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Yashuai Cao

Publications and source records attributed to Yashuai Cao.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Prior-Aided Iterative Channel Reconstruction with Optimized Frame Structure for DSE Mitigation in CP-OTFS-Based LEO Satellite Systems

Orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS) modulation has emerged as a promising solution to mitigate the severe Doppler shift in low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite communications. However, the frequency-dependent Doppler shift induced by the high mobility of LEO satellites leads to the Doppler squint effect (DSE). This effect compromises the channel sparsity in the delay-Doppler (DD) domain, rendering existing channel estimation methods ineffective. To overcome this challenge, this paper proposes a DSE-resilient transmission scheme for cyclic prefix OTFS (CP-OTFS)-based LEO satellite systems. Specifically, we analyze the input-output relationship of the CPOTFS- based LEO satellite communication system and derive a DSE-aware representation of the satellite-terrestrial channel in the DD domain. To efficiently capture DSE-aware channel characteristics, we propose a novel OTFS frame structure that allows the energy distribution of the received signal to serve as prior information for channel estimation. Meanwhile, this frame structure strategically allocates pilot symbols to achieve uniform energy distribution and reduce the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR), while imposing a time-domain waveform continuity constraint to suppress out-of-band emission (OOBE) caused by rectangular pulses. Based on the frame structure, we propose a prior-aided iterative channel reconstruction (PAICR) algorithm to mitigate the severe power leakage induced by DSE. The proposed algorithm iteratively extracts and removes dominant channel components using Doppler-domain received signal energy observations, with a convergence criterion ensuring reliable termination. Furthermore, a Cramer-Rao lower bound is derived to provide a theoretical benchmark for evaluating the algorithm's performance.

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A Learnable SIM Paradigm: Fundamentals, Training Techniques, and Applications

Stacked intelligent metasurfaces (SIMs) represent a breakthrough in wireless hardware by comprising multilayer, programmable metasurfaces capable of analog computing in the electromagnetic (EM) wave domain. By examining their architectural analogies, this article reveals a deeper connection between SIMs and artificial neural networks (ANNs). Leveraging this profound structural similarity, this work introduces a learnable SIM architecture and proposes a learnable SIM-based machine learning (ML) paradigm for sixth-generation (6G)-andbeyond systems. Then, we develop two SIM-empowered wireless signal processing schemes to effectively achieve multi-user signal separation and distinguish communication signals from jamming signals. The use cases highlight that the proposed SIM-enabled signal processing system can significantly enhance spectrum utilization efficiency and anti-jamming capability in a lightweight manner and pave the way for ultra-efficient and intelligent wireless infrastructures.

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A Harmony Composition-Inspired Tensor Modalization Method for Near-Field IRS Channel Estimation

Intelligent reflecting surfaces (IRSs) are poised to revolutionize next-generation wireless communication systems by enhancing channel quality and spectrum efficiency through advanced wave manipulation. However, extremely large-scale IRS {(XL-IRS)} deployments face significant challenges in channel estimation due to multiplicative path loss and near-field (NF) effects, where spherical wavefronts couple distance and angle parameters. Existing polar-domain codebook-based compressive sensing methods for NF channel estimation suffer from low accuracy and high complexity, caused by the need for high-resolution grids of both distance and angle parameters. To address this, we propose a harmonic processing-inspired channel estimation framework for NF {XL-IRS} systems by leveraging tensor modalization to decouple channel parameters. Drawing an analogy to musical harmonic analysis, our approach decomposes the high-dimensional NF channel tensor into independent factor matrices, modeled as ``chords," representing distance and angle parameters. Through harmonic analysis-inspired distance parameter decoupling, we design a compact, distance-dependent codebook that enables high-resolution NF channel parameter estimation. This approach significantly reduces the codebook size compared to polar-domain methods. {Then, we} derive the Cramér-Rao lower bound (CRLB) to evaluate the estimators. Finally, simulation results show an 8.5 dB improvement in normalized mean square error (NMSE) compared to conventional methods, underscoring its low complexity and high accuracy.

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Intelligent Reflecting Surfaces and Next Generation Wireless Systems

Intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) is a potential candidate for massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) 2.0 technology due to its low cost, ease of deployment, energy efficiency and extended coverage. This chapter investigates the slot-by-slot IRS reflection pattern design and two-timescale reflection pattern design schemes, respectively. For the slot-by-slot reflection optimization, we propose exploiting an IRS to improve the propagation channel rank in mmWave massive MIMO systems without need to increase the transmit power budget. Then, we analyze the impact of the distributed IRS on the channel rank. To further reduce the heavy overhead of channel training, channel state information (CSI) estimation, and feedback in time-varying MIMO channels, we present a two-timescale reflection optimization scheme, where the IRS is configured relatively infrequently based on statistical CSI (S-CSI) and the active beamformers and power allocation are updated based on quickly outdated instantaneous CSI (I-CSI) per slot. The achievable average sum-rate (AASR) of the system is maximized without excessive overhead of cascaded channel estimation. A recursive sampling particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is developed to optimize the large-timescale IRS reflection pattern efficiently with reduced samplings of channel samples.

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Efficient Off-Grid Near-Field Cascade Channel Estimation for XL-IRS Systems via Tucker Decomposition

Accurate cascaded channel state information is pivotal for extremely large-scale intelligent reflecting surfaces (XL-IRS) in next-generation wireless networks. However, the large XL-IRS aperture induces spherical wavefront propagation due to near-field (NF) effects, complicating cascaded channel estimation. Conventional dictionary-based methods suffer from cumulative quantization errors and high complexity, especially in uniform planar array (UPA) systems. To address these issues, we first propose a tensor modelization method for NF cascaded channels by exploiting the tensor product among the horizontal and vertical response vectors of the UPA-structured base station (BS) and the incident-reflective array response vector of the IRS. This structure leverages spatial characteristics, enabling independent estimation of factor matrices to improve efficiency. Meanwhile, to avoid quantization errors, we propose an off-grid cascaded channel estimation framework based on sparse Tucker decomposition. Specifically, we model the received signal as a Tucker tensor, where the sparse core tensor captures path gain-delay terms and three factor matrices are spanned by BS and NF IRS array responses. We then formulate a sparse core tensor minimization problem with tri-modal log-sum sparsity constraints to tackle the NP-hard challenge. Finally, the method is accelerated via higher-order singular value decomposition preprocessing, combined with majorization-minimization and a tailored tensor over-relaxation fast iterative shrinkage-thresholding technique. We derive the Cramér-Rao lower bound and conduct convergence analysis. Simulations show the proposed scheme achieves a 13.6 dB improvement in normalized mean square error over benchmarks with significantly reduced runtime.

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ARIS-RSMA Enhanced ISAC System: Joint Rate Splitting and Beamforming Design

This letter proposes an active reconfigurable intelligent surface (ARIS) assisted rate-splitting multiple access (RSMA) integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) system to overcome the fairness bottleneck in multi-target sensing under obstructed line-of-sight environments. Beamforming at the transceiver and ARIS, along with rate splitting, are optimized to maximize the minimum multi-target echo signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio under multi-user rate and power constraints. The intricate non-convex problem is decoupled into three subproblems and solved iteratively by majorization-minimization (MM) and sequential rank-one constraint relaxation (SROCR) algorithms. Simulations show our scheme outperforms nonorthogonal multiple access, space-division multiple access, and passive RIS baselines, approaching sensing-only upper bounds.

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Stacked Intelligent Metasurfaces-Based Electromagnetic Wave Domain Interference-Free Precoding

This paper introduces an interference-free multi-stream transmission architecture leveraging stacked intelligent metasurfaces (SIMs), from a new perspective of interference exploitation. Unlike traditional interference exploitation precoding (IEP) which relies on computational hardware circuitry, we perform the precoding operations within the analog wave domain provided by SIMs. However, the benefits of SIM-enabled IEP are limited by the nonlinear distortion (NLD) caused by power amplifiers. A hardware-efficient interference-free transmitter architecture is developed to exploit SIM's high and flexible degree of freedom (DoF), where the NLD on modulated symbols can be directly compensated in the wave domain. Moreover, we design a frame-level SIM configuration scheme and formulate a maxmin problem on the safety margin function. With respect to the optimization of SIM phase shifts, we propose a recursive oblique manifold (ROM) algorithm to tackle the complex coupling among phase shifts across multiple layers. A flexible DoF-driven antenna selection (AS) scheme is explored in the SIM-enabled IEP system. Using an ROM-based alternating optimization (ROM-AO) framework, our approach jointly optimizes transmit AS, SIM phase shift design, and power allocation (PA), and develops a greedy safety margin-based AS algorithm. Simulations show that the proposed SIM-enabled frame-level IEP scheme significantly outperforms benchmarks. Specifically, the strategy with AS and PA can achieve a 20 dB performance gain compared to the case without any strategy under the 12 dB signal-to-noise ratio, which confirms the superiority of the NLD-aware IEP scheme and the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

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Leveraging Channel Knowledge Map for Multi-User Hierarchical Beam Training Under Position Uncertainty

Channel knowledge map (CKM) emerges as a promising framework to acquire location-specific channel information without consuming wireless resources, creating new horizons for advanced wireless network design and optimization. Despite its potential, the practical application of CKM in beam training faces several challenges. On one hand, the user's precise location is typically unavailable prior to beam training, which limits the utility of CKM since its effectiveness relies heavily on accurate input of position data. On the other hand, the intricate interplay among CKM, real-time observations, and training strategies has not been thoroughly studied, leading to suboptimal performance and difficulties in practical implementation. In this paper, we present a framework for CKM-aided beam training that addresses these limitations. For single-user scenario, we propose a reward-motivated beam-potential hierarchical strategy which integrates partial position information and CKM. This strategy models the user equipment (UE) position uncertainty and formulates the hierarchical searching process as a pruned binary search tree. An optimal hierarchical searching strategy with minimal overhead is derived by evaluating the weights and rewards of potential codewords. Furthermore, a low-complexity two-layer lookahead scheme is designed to balance overhead and computational demands. For multi-user scenario, we develop a correlation-driven position-pruning training scheme, where sidelobe gains from inter-user interference are exploited to provide additional side information for overhead reduction, allowing all users to be simultaneously assigned their respective supportive beams. Simulations validate the superior performances of proposed approaches in advancing 6G beam training.

cs.IT

BeamCKM: A Framework of Channel Knowledge Map Construction for Multi-Antenna Systems

The channel knowledge map (CKM) enables efficient construction of high-fidelity mapping between spatial environments and channel parameters via electromagnetic information analysis. Nevertheless, existing studies are largely confined to single-antenna systems, failing to offer dedicated guidance for multi-antenna communication scenarios. To address the inherent conflict between traditional real-value pathloss map and multi-degree-of-freedom (DoF) coherent beamforming in B5G/6G systems, this paper proposes a novel concept of BeamCKM and CKMTransUNet architecture. The CKMTransUNet approach combines a UNet backbone for multi-scale feature extraction with a vision transformer (ViT) module to capture global dependencies among encoded linear vectors, utilizing a composite loss function to characterize the beam propagation characteristics. Furthermore, based on the CKMTransUNet backbone, this paper presents a methodology named M3ChanNet. It leverages the multi-modal learning technique and cross-attention mechanisms to extract intrinsic side information from environmental profiles and real-time multi-beam observations, thereby further improving the map construction accuracy. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method consistently outperforms state-of-the-art (SOTA) interpolation methods and deep learning (DL) approaches, delivering superior performance even when environmental contours are inaccurate. For reproducibility, the code is publicly accessible at https://github.com/github-whh/BeamCKM.

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Navigating the Dual-Use Nature and Security Implications of Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces in Next-Generation Wireless Systems

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) technology offers significant promise in enhancing wireless communication systems, but its dual-use potential also introduces substantial security risks. This survey explores the security implications of RIS in next-generation wireless networks. We first highlight the dual-use nature of RIS, demonstrating how its communication-enhancing capabilities can be exploited by adversaries to compromise legitimate users. We identify a new class of security vulnerabilities termed ``passive-active hybrid attacks,'' where RIS, despite passively handling signals, can be reconfigured to actively engage in malicious activities, enabling various RIS-assisted attacks, such as eavesdropping, man-in-the-middle (MITM), replay, reflection jamming, and side-channel attacks. Furthermore, we reveal how adversaries can exploit the openness of wireless channels to introduce adversarial perturbations in artificial intelligence-driven RIS networks, disrupting communication terminals and causing misclassifications or errors in RIS reflection predictions. Despite these risks, RIS technology also plays a critical role in enhancing security and privacy across radio frequency (RF) and visible light communication (VLC) systems. By synthesizing current insights and highlighting emerging threats, we provide actionable insights into cross-layer collaboration, advanced adversarial defenses, and the balance between security and cost. This survey provides a comprehensive overview of RIS technology's security landscape and underscores the urgent need for robust security frameworks in the development of future wireless systems.

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Uninformed-to-Informed Estimation: A Ping-Pong Positioning Method for Multi-user Wideband mmWave Systems

To enhance the positioning and tracking performance of dynamic user equipment (UE) in wideband millimeter-wave (mmWave) systems, we propose a novel positioning error lower bound (PELB)-driven ping-pong positioning framework, where the base station (BS) and UE alternately transmit and receive adaptive beamforming signals for positioning. All beam-formers are scheduled based on the locally evaluated PELB. In this framework, we exploit multi-dimensional information fusion to assist in positioning. Firstly, a multi-subcarrier collaborative positioning error lower bound (MSCPEB) is proposed to evaluate the positioning error limits of wideband mmWave systems, which quantifies the contribution of all subcarriers to positioning accuracy. Moreover, we prove that the MSCPEB does not exceed the arithmetic mean of the PELBs of the individual subcarriers. Subsequently, we develop an alternating optimization (AO) algorithm to optimize the hybrid beamformers targeted for MSCPEB minimization. By convexifying this problem, closed-form solutions of beamformers are derived. Finally, we develop a multipath collaborative positioning method that quantifies the impact of path reliability on positioning accuracy, with a closed-form solution for user position derived. The proposed method does not rely on path resolution and traditional triangular relationships. Numerical results validate that the proposed method improves estimation accuracy by at least 16% compared to potential schemes without optimized beam configurations, while requiring only approximately one-quarter of the slot resources.

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Beamforming-Codebook-Aware Channel Knowledge Map Construction for Multi-Antenna Systems

Channel knowledge map (CKM) has emerged as a crucial technology for next-generation communication, enabling the construction of high-fidelity mappings between spatial environments and channel parameters via electromagnetic information analysis. Traditional CKM construction methods like ray tracing are computationally intensive. Recent studies utilizing neural networks (NNs) have achieved efficient CKM generation with reduced computational complexity and real-time processing capabilities. Nevertheless, existing research predominantly focuses on single-antenna systems, failing to address the beamforming requirements inherent to MIMO configurations. Given that appropriate precoding vector selection in MIMO systems can substantially enhance user communication rates, this paper presents a TransUNet-based framework for constructing CKM, which effectively incorporates discrete Fourier transform (DFT) precoding vectors. The proposed architecture combines a UNet backbone for multiscale feature extraction with a Transformer module to capture global dependencies among encoded linear vectors. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms state-of-the-art (SOTA) deep learning (DL) approaches, yielding a 17\% improvement in RMSE compared to RadioWNet. The code is publicly accessible at https://github.com/github-whh/TransUNet.

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Lightweight and Self-Evolving Channel Twinning: An Ensemble DMD-Assisted Approach

Traditional channel acquisition faces significant limitations due to ideal model assumptions and scalability challenges. A novel environment-aware paradigm, known as channel twinning, tackles these issues by constructing radio propagation environment semantics using a data-driven approach. In the spotlight of channel twinning technology, a radio map is recognized as an effective region-specific model for learning the spatial distribution of channel information. However, most studies focus on static channel map construction, with only a few collecting numerous channel samples and using deep learning for radio map prediction. In this paper, we develop a novel dynamic radio map twinning framework with a substantially small dataset. Specifically, we present an innovative approach that employs dynamic mode decomposition (DMD) to model the evolution of the dynamic channel gain map as a dynamical system. We first interpret dynamic channel gain maps as spatio-temporal video stream data. The coarse-grained and fine-grained evolving modes are extracted from the stream data using a new ensemble DMD (Ens-DMD) algorithm. To mitigate the impact of noisy data, we design a median-based threshold mask technique to filter the noise artifacts of the twin maps. With the proposed DMD-based radio map twinning framework, numerical results are provided to demonstrate the low-complexity reproduction and evolution of the channel gain maps. Furthermore, we consider four radio map twin performance metrics to confirm the superiority of our framework compared to the baselines.

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Intelligent Reflecting Surface Enhanced Resilient Design for MEC Offloading over Millimeter Wave Links

The merge of mobile edge computing (MEC) and millimeter-wave (mmWave) communications will hopefully enable the fast access for computational resources, where these two technologies can benefit from each other's potentials. However, the high susceptibility to blocking in mmWave networks imposes crucial challenges for further development of mmWave-MEC vision. In this paper, a novel intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) assisted mmWave-MEC scheme is proposed to overcome the disruptive effect caused by blockage events. In this context, we investigate new methods to minimize mobile power for a multi-user mmWave-MEC system, thus efficiently orchestrating the uplink mobile power resources for latency-constrained computation offloading. In particular, the mobile power is optimized by joint design of individual device power, multi-user detection matrix and passive beamforming. To tackle this issue, we develop an alternating optimization framework so that the joint optimization can be decomposed into tractable subproblems. First, we provide closed-form expressions for the update of powers and multi-user detection vectors in each iteration step. Then, we reformulate the passive beamforming problem. To cater for large-scale IRS scenario, we propose two efficient algorithms including complex circle manifold optimization (CCMO) method and sum-of-inverse minimization (SIMin) fraction transform based alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) method. Finally, numerical results corroborate the merits of our proposed IRS assisted mmWave-MEC scheme, and demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of our algorithms.

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Sum Rate Maximization for Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface Assisted Device-to-Device Communications

In this letter, we propose to employ reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) for enhancing the D2D underlaying system performance. We study the joint power control, receive beamforming, and passive beamforming for RIS assisted D2D underlaying cellular communication systems, which is formulated as a sum rate maximization problem. To address this issue, we develop a block coordinate descent method where uplink power, receive beamformer and refection phase shifts are alternatively optimized. Then, we provide the closed-form solutions for both uplink power and receive beamformer. We further propose a quadratic transform based semi-definite relaxation algorithm to optimize the RIS phase shifts, where the original passive beamforming problem is translated into a separable quadratically constrained quadratic problem. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed RIS assisted design significantly improves the sum-rate performance.

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Advancing Ubiquitous Wireless Connectivity through Channel Twinning

As an emerging trend in channel acquisition (CA), the concept of channel twinning (CT) has been proposed as a powerful enabler of ubiquitous connectivity in next-generation (xG) wireless systems. By fusing multimodal sensor data, CT advocates a high-fidelity and low-overhead CA paradigm, which is promising to provide accurate channel prediction in cross-domain and high-mobility scenarios of ubiquitous xG networks. However, existing literature lacks a universal CT architecture to address the challenges of heterogeneous scenarios, data, and resources in xG networks, which hinders the widespread deployment and applications of CT. This article discusses a new modularized CT architecture to bridge scene recognition, cooperative sensing, and decentralized training, comprising versatile model configuration, multimodal cooperative sensing, and lightweight twin modeling modules. Additionally, this article presents a detailed concept, technical features, and case studies of CT, outlines mainstream trends of realization methods, followed by potential applications of CT-empowered ubiquitous connectivity, and issues requiring future investigations.

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Multi-Objective Optimization-Based Waveform Design for Multi-User and Multi-Target MIMO-ISAC Systems

Integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) opens up new service possibilities for sixth-generation (6G) systems, where both communication and sensing (C&S) functionalities co-exist by sharing the same hardware platform and radio resource. In this paper, we investigate the waveform design problem in a downlink multi-user and multi-target ISAC system under different C&S performance preferences. The multi-user interference (MUI) may critically degrade the communication performance. To eliminate the MUI, we employ the constructive interference mechanism into the ISAC system, which saves the power budget for communication. However, due to the conflict between C&S metrics, it is intractable for the ISAC system to achieve the optimal performance of C&S objective simultaneously. Therefore, it is important to strike a trade-off between C&S objectives. By virtue of the multi-objective optimization theory, we propose a weighted Tchebycheff-based transformation method to re-frame the C&S trade-off problem as a Pareto-optimal problem, thus effectively tackling the constraints in ISAC systems. Finally, simulation results reveal the trade-off relation between C&S performances, which provides insights for the flexible waveform design under different C&S performance preferences in MIMO-ISAC systems.

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Multi-Carrier NOMA-Empowered Wireless Federated Learning with Optimal Power and Bandwidth Allocation

Wireless federated learning (WFL) undergoes a communication bottleneck in uplink, limiting the number of users that can upload their local models in each global aggregation round. This paper presents a new multi-carrier non-orthogonal multiple-access (MC-NOMA)-empowered WFL system under an adaptive learning setting of Flexible Aggregation. Since a WFL round accommodates both local model training and uploading for each user, the use of Flexible Aggregation allows the users to train different numbers of iterations per round, adapting to their channel conditions and computing resources. The key idea is to use MC-NOMA to concurrently upload the local models of the users, thereby extending the local model training times of the users and increasing participating users. A new metric, namely, Weighted Global Proportion of Trained Mini-batches (WGPTM), is analytically established to measure the convergence of the new system. Another important aspect is that we maximize the WGPTM to harness the convergence of the new system by jointly optimizing the transmit powers and subchannel bandwidths. This nonconvex problem is converted equivalently to a tractable convex problem and solved efficiently using variable substitution and Cauchy's inequality. As corroborated experimentally using a convolutional neural network and an 18-layer residential network, the proposed MC-NOMA WFL can efficiently reduce communication delay, increase local model training times, and accelerate the convergence by over 40%, compared to its existing alternative.

cs.IT