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Hengtao He

Publications and source records attributed to Hengtao He.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Task-Oriented Precoding for Edge Inference over Large-Scale MIMO Systems

Future wireless networks are expected to support networked artificial intelligence (AI) services, where multiple devices transmit learned features to an edge server for distributed inference. This setting calls for task-oriented physical-layer optimization, where wireless transmission should preserve useful information for inference rather than only maximize the rate or reconstruct the transmitted signals. A key physical-layer control variable is the multiple-input multiple-output precoder, which determines how device features are shaped and combined over wireless channels. Existing task-oriented precoding methods typically adapt the precoder to instantaneous channel state information at the transmitter (CSIT). However, in multi-device MIMO systems, acquiring the aggregate channel, feeding back CSI or optimized precoders, and reoptimizing across coherence blocks introduce substantial overhead. This paper develops a random-matrix-theoretic framework based on statistical CSIT that designs a slow-timescale precoder from channel covariance statistics and training-set feature statistics, without requiring instantaneous CSIT. We adopt maximal coding rate reduction (MCR${^2}$) to measure the class separability of the received features, yielding a task-aware utility for MIMO precoder design. Since this utility still depends on random small-scale fading, we derive a deterministic approximation that converts it into a fixed-point objective depending only on long-term statistics and large-system dimension ratios via random matrix theory. A projected block-coordinate ascent and successive convex approximation algorithm is developed to optimize this deterministic objective under per-device power constraints. Experiments on ModelNet10 verify the approximation and show that the proposed statistical precoder improves task-aware mode allocation and inference performance over competitive benchmarks.

cs.IT

A Unified Two-Stage Generative Diffusion Framework for Channel Estimation and Port Selection in Multiuser MIMO-FAS

Fluid antenna systems (FAS) have emerged as a promising technology for next-generation wireless systems. However, practical multiuser multiple-input multiple-output FAS (MIMO-FAS) faces two inherently coupled challenges: acquiring accurate high-dimensional channel state information (CSI) from limited RF chains and solving the combinatorial port selection problem, where the effectiveness of the latter highly depends on the result of the former. In this paper, we propose a unified two-stage diffusion framework that formulates the joint task as a maximum-a-posteriori (MAP) inference problem and decomposes it into two sequential sampling stages through a plug-in approximation. For Stage I, a continuous flow-based diffusion model serves as a powerful implicit prior for 2D FAS channels, and a parallel guided generation scheme realizes approximate posterior sampling, enabling accurate multiuser channel recovery even under severely low sub-sampling ratios. For Stage II, a discrete diffusion model is trained to approximate the conditional port selection distribution by combining supervised learning on heuristic labels with reinforcement fine-tuning, effectively overcoming the local optima of conventional heuristic algorithms. Extensive simulations demonstrate that the proposed framework simultaneously achieves exceptional channel estimation accuracy and globally optimized port selection, substantially improving the minimum achievable rate.

cs.IT

SPA-MAE: A Physics-Guided CSI Foundation Model for Wireless Physical Layer

Deep learning (DL) has been widely used in future 6G physical layer communications, but task-specific DL models are difficult to generalize across different physical layer tasks. Recently emerging wireless foundation models demonstrate strong generalization capability. However, existing methods mainly adapt pretrained language/vision models or rely on CSI reconstruction objectives for pretraining, with limited use of channel knowledge, and thus have limited performance. To address this limitation, we propose SPA-MAE, a physics-guided wireless foundation model by exploiting the adapted MAE backbone and channel knowledge. A physical prior module is developed to provide two complementary guidance signals in the pretraining stage. Specifically, the parameter-aware guidance branch extracts features from explicit multipath parameters and encourages the encoder output to align them, while the structure-aware guidance branch encourages the encoder to capture the sparse transformed-domain CSI structure obtained after a 2D FFT. After end-to-end learning, the MAE encoder will be retained for downstream tasks. Experiments on four wireless tasks show that SPA-MAE outperforms state-of-the-art CSI foundation models with smaller number of parameters, especially under low-SNR and limited-data conditions.

cs.IT

XFreq-GS: Cross-Frequency Wireless Radiation Field Reconstruction with 3D Gaussian Splatting

Channel modeling is fundamental to the analysis, design, and optimization of wireless communication systems, which, however, accurate wireless channel modeling remains challenging, especially given the increasingly complex wireless environments. As an emerging paradigm, 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS)-based channel modeling methods achieve accurate wireless radiation field (WRF) reconstruction and high-fidelity spatial spectrum synthesis. However, existing works only consider a single carrier frequency and fail to adapt to wide-range cross-frequency channels. To address this challenge, we propose XFreq-GS, a cross-frequency Gaussian splatting framework for WRF reconstruction. It employs 3D Gaussian primitives with shared geometry and frequency-adaptive radio frequency (RF) attributes to reconstruct cross-frequency WRF, and synthesizes power angular spectrum (PAS) maps for wireless channel modeling. Experiments show that XFreq-GS outperforms state-of-the-art 3DGS-based methods in PAS synthesis and achieves superior cross-frequency generalization. Code is available at https://github.com/KINGAZ1019/XFreq-GS.

eess.SP

Deep Learning-based Low-Overhead Beam Alignment for mmWave Massive MIMO Systems

Millimeter-wave massive multiple-input multiple-output systems employ highly directional beamforming to overcome severe path loss, and their performance critically depends on accurate beam alignment. Conventional codebook-based methods offer low training overhead but suffer from limited angular resolution and sensitivity to hardware impairments. To address these challenges, we propose a deep learning-enhanced super-resolution beam alignment framework with three key components. First, we design the Quaternary Search-based Super-Resolution (QSSR) algorithm, which leverages the monotonic power ratio property between two discrete Fourier transform (DFT) codebook beams to achieve super-resolution angle estimation without increasing measurement complexity relative to binary search. Second, we develop QSSR-Net, a gated recurrent unit-based neural network that exploits sequential multi-layer beam measurements to capture angular dependencies, thereby improving estimation accuracy, robustness to noise, and generalization across diverse propagation environments. Third, to mitigate the adverse effects of hardware impairments such as antenna position and phase errors, we propose a parametric self-calibration method that requires no additional hardware overhead and adapts compensation parameters in real time. Simulation results show that the proposed framework consistently outperforms binary search and even exhaustive search at high signal-to-noise ratios, achieving substantial performance gains while maintaining low overhead.

eess.SP

Sensing Mutual Information for Communication Signal with Deterministic Pilots and Random Data Payloads

The recent emergence of the integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) framework has sparked significant interest in quantifying the sensing capabilities inherent in communication signals. However, existing literature has mainly focused on scenarios involving either purely random or purely deterministic waveforms. This overlooks a critical reality: operational communication standards invariably utilize a hybrid structure comprising both deterministic pilots for channel estimation and random payloads for data transmission. To bridge this gap, this paper investigates the sensing mutual information (SMI) and precoding design specifically for ISAC systems employing communication signals with both pilots and data payloads. First, by utilizing random matrix theory (RMT), we derive a tractable closed-form expression for the SMI that accurately accounts for the statistical properties of the hybrid signal. Building upon this theoretical foundation, we formulate a precoding optimization problem to maximize SMI with constraints on the transmit power and communication rate, which is solved via an efficient alternating direction method of multipliers framework. Simulation results validate the accuracy of the theoretical results and demonstrate the superiority of the proposed precoding design over conventional benchmarks.

cs.IT

Adaptive Matched Filtering for Sensing With Communication Signals in Cluttered Environments

This paper investigates the performance of the adaptive matched filtering (AMF) in cluttered environments, particularly when operating with superimposed signals. Since the instantaneous signal-to-clutter-plus-noise ratio (SCNR) is a random variable dependent on the data payload, using it directly as a design objective poses severe practical challenges, such as prohibitive computational burdens and signaling overhead. To address this, we propose shifting the optimization objective from an instantaneous to a statistical metric, which focuses on maximizing the average SCNR over all possible payloads. Due to its analytical intractability, we leverage tools from random matrix theory (RMT) to derive an asymptotic approximation for the average SCNR, which remains accurate even in moderate-dimensional regimes. A key finding from our theoretical analysis is that, for a fixed modulation basis, the PSK achieves a superior average SCNR compared to QAM and the pure Gaussian constellation. Furthermore, for any given constellation, the OFDM achieves a higher average SCNR than SC and AFDM. Then, we propose two pilot design schemes to enhance system performance: a Data-Payload-Dependent (DPD) scheme and a Data-Payload-Independent (DPI) scheme. The DPD approach maximizes the instantaneous SCNR for each transmission. Conversely, the DPI scheme optimizes the average SCNR, offering a flexible trade-off between sensing performance and implementation complexity. Then, we develop two dedicated optimization algorithms for DPD and DPI schemes. In particular, for the DPD problem, we employ fractional optimization and the KKT conditions to derive a closed-form solution. For the DPI problem, we adopt a manifold optimization approach to handle the inherent rank-one constraint efficiently. Simulation results validate the accuracy of our theoretical analysis and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods.

cs.IT

Multimodal Mixture-of-Experts for ISAC in Low-Altitude Wireless Networks

Integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) is a key enabler for low-altitude wireless networks (LAWNs), providing simultaneous environmental perception and data transmission in complex aerial scenarios. By combining heterogeneous sensing modalities such as visual, radar, lidar, and positional information, multimodal ISAC can improve both situational awareness and robustness of LAWNs. However, most existing multimodal fusion approaches use static fusion strategies that treat all modalities equally and cannot adapt to channel heterogeneity or time-varying modality reliability in dynamic low-altitude environments. To address this fundamental limitation, we propose a mixture-of-experts (MoE) framework for multimodal ISAC in LAWNs. Each modality is processed by a dedicated expert network, and a lightweight gating module adaptively assigns fusion weights according to the instantaneous informativeness and reliability of each modality. To improve scalability under the stringent energy constraints of aerial platforms, we further develop a sparse MoE variant that selectively activates only a subset of experts, thereby reducing computation overhead while preserving the benefits of adaptive fusion. Comprehensive simulations on three typical ISAC tasks in LAWNs demonstrate that the proposed frameworks consistently outperform conventional multimodal fusion baselines in terms of learning performance and training sample efficiency.

eess.SP

Joint Beamforming and Antenna Position Optimization for Fluid Antenna-Assisted MU-MIMO Networks

The fluid antenna system (FAS) is a disruptive tech-nology for future wireless communication networks. This paper considers the joint optimization of beamforming matrices and antenna positions for weighted sum rate (WSR) maximization in fluid antenna (FA)-assisted multiuser multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) networks, which presents significant chal-lenges due to the strong coupling between beamforming and FA positions, the non-concavity of the WSR objective function, and high computational complexity. To address these challenges, we first propose a novel block coordinate ascent (BCA)-based method that employs matrix fractional programming techniques to reformulate the original complex problem into a more tractable form. Then, we develop a parallel majorization maximization (MM) algorithm capable of optimizing all FA positions simul-taneously. To further reduce computational costs, we propose a decentralized implementation based on the decentralized base-band processing (DBP) architecture. Simulation results demon-strate that our proposed algorithm not only achieves significant WSR improvements over conventional MIMO networks but also outperforms the existing method. Moreover, the decentralized implementation substantially reduces computation time while maintaining similar performance compared with the centralized implementation.

cs.IT

AI and Deep Learning for Terahertz Ultra-Massive MIMO: From Model-Driven Approaches to Foundation Models

This study explored the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in addressing the challenges posed by terahertz ultra-massive multiple-input multiple-output (UM-MIMO) systems. It begins by outlining the characteristics of terahertz UM-MIMO systems and identifies three primary challenges for transceiver design: computational complexity, modeling difficulty, and measurement limitations. The study posits that AI provides a promising solution to these challenges. Three systematic research roadmaps are proposed for developing AI algorithms tailored to terahertz UM-MIMO systems. The first roadmap, model-driven deep learning (DL), emphasizes the importance of leveraging available domain knowledge and advocates the adoption of AI only to enhance bottleneck modules within an established signal processing or optimization framework. Four essential steps are discussed: algorithmic frameworks, basis algorithms, loss-function design, and neural architecture design. The second roadmap presents channel state information (CSI) foundation models, aimed at unifying the design of different transceiver modules by focusing on their shared foundation, that is, the wireless channel. The training of a single compact foundation model is proposed to estimate the score function of wireless channels, which serve as a versatile prior for designing a wide variety of transceiver modules. Four essential steps are outlined: general frameworks, conditioning, site-specific adaptation, joint design of CSI foundation models, and model-driven DL. The third roadmap aims to explore potential directions for applying pretrained large language models (LLMs) to terahertz UM-MIMO systems. Several application scenarios are envisioned, including LLM-based estimation, optimization, search, network management, and protocol understanding. Finally, the study highlights open problems and future research directions.

eess.SP

Fluid Antenna-Assisted MU-MIMO Systems with Decentralized Baseband Processing

The fluid antenna system (FAS) has emerged as a disruptive technology, offering unprecedented degrees of freedom (DoF) for wireless communication systems. However, optimizing fluid antenna (FA) positions entails significant computational costs, especially when the number of FAs is large. To address this challenge, we introduce a decentralized baseband processing (DBP) architecture to FAS, which partitions the FA array into clusters and enables parallel processing. Based on the DBP architecture, we formulate a weighted sum rate (WSR) maximization problem through joint beamforming and FA position design for FA-assisted multiuser multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) systems. To solve the WSR maximization problem, we propose a novel decentralized block coordinate ascent (BCA)-based algorithm that leverages matrix fractional programming (FP) and majorization-minimization (MM) methods. The proposed decentralized algorithm achieves low computational, communication, and storage costs, thus unleashing the potential of the DBP architecture. Simulation results show that our proposed algorithm under the DBP architecture reduces computational time by over 70% compared to centralized architectures with negligible WSR performance loss.

cs.IT

Accurate and Fast Channel Estimation for Fluid Antenna Systems with Diffusion Models

Fluid antenna systems (FAS) offer enhanced spatial diversity for next-generation wireless systems. However, acquiring accurate channel state information (CSI) remains challenging due to the large number of reconfigurable ports and the limited availability of radio-frequency (RF) chains -- particularly in high-dimensional FAS scenarios. To address this challenge, we propose an efficient posterior sampling-based channel estimator that leverages a diffusion model (DM) with a simplified U-Net architecture to capture the spatial correlation structure of two-dimensional FAS channels. The DM is initially trained offline in an unsupervised way and then applied online as a learned implicit prior to reconstruct CSI from partial observations via posterior sampling through a denoising diffusion restoration model (DDRM). To accelerate the online inference, we introduce a skipped sampling strategy that updates only a subset of latent variables during the sampling process, thereby reducing the computational cost with minimal accuracy degradation. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed approach achieves significantly higher estimation accuracy and over 20x speedup compared to state-of-the-art compressed sensing-based methods, highlighting its potential for practical deployment in high-dimensional FAS.

cs.IT

Multimodal Deep Learning-Empowered Beam Prediction in Future THz ISAC Systems

Integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) systems operating at terahertz (THz) bands are envisioned to enable both ultra-high data-rate communication and precise environmental awareness for next-generation wireless networks. However, the narrow width of THz beams makes them prone to misalignment and necessitates frequent beam prediction in dynamic environments. Multimodal sensing, which integrates complementary modalities such as camera images, positional data, and radar measurements, has recently emerged as a promising solution for proactive beam prediction. Nevertheless, existing multimodal approaches typically employ static fusion architectures that cannot adjust to varying modality reliability and contributions, thereby degrading predictive performance and robustness. To address this challenge, we propose a novel and efficient multimodal mixture-of-experts (MoE) deep learning framework for proactive beam prediction in THz ISAC systems. The proposed multimodal MoE framework employs multiple modality-specific expert networks to extract representative features from individual sensing modalities, and dynamically fuses them using adaptive weights generated by a gating network according to the instantaneous reliability of each modality. Simulation results in realistic vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) scenarios demonstrate that the proposed MoE framework outperforms traditional static fusion methods and unimodal baselines in terms of prediction accuracy and adaptability, highlighting its potential in practical THz ISAC systems with ultra-massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO).

eess.SP

Mutual Information-Empowered Task-Oriented Communication: Principles, Applications and Challenges

Mutual information (MI)-based guidelines have recently proven to be effective for designing task-oriented communication systems, where the ultimate goal is to extract and transmit task-relevant information for downstream task. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of MI-empowered task-oriented communication, highlighting how MI-based methods can serve as a unifying design framework in various task-oriented communication scenarios. We begin with the roadmap of MI for designing task-oriented communication systems, and then introduce the roles and applications of MI to guide feature encoding, transmission optimization, and efficient training with two case studies. We further elaborate the limitations and challenges of MI-based methods. Finally, we identify several open issues in MI-based task-oriented communication to inspire future research.

cs.IT

Communication-Efficient Distributed On-Device LLM Inference Over Wireless Networks

Large language models (LLMs) have demonstrated remarkable success across various application domains, but their enormous sizes and computational demands pose significant challenges for deployment on resource-constrained edge devices. To address this issue, we propose a novel distributed on-device LLM inference framework that leverages tensor parallelism to partition the neural network tensors (e.g., weight matrices) of one LLM across multiple edge devices for collaborative inference. A key challenge in tensor parallelism is the frequent all-reduce operations for aggregating intermediate layer outputs across participating devices, which incurs significant communication overhead. To alleviate this bottleneck, we propose an over-the-air computation (AirComp) approach that harnesses the analog superposition property of wireless multiple-access channels to perform fast all-reduce steps. To utilize the heterogeneous computational capabilities of edge devices and mitigate communication distortions, we investigate a joint model assignment and transceiver optimization problem to minimize the average transmission error. The resulting mixed-timescale stochastic non-convex optimization problem is intractable, and we propose an efficient two-stage algorithm to solve it. Moreover, we prove that the proposed algorithm converges almost surely to a stationary point of the original problem. Comprehensive simulation results will show that the proposed framework outperforms existing benchmark schemes, achieving up to 5x inference speed acceleration and improving inference accuracy.

cs.DC

Remote Training in Task-Oriented Communication: Supervised or Self-Supervised with Fine-Tuning?

Task-oriented communication focuses on extracting and transmitting only the information relevant to specific tasks, effectively minimizing communication overhead. Most existing methods prioritize reducing this overhead during inference, often assuming feasible local training or minimal training communication resources. However, in real-world wireless systems with dynamic connection topologies, training models locally for each new connection is impractical, and task-specific information is often unavailable before establishing connections. Therefore, minimizing training overhead and enabling label-free, task-agnostic pre-training before the connection establishment are essential for effective task-oriented communication. In this paper, we tackle these challenges by employing a mutual information maximization approach grounded in self-supervised learning and information-theoretic analysis. We propose an efficient strategy that pre-trains the transmitter in a task-agnostic and label-free manner, followed by joint fine-tuning of both the transmitter and receiver in a task-specific, label-aware manner. Simulation results show that our proposed method reduces training communication overhead to about half that of full-supervised methods using the SGD optimizer, demonstrating significant improvements in training efficiency.

cs.IT

Distributed On-Device LLM Inference With Over-the-Air Computation

Large language models (LLMs) have achieved remarkable success across various artificial intelligence tasks. However, their enormous sizes and computational demands pose significant challenges for the deployment on edge devices. To address this issue, we present a distributed on-device LLM inference framework based on tensor parallelism, which partitions neural network tensors (e.g., weight matrices) of LLMs among multiple edge devices for collaborative inference. Nevertheless, tensor parallelism involves frequent all-reduce operations to aggregate intermediate layer outputs across participating devices during inference, resulting in substantial communication overhead. To mitigate this bottleneck, we propose an over-the-air computation method that leverages the analog superposition property of wireless multiple-access channels to facilitate fast all-reduce operations. To minimize the average transmission mean-squared error, we investigate joint model assignment and transceiver optimization, which can be formulated as a mixed-timescale stochastic non-convex optimization problem. Then, we develop a mixed-timescale algorithm leveraging semidefinite relaxation and stochastic successive convex approximation methods. Comprehensive simulation results will show that the proposed approach significantly reduces inference latency while improving accuracy. This makes distributed on-device LLM inference practical for resource-constrained edge devices.

cs.DC

Siamese Machine Unlearning with Knowledge Vaporization and Concentration

In response to the practical demands of the ``right to be forgotten" and the removal of undesired data, machine unlearning emerges as an essential technique to remove the learned knowledge of a fraction of data points from trained models. However, existing methods suffer from limitations such as insufficient methodological support, high computational complexity, and significant memory demands. In this work, we propose the concepts of knowledge vaporization and concentration to selectively erase learned knowledge from specific data points while maintaining representations for the remaining data. Utilizing the Siamese networks, we exemplify the proposed concepts and develop an efficient method for machine unlearning. Our proposed Siamese unlearning method does not require additional memory overhead and full access to the remaining dataset. Extensive experiments conducted across multiple unlearning scenarios showcase the superiority of Siamese unlearning over baseline methods, illustrating its ability to effectively remove knowledge from forgetting data, enhance model utility on remaining data, and reduce susceptibility to membership inference attacks.

cs.LG