized constellations tailored to PAD-D, where the symbol positions are optimized in the complex plane to minimize SEP. The optimality of these constellations is confirmed through extensive simulations, which also verify the accuracy of the proposed analytical SEP approximation, even for the optimized designs.

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arXiv2025

RIS-Assisted 3D Spherical Splatting for Object Composition Visualization using Detection Transformers

The pursuit of immersive and structurally aware multimedia experiences has intensified interest in sensing modalities that reconstruct objects beyond the limits of visible light. Conventional optical pipelines degrade under occlusion or low illumination, motivating the use of radio-frequency (RF) sensing, whose electromagnetic waves penetrate materials and encode both geometric and compositional information. Yet, uncontrolled multipath propagation restricts reconstruction accuracy. Recent advances in Programmable Wireless Environments (PWEs) mitigate this limitation by enabling software-defined manipulation of propagation through Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs), thereby providing controllable illumination diversity. Building on this capability, this work introduces a PWE-driven RF framework for three-dimensional object reconstruction using material-aware spherical primitives. The proposed approach combines RIS-enabled field synthesis with a Detection Transformer (DETR) that infers spatial and material parameters directly from extracted RF features. Simulation results confirm the framework's ability to approximate object geometries and classify material composition with an overall accuracy of 79.35%, marking an initial step toward programmable and physically grounded RF-based 3D object composition visualization.

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arXiv2025

Ergodic Rate Analysis of Two-State Pinching-Antenna Systems

Flexible Antenna Systems (FAS) are a key enabler of next-generation wireless networks, allowing the antenna aperture to be dynamically reconfigured to adapt to channel conditions and service requirements. In this context, pinching-antenna systems (PASs) implemented on software-controllable dielectric waveguides provide the ability to reconfigure both channel characteristics and path loss by selectively exciting discrete radiation points. Existing works, however, typically assume continuously adjustable pinching positions, neglecting the spatial discreteness imposed by practical implementations. This paper develops a closed-form analytical framework for the ergodic rate of two-state PASs, where pinching antennas are fixed and only their activation states are controlled. To quantify the impact of spatial discretization, pinching discretization efficiency is introduced, characterizing the performance gap relative to the ideal continuous case. Finally, numerical results show that near-continuous performance can be achieved with a limited number of pinching points, providing design insights for scalable PASs.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2025

Integrated Localization, Mapping, and Communication through VCSEL-Based Light-emitting RIS (LeRIS)

Light-emitting reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (LeRISs) have recently emerged as a promising solution for providing the spatial awareness required for reliable millimeter-wave (mmWave) communication in programmable wireless environments (PWEs). However, existing LeRIS designs rely on the diffuse emission of light-emitting diodes, while LiDAR-assisted solutions require dedicated sensing modules that hinder their direct integration into RIS panels. In this paper, a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL)-based LeRIS framework is developed to jointly support user localization, obstacle-aware mapping, and mmWave communication. Specifically, the narrow Gaussian beams and multimode operation of VCSELs are exploited to derive closed-form schemes for the joint recovery of the user position and orientation from received signal strength measurements. According to the provided simulation results, is shown that five VCSELs are sufficient for unique recovery, while this requirement is reduced to three dual-mode VCSELs under specific geometric conditions. Furthermore, the position error bound (PEB) is derived to characterize the achievable localization accuracy, while reflected-signal time-of-arrival measurements are employed to identify obstructed links and enable blockage-resilient LeRIS routing. As a result, the proposed framework achieves cm-level localization accuracy, reliable obstacle detection, and substantial spectral-efficiency and minimum-user-rate gains, thereby establishing VCSEL-based LeRISs as a solution for spatially aware and resilient PWEs.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2025

Cognitive-Radio Functionality: A Novel Configuration for STAR-RIS assisted RSMA Networks

Cognitive radio rate-splitting multiple access (CR-RSMA) has emerged as a promising multiple access framework that can efficiently manage interference and adapt dynamically to heterogeneous quality-of-service (QoS) requirements. To effectively support such demanding access schemes, programmable wireless environments have attracted considerable attention, especially through simultaneously transmitting and reflecting reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (STAR-RISs), which can enable full-space control of signal propagation in asymmetric user deployments. In this paper, we propose the cognitive radio (CR) functionality for STAR-RIS-assisted CR-RSMA systems, leveraging the unique capability of the STAR-RIS to combine element and power splitting for adaptive control of transmission and reflection in CR scenarios. Specifically, the proposed CR functionality partitions the STAR-RIS into two regions independently controlling the transmission and reflection of signals, simultaneously ensuring the required QoS for the primary user and enhancing the performance of the secondary user. To accurately characterize the system performance, we derive analytical expressions for the ergodic rate of the secondary user and the outage rate of the primary user under Nakagami-m fading. Finally, simulation results show that the proposed approach effectively manages interference, guarantees the QoS of the primary user, and significantly improves the throughput of the secondary user, highlighting STAR-RIS as an efficient solution for CR-RSMA-based services.

cs.ET↗