arXiv subjects

Theodoros A. Tsiftsis

Publications and source records attributed to Theodoros A. Tsiftsis.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Brain-Inspired User Positioning for mmWave Beam Management

Wireless positioning is a key enabling functionality of high-frequency, highly directional wireless systems. Supporting beam tracking depends on accurately translating channel state in- formation (CSI) estimations into position predictions. However, as urban propagation environments are inherently highly complex, determining the process that connects the CSI with the mobile user position is a difficult task. Motivated by this observation, a great amount of effort was put on designing user positioning schemes that employ conventional machine learning approaches, such as k-nearest neighbors (k-NN), and convolutional neural networks (CNNs). However, conventional models achieve low energy efficiency (EE). To counterbalance this disadvantage, brain-inspired neural processing units (NPUs) has recently been introduced. For their optimum operation, NPUs require the execution of a new type of neural models, namely spiking neural networks (SNNs). Inspired by this, in this paper, we present a wireless network architecture that enables CSI acquisition, translation into mobile user position information, and beamforming adaptation through novel convolutional SNN (CSNN) models. To train and assess the models' performance, we created datasets based on realistic ray-tracing-based simulations. We applied the CSNN architecture and compared its performance against fingerprinting k-NNs, and CNNs in terms of both computing- and communication-tailored performance metrics. The results highlight a trade-off between EE and user positioning accuracy.

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arXiv2026

Spectral-Domain Spreading via Hadamard Transform for Robust Downlink Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access

Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) systems allowing multiple users sharing the same resource block offer significant gains in spectral efficiency which can enable the required massive access in future wireless systems. However, they face several challenges due to their sensitivity to power allocation coefficients, fading effects, and imperfect channel state information (CSI). To address these limitations, this paper proposes Hadamard-NOMA, an approach leveraging the Hadamard Transform (HT) at the source level prior to modulation. By introducing HT, the system mitigates the adverse impact of fading and CSI imperfections, reducing bit error rates (BER) and enhancing overall system reliability. Theoretical analysis and Monte Carlo simulations validate the effectiveness of this technique, demonstrating robust NOMA transmission in dynamic wireless environments. The proposed method offers a promising solution for next-generation wireless networks, ensuring more reliable performance under diverse transmission conditions. Simulation results confirm analytical predictions, demonstrating significant performance improvements over state-of-the-art T-NOMA and Usman-NOMA schemes. Specifically, for the Near user, a gain of 15 dB is achieved at a Bit Error Rate (BER) of $10^{-2}$, while the Far user benefits from a 10 dB gain at a BER of $10^{-1}$. Compared to Usman-NOMA, the proposed method provides an improvement of 15 dB for the Far user at BER $10^{-1}$. Additionally, in a two-user scenario with imperfect Successive Interference Cancelation (SIC), user 1 requires an SNR at least 14 dB lower than user 2 to achieve a BER of $10^{-3}$. These findings highlight the effectiveness of applying HT at the source stage, significantly mitigating CSI errors and making NOMA more resilient for next-generation wireless networks.

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arXiv2026

Jamming-Resilient Sparse Delay-Doppler NOMA: Unitary Precoding, Randomized Active Sets, and Superincreasing Power Allocation

We propose a sparse delay-Doppler NOMA scheme resilient to intentional jamming. The transmitter places user data on a small random subset of delay-Doppler bins, spreads the result through a unitary precoder, and re-draws the active subset per frame from a pseudo-random seed shared with the receiver. The receiver detects and discards jammed bins, recovers the sparse signal by least squares, and decodes per bin via SIC. Hadamard, DFT, and Haar-random precoders all yield essentially the same BER, because a Marchenko-Pastur conditioning argument controls any random unitary submatrix. The closed-form BER has no jammer-induced floor, unlike the well-known partial-band floor of conventional OTFS-NOMA. The same argument shows that compromising the shared seed does not break the system: random unitary submatrices remain well-conditioned, so BER stays within the unjammed envelope. For more than two users we use a superincreasing power allocation (Merkle-Hellman knapsack) and prove the resulting low-complexity SIC matches maximum-likelihood detection exactly, removing the usual SIC propagation ceiling. For more than four users we partition them into pairs assigned to disjoint bin subsets; this OMA-friendly NOMA rule reaches floor BER at eight users by SNR around 20 dB. We extend the framework to Rician fading and show the jammer-independence property holds for arbitrary Rician K-factor. Monte Carlo simulations track the analytical predictions within 3 dB and show at least a 40 dB BER-ratio improvement against pattern-aware jammers, with about 24 dB of cumulative gain over conventional OTFS-NOMA under oracle jamming.

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arXiv2026

Towards Autonomous Driving with Short-Packet Rate Splitting: Age of Information Analysis and Optimization

To address the high mobility impacts and the ultra-reliable and low-latency communication (URLLC) requirements in autonomous driving scenarios, rate-splitting multiple access (RSMA) combined with short-packet communication (SPC) emerges as a promising solution.Autonomous vehicles rely on real-time information exchange to ensure safety and coordination, making information freshness essential.By jointly capturing transmission delays and packet errors, age of information (AoI) serves as a comprehensive metric for freshness.In this paper, we investigate short-packet rate splitting to enhance information freshness measured by the AoI.By splitting the unicast messages into common and private parts, encoding all common parts together with the multicast message into a common stream, and encoding each private part into a private stream, RSMA effectively manages interference and enables achieving lower AoI.By considering critical factors such as transmit power, vehicle velocity, blocklength, and the number of transmit antennas, we derive closed-form expressions for the average AoI (AAoI) of the common stream under partial decoding and the overall AAoI under complete decoding.To enhance the AAoI performance, we propose the multi-start two-step successive convex approximation (SCA) algorithm.This algorithm first optimizes the power allocation and subsequently optimizes the rate splitting under the quality of service (QoS) trade-off constraint.Simulation results demonstrate that our short-packet rate-splitting scheme significantly improves the AAoI performance while ensuring system fairness and enabling ultra-low AAoI through the common stream, meeting the requirements of autonomous driving applications.Moreover, the trade-off between the common and overall performance is revealed, indicating that the overall performance can be further enhanced while maintaining the advantages of the common stream.

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arXiv2026

Secure and Green RSMA-Assisted Heterogeneous ISAC

This paper investigates sensing, communication, security, and energy efficiency of the heterogeneous integrated sensing and communication networks under challenging operational conditions. We focus on scenarios in which communication performance, security, and sensing accuracy are degraded by interference, eavesdropping, and imperfect channel state information. To this end, we analyze communication and sensing signals within ISAC framework as well as the communication signals of a multicast network based on \emph{rate-splitting multiple access} (RSMA). Then, sensing signal-to-cluster-plus-noise ratio, communication rate, security rate, and \emph{security energy efficiency} (SEE) are evaluated. To simultaneously enhance these system performances, we propose a targeted optimization framework aimed at maximizing SEE. This framework characterizes the sensing-security trade-off by jointly optimizing the transmit \emph{beamforming} (BF) vectors and the echo BF vector to construct green interference using the echo signal, as well as common and private streams generated by RSMA. Particularly, the joint design improves the security rate and reduces power consumption, thereby enabling a higher SEE. Given the non-convex nature of the optimization problem, we present an alternative approach that leverages Taylor series expansion, majorization-minimization, semi-definite programming, and successive convex approximation techniques. Specifically, we decompose the original non-convex and intractable optimization problem into three simplified sub-optimization problems, which are iteratively solved using an alternating optimization strategy. Simulations provide comparisons with state-of-the-art schemes, highlighting the superior efficiency, robustness, and scalability of the proposed joint multi-BF optimization scheme based on RSMA and green interference in improving system performances.

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arXiv2026

Waveform Design for Partial-Time Superimposed ISAC Systems

Nowadays, waveforms of integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) are almost based on conventional communication and sensing signal, which bounds both the communication and sensing performance. To deal with this issue, in this paper, a novel waveform design is presented for the partial-time superimposed (PTS) ISAC system. At the base station (BS), a parameter-adjustable linear frequency modulation (LFM) pulse signal and a continuous communication orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signal are employed to broadcast public information and perform sensing tasks, respectively, using a PTS scheme. Pulse compression gain enhances the system's long-range sensing capability, while OFDM ensures the system's high-speed data transmission capability. Meanwhile, the LFM signal is utilized as superimposed pilot for channel estimation, which has higher time-frequency resource utilization and stronger real-time performance compared to orthogonal pilots. We present an accurate parameter estimation method of multi-path sensing signal for reconstructing and interference cancellation in communication users. Additionally, a cyclic maximum likelihood method is introduced for channel estimation and the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) of channel estimation is derived. Simulations demonstrate the accuracy and robustness of the proposed parameter estimation algorithm as well as the improved channel estimation performance over traditional methods. The proposed waveform design method can achieve reliable data transmission and accurate target sensing.

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arXiv2026

Maneuverable-Jamming-Aided Secure Communication and Sensing in A2G-ISAC Systems

In this paper, we propose a maneuverablejamming-aided secure communication and sensing (SCS) scheme for an air-to-ground integrated sensing and communication (A2G-ISAC) system, where a dual-functional source UAV and a maneuverable jamming UAV operate collaboratively in a hybrid monostatic-bistatic radar configuration. The maneuverable jamming UAV emits artificial noise to assist the source UAV in detecting multiple ground targets while interfering with an eavesdropper. The effects of residual interference caused by imperfect successive interference cancellation on the received signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio are considered, which degrades the system performance. To maximize the average secrecy rate (ASR) under transmit power budget, UAV maneuvering constraints, and sensing requirements, the dual-UAV trajectory and beamforming are jointly optimized. Given that secure communication and sensing fundamentally conflict in terms of resource allocation, making it difficult to achieve optimal performance for both simultaneously, we adopt a two-phase design to address this challenge. By dividing the mission into the secure communication (SC) phase and the SCS phase, the A2G-ISAC system can focus on optimizing distinct objectives separately. In the SC phase, a block coordinate descent algorithm employing the trust-region successive convex approximation and semidefinite relaxation iteratively optimizes dual-UAV trajectory and beamforming. For the SCS phase, a weighted distance minimization problem determines the suitable dual-UAV sensing positions by a greedy algorithm, followed by the joint optimization of source beamforming and jamming beamforming. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme achieves the highest ASR among benchmarks while maintaining robust sensing performance, and confirm the impact of the SIC residual interference on both secure communication and sensing.

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arXiv2026

SORIS: A Self-Organized Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface Architecture for Wireless Communications

In this paper, a new reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) hardware architecture, called self-organized RIS (SORIS), is proposed. The architecture incorporates a microcontroller connected to a single-antenna receiver operating at the same frequency as the RIS unit elements, operating either in transmission or reflection mode. The transmitting RIS elements enable the low latency estimation of both the incoming and outcoming channels at the microcontroller's side. In addition, a machine learning approach for estimating the incoming and outcoming channels involving the remaining RIS elements operating in reflection mode is devised. Specifically, by appropriately selecting a small number of elements in transmission mode, and based on the channel reciprocity principle, the respective channel coefficients are first estimated, which are then fed to a low-complexity neural network that, leveraging spatial channel correlation over RIS elements, returns predictions of the channel coefficients referring to the rest of elements. In this way, the SORIS microcontroller acquires channel state information, and accordingly reconfigures the panel's metamaterials to assist data communication between a transmitter and a receiver, without the need for separate connections with them. Moreover, the impact of channel estimation on the proposed solution, and a detailed complexity analysis for the used model, as well as a wiring density and control signaling analysis, is performed. The feasibility and efficacy of the proposed self-organized RIS design and operation are verified by Monte Carlo simulations, providing useful guidelines on the selection of the RIS elements for operating in transmission mode for initial channel estimation.

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arXiv2026

Towards Joint Optimization for UAV-Integrated RIS-Assisted Fluid Antenna Systems

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) integrated into cellular networks face significant challenges from air-to-ground interference. To address this, we propose a downlink UAV communication system that leverages a fluid antenna system (FAS)- assisted reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) to enhance signal quality. By jointly optimizing the FAS port positions and RIS phase shifts, we maximize the achievable rate. The resulting nonconvex optimization problem is solved using successive convex approximation (SCA) based on second-order cone programming (SOCP), which reformulates the constraints into a tractable form. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm significantly improves both outage probability and achievable rate over conventional fixed-position antenna (FPA) schemes, with particularly large gains in large-scale RIS configurations. Moreover, the algorithm converges rapidly, making it suitable for real-time applications

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arXiv2026

Backscatter-Assisted High-Speed Rail Communications in Straight Tunnel Environments: Effects of Tag Number and Phase Control

Backscatter communication is a promising technology to enhance the signal strength received by the receiver in straight tunnel environments. The impact of the number of tags and their phase adjustment on system performance remains a challenging issue though. Therefore, in this paper, we investigate the channel gain of backscatter-assisted communication with multiple tags in straight tunnels. In particular, we derive the probabilities that the backscatter link gain is greater than the direct link under adjustable and random phase assumptions by applying the Gaussian and Gamma approximations to derive tractable expressions. The simulation results show that phaseadjustable tags significantly improve the channel gain of the backscatter links compared to the random phase case. Moreover, the number of tags has an upper threshold for an effective tag deployment pattern. These insights provide valuable guidelines for the efficient design of backscatter communication systems in tunnel environments.

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arXiv2025

Secure Short-Packet Communications for RIS-Assisted AAV Networks

Advancements toward 6G have intensified demands for ultra-reliable low-latency communication, positioning shortpacket communications as a critical technology for autonomous aerial vehicle (AAV) networks. However, the open broadcast nature introduces significant security vulnerabilities. Although physical-layer security offers a low-complexity solution by exploiting wireless channel randomness, the AAV communication performance severely degrades in weak-coverage or non-line-of sight scenarios. To overcome these limitations, this paper proposes a short-packet communications framework for AAV networks that leverages reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) with the aim of extending coverage and enhancing secrecy capabilities. Analytical frameworks are developed to evaluate the average secrecy throughput (AST) in finite blocklength constraints for both external and internal avesdropping scenarios, which incorporates non-orthogonal multiple access with imperfect successive interference cancellation. Asymptotic approximations of AST are derived as transmit power approaches infinity. Furthermore, we formulate a blocklength optimization problem to maximize the AST, effectively resolving the trade-offs among delay, reliability, and secrecy. Extensive simulations validate the analytical frameworks, which reveal that large-scale RIS deployment significantly boosts AST, and the power allocation coefficient exhibits dual effects in the internal eavesdropping scenario. These observations provide useful insights for designing reliable and secure lowlatency AAV communications systems.

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arXiv2025

Markov Chain-based Model of Blockchain Radio Access Networks

Security has always been a priority, for researchers, service providers and network operators when it comes to radio access networks (RAN). One wireless access approach that has captured attention is blockchain enabled RAN (B-RAN) due to its secure nature. This research introduces a framework that integrates blockchain technology into RAN while also addressing the limitations of state-of-the-art models. The proposed framework utilizes queuing and Markov chain theory to model the aspects of B-RAN. An extensive evaluation of the models performance is provided, including an analysis of timing factors and a focused assessment of its security aspects. The results demonstrate reduced latency and comparable security making the presented framework suitable for diverse application scenarios.

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arXiv2025

Metaverse Framework for Wireless Systems Management

This article introduces a comprehensive metaverse framework, which is designed for the simulation, emulation, and interaction with wireless systems. The proposed framework integrates core metaverse technologies such as extended reality (XR), digital twins (DTs), artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT), blockchain, and advanced 6G networking solutions to create a dynamic, immersive platform for both system development and management. By leveraging XR, users can visualize and engage with complex systems, while DTs enable real-time monitoring and optimization. AI generates the three-dimensional (3D) content, enhances decision-making and system performance, whereas IoT devices provide real-time sensor data for boosting the simulation accuracy. Additionally, blockchain ensures secure, decentralized interactions, and 5G/6G networks offer the necessary infrastructure for seamless, low-latency communication. This framework serves as a robust tool for exploring, developing, and optimizing wireless systems, aiming to provide valuable insights into the future of networked environments.

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arXiv2025

Simultaneous Information and Control Signalling Protocol for RIS-Empowered Wireless Systems

Integration of RIS in radio access networks requires signaling between edge units and the RIS microcontroller (MC). Unfortunately, in several practical scenarios, the signaling latency is higher than the communication channel coherence time, which causes outdated signaling at the RIS. To counterbalance this, we introduce a simultaneous information and control signaling (SICS) protocol that enables operation adaptation through wireless control signal transmission. SICS assumes that the MC is equipped with a single antenna that operates at the same frequency as the RIS. RIS operates in simultaneous transmission and reflection (STAR) mode, and the source employs non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) to superposition the information signal to the control signal. To maximize the achievable user data rate while ensuring the MC's ability to decode the control signal, we formulate and solve the corresponding optimization problem that returns RIS's reflection and transmission coefficients as well as the superposition coefficients of the NOMA scheme. Our results reveal the robustness of the SICS approach.

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arXiv2025

RSMA-Enabled Covert Communications Against Multiple Spatially Random Wardens

This work investigates covert communication in a rate-splitting multiple access (RSMA)-based multi-user multiple-input single-output system, where the random locations of the wardens follow a homogeneous Poisson point process. To demonstrate practical deployment scenarios, imperfect channel state information at the transmitter is considered. Closed-form expressions for the statistics of the received signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio, along with the analytical formulations for the covertness constraint, outage probability, and effective covert throughput (ECT), are derived. Subsequently, an ECT maximization problem is formulated under covertness and power allocation constraints. This optimization problem is addressed using an alternating optimization-assisted genetic algorithm (AO-GA). Simulation results corroborate the theoretical analysis and demonstrate the superiority of RSMA over conventional multiple access schemes, as well as the effectiveness of the proposed AO-GA.

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arXiv2025

Dual-UAV-Aided Covert Communications for Air-to-Ground ISAC Networks

To enhance both the sensing and covert communication performance, a dual-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-aided scheme is proposed for integrated sensing and communication networks, in which one UAV maneuvers as the aerial dual-functional base-station (BS), while another UAV flies as the cooperative jammer. Artificial noise (AN) transmitted by the jamming UAV is utilized not only to confuse the ground warden but also to aid the aerial BS to sense multiple ground targets by combing the target-echoed dual-functional waveform and AN components from a perspective of the hybrid monostatitc-bistatic radar. We employ the distance-normalized beampattern sum-gain to measure the sensing performance. To maximize the average covert rate (ACR) from the aerial BS to the ground user, the dual-functional BS beamforming, jamming UAV beamforming, and dual-UAV trajectory are co-designed, subject to transmit power budgets, UAV maneuver constraint, covertness requirement, and sensing performance constraint. The imperfect successive interference cancellation (SIC) effects on the received signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio are also considered in maximizing the ACR. To tackle the highly complicated non-convex ACR maximization problem, dual-UAV beamforming and dual-UAV trajectory are optimized in a block coordinate descent way using the trust-region successive convex approximation and semidefinite relaxation. To find the dual-UAV maneuver locations suitable for sensing the ground targets, we first optimize the dual-UAV trajectory for the covert communication purpose only and then solve a weighted distance minimization problem for the covert communication and sensing purpose.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2025

Dual-UAV-Enabled Secure Communication and Sensing for A2G-ISAC Systems with Maneuverable Jamming

In this paper, we propose a dual-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-enabled secure communication and sensing (SCS) scheme for an air-to-ground integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) system, in which a dual-functional source UAV and jamming UAV collaborate to enhance both the secure communication and target sensing performance. From a perspective of hybrid monostatitc-bistatic radar, the jamming UAV maneuvers to aid the source UAV to detect multiple ground targets by emitting artificial noise, meanwhile interfering with the ground eavesdropper. Residual interference is considered to reflect the effects of imperfect successive interference cancellation (SIC) on the receive signal-plus-interference-to-noise ratios, which results in a degraded system performance. To maximize the average secrecy rate (ASR), the dual-UAV trajectory and dual-UAV beamforming are jointly optimized subject to the transmit power budget, UAV maneuvering constraint, and sensing requirements. To tackle the highly complicated non-convex ASR maximization problem, the dual-UAV trajectory and dual-UAV beamforming are optimized for the secure communication (SC) purpose and the SCS purpose, sequentially. In the SC phase, a block coordinate descent algorithm is proposed to optimize the dual-UAV trajectory and dual-UAV beamforming iteratively, using the trust-region successive convex approximation (SCA) and semidefinite relaxation (SDR) techniques. Then, a weighted distance minimization problem is formulated to determine the dual-UAV maneuvering positions suitable for the SCS purpose, which is solved by a heuristic greedy algorithm, followed by the joint optimization of source beamforming and jamming beamforming.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2025

Fairness vs. Equality: RSMA-Based Multi-Target and Multi-User Integrated Sensing and Communications

This paper investigates the tradeoff between sensing and communication in an ISAC system comprising multiple sensing targets and communication users. A dual-functional base station conducts downlink data transmission services based on RSMA for multiple users, while sensing surrounding multiple targets. To enable effective multicast communications and ensure fair and balanced multi-target sensing and under a constrained power budget, we propose a multi-target sensing enhancement scheme incorporating fairness-aware BF, common rate splitting, and sensing power allocation. The proposed scheme minimizes the sensing CRB, while maximizing communication rate demands. Specifically, we derive closed-form expressions for both sensing CRB and communication rates. Building upon them, we formulate an optimization problem aiming to minimize the sensing CRB, while maximizing the communication rates. Considering the non-convex nature of the original optimization problem poses significant computational challenges, we transform the tradeoff optimization into a Pareto-optimal problem by employing Taylor series expansion, semi-definite relaxation, successive convex approximation, and penalty function to transform the non-convex problem and associated constraints into tractable forms. Extensive simulations validate the theoretical analysis and demonstrate significant advantages of the proposed RSMA-based fairness-aware BF over non-orthogonal multiple access, space division multiple access, and orthogonal multiple access, through comprehensive comparisons in two key aspects: CRB performance improvement and sensing-communication tradeoff characteristics. The proposed optimization framework exhibits remarkable superiority in enhancing both sensing accuracy and communication quality for ISAC systems.

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