A Novel Stripe-based RIS Optimization for UAV Communications and Sensing in Low-Altitude Wireless Networks

Low-altitude wireless networks (LAWN) envision a reconfigurable 3D network capable of supporting mission-critical aerial operations. This paper presents a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted LAWN to establish a reliable communication with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) across varying wireless channel conditions and signal blockages. A low complexity stripe-based RIS phase shift optimization framework is proposed to simultaneously enhance communication reliability and provide passive sensing capability for UAV tracking under 3D mobility. Unlike high-complexity optimization approaches, the proposed method leverages the inherent structural phase-gradient of the RIS adjacent elements to significantly reduce the search space for calculating and updating the RIS configuration as the UAV moves. The analysis and simulation results demonstrate that the proposed framework outperforms conventional benchmarks in convergence speed and computational efficiency, while maintaining robust, high signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) connectivity even in the presence of phase estimation errors and low SNR regimes. In addition, the measurement experiments using a real RIS prototype in an outdoor campus environment are performed to demonstrate the practical viability of the proposed approach.

RAG-driven Multi-Agent LLM Framework with Task Decomposition for Beyond 5G Auto-Configuration

While Large Language Models (LLMs) offer a promising path toward intent-driven network management by translating natural language human intents into machine-readable configurations, they often suffer from hallucinations and structural inconsistencies in multi-step and complex tasks. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a retrieval-augmented and task decomposition-based multi-agent LLM framework for Beyond 5G network auto-configuration. The framework employs a semantic retrieval-augmented generation pipeline to ensure that its outputs are aligned with technical standards and vendor-specific manuals. Furthermore, it introduces a modular architecture for configuration generation, closed-loop configuration verification, and network deployment, in which complex tasks are decomposed into smaller sub-tasks handled by specialized agents. In this architecture, hallucinated configuration parameters are identified by the configuration verifier agent and corrected through low computational segment-level regeneration. The performance evaluation experiments with the OpenAirInterface emulator demonstrate that the proposed task decomposition-based configuration and verification approach improves the average success rate by 22.7% over monolithic methods, achieving 94.4% success in network configuration.

Radar-Assisted Beam Management Framework for mmWave NTNs: Overhead Reduction and Physical Layer Security Application

Fast and low-overhead beam management is a critical requirement for the practical deployment of non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) operating at millimeter-wave and higher frequencies. In this paper, we propose a radar-assisted beam selection framework for NTNs that limits the set of candidate beams by utilizing spatial sensing information such as the angle-of-departure (AoD) and distance estimations. To provide theoretical insight into the expected worst-case overhead, we conduct a probabilistic analysis under idealized conditions, where an approximation of the worst-case beam selection overhead is proposed and its statistics are derived under Gaussian error. Additionally, the proposed framework is applied to a physical-layer security (PLS) scenario by leveraging the radar's capability to detect passive targets that represent unintended users. The simulation results show that the unintended user's power is suppressed below -135 dBm, while an additional beamforming gain of roughly 2 dB is attained for the legitimate users.

A Novel CSI-RS Reporting Scheme for RIS Optimization in O-RAN-based NextG Networks

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) technology is a promising enabler for next-generation (NextG) wireless systems, capable of dynamically shaping the propagation environment. Integrating RIS within the open radio access network (O-RAN) architecture enables flexible and intelligent control of wireless links. However, practical RIS-assisted operation requires efficient acquisition and reporting of channel state information (CSI) to support real-time control from the base station side. This paper proposes a CSI reference signal (CSI-RS)-based reporting scheme for downlink complex channel information (CCI) to facilitate RIS optimization in an O-RAN-compliant environment. The proposed framework establishing CCI extraction and CSI-RS reporting procedures is experimentally validated on a real-world testbed integrating an open-source O-RAN system with an RIS prototype operating in the n78 frequency band. Existing channel estimation-based RIS optimization algorithms, including Hadamard and orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP), are tailored for integration into the O-RAN architecture. Experimental results demonstrate notable improvements in received signal power for both near and far users, highlighting the effectiveness and practical viability of the proposed scheme.

Space-Time Coded RIS-Assisted Wireless Systems with Practical Reflection Models: Error Rate Analysis and Negative Moment-Based Optimization with Saddle Point Approximation

RIS-assisted communication has recently attracted significant attention for enhancing wireless performance in challenging environments, making accurate error analysis under practical hardware constraints crucial for future multi-antenna systems. This paper presents a theoretical framework for SER analysis of RIS-assisted multiple antenna systems employing OSTBC under practical reflection models with amplitude-dependent and quantized phase responses. By exploiting the Gramian structure of the cascaded channel f, we derive exact MGF expressions of the nonzero eigenvalue of f'f for small RIS sizes. For large-scale RIS deployments, where closed-form analysis becomes intractable, we employ Saddle Point Approximation to approximate the eigenvalue distribution. Using these results, we derive unified SER expressions using exact and SPA-based MGF formulations, applicable to arbitrary RIS sizes, phase configuration, and both identical and non-identical amplitude responses. Extensive Monte Carlo simulations confirm the accuracy of the proposed SER expressions, demonstrating very close agreement for all configurations.

Joint Phase Shift Optimization and Precoder Selection for RIS-Assisted 5G NR MIMO Systems

By intelligently reconfiguring wireless propagation environment, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) can enhance signal quality, suppress interference, and improve channel conditions, thereby serving as a powerful complement to multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) architectures. However, jointly optimizing the RIS phase shifts and the MIMO transmit precoder in 5G and beyond networks remains largely unexplored. This paper addresses this gap by proposing a singular value ($\lambda$)-based RIS optimization strategy, where the phase shifts are configured to maximize the dominant singular values of the cascaded channel matrix, and the corresponding singular vectors are utilized for MIMO transmit precoding. The proposed precoder selection does not require mutual information computation across subbands, thereby reducing time complexity. To solve the $\lambda$-based optimization problem, maximum cross-swapping algorithm (MCA) is applied while an effective rank-based method is utilized for benchmarking purposes. The simulation results show that the proposed precoder selection method consistently outperforms the conventional approach under $\lambda$-based RIS optimization.

Interference Modulation: A Novel Technique for Low-Rate and Power Efficient Multiple Access

The majority of spatial signal processing techniques focus on increasing the total system capacity and providing high data rates for intended user(s). Unlike the existing studies, this paper introduces a novel interference modulation method that exploits the correlation between wireless channels to enable low-data-rate transmission towards additional users with a minimal power allocation. The proposed method changes the interference power at specific channels to modulate a low-rate on-off keying signal. This is achieved by appropriately setting the radiation pattern of front-end components of a transmitter, i.e., analog beamforming weights or metasurface configuration. The paper investigates theoretical performance limits and analyzes the efficiency in terms of sum rate. Bit error rate simulation results are closely matched with theoretical findings. The initial findings indicate that the proposed technique can be instrumental in providing reduced capability communication using minimal power consumption in 6G networks.

Theoretical and Experimental Assessment of Large Beam Codebook at mmWave Devices: How Much is Enough?

Modern millimeter wave (mmWave) transceivers come with a large number of antennas, each of which can support thousands of phase shifter configurations. This capability enables beam sweeping with fine angular resolution, but results in large codebook sizes that can span more than six orders of magnitude. On the other hand, the mobility of user terminals and their randomly changing orientations require constantly adjusting the beam direction. A key focus of recent research has been on the design of beam sweeping codebooks that balance a trade-off between the achievable gain and the beam search time, governed by the codebook size. In this paper, we investigate the extent to which a large codebook can be reduced to fewer steering vectors while covering the entire angular space and maintaining performance close to the maximum array gain. We derive a closed-form expression for the angular coverage range of a steering vector, subject to maintaining a gain loss within \(\gamma\) dB (e.g., 2\, dB) with respect to the maximum gain achieved by an infinitely large codebook. We demonstrate, both theoretically and experimentally, that a large beam-steering codebooks (such as the \(1024^{16}\) set considered in our experiment) can be reduced to just a few steering vectors. This framework serves as a proof that only a few steering vectors are sufficient to achieve near-maximum gain, challenging the common belief that a large codebook with fine angular resolution is essential to fully reap the benefits of an antenna array.

On Outage Analysis of OTFS Based LEO-Satellite Systems With HAPS Relaying

This paper presents an Orthogonal Time Frequency Space (OTFS) waveform application along with a high altitude platform station (HAPS) relaying for remedying severe Doppler effects in non-terrestrial networks (NTNs). Taking practical challenges into consideration, HAPS is exploited as a decode and forward relay node to mitigate the high path loss between a satellite and a base station (BS). In addition, a maximum ratio transmission scheme with multiple antennas at the LEO-satellite is utilized to maximize Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR). A shadowed Rician fading model is employed for the channel realization between the LEO-satellite and the HAPS while Nakagami-m is used between the HAPS and the BS. We derive the closed-form expression of the outage probability (OP) for the end-to-end system. The theoretical and simulation results demonstrate that the OP can significantly decrease when the OTFS order and the number of transmit antennas increase.

RIS Meets O-RAN: A Practical Demonstration of Multi-user RIS Optimization through RIC

Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) along with artificial intelligence, machine learning, cloud and edge networking, and virtualization are important enablers for designing flexible and software-driven programmable wireless networks. In addition, Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS) represent an innovative technology to direct incoming radio signals toward desired locations by software-controlled passive reflecting antenna elements. Despite their distinctive potential, there has been limited exploration of integrating RIS with the O-RAN framework, an area that holds promise for enhancing next-generation wireless systems. This paper addresses this gap by designing and developing the RIS optimization xApps within an O-RAN-based real-time 5G environment. We perform extensive measurement experiments using an end-to-end 5G testbed including the RIS prototype in a multi-user scenario. The results demonstrate that the RIS can be utilized either to boost the performance of the selected user or to provide the fairness among the users or to balance the tradeoff between the performance and fairness.