LEO- and RIS-Empowered User Tracking: A Riemannian Manifold Approach

Low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites and reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) have recently drawn significant attention as two transformative technologies, and the synergy between them emerges as a promising paradigm for providing cross-environment communication and positioning services. This paper investigates an integrated terrestrial and non-terrestrial wireless network that leverages LEO satellites and RISs to achieve simultaneous tracking of the 3D position, 3D velocity, and 3D orientation of user equipment (UE). To address inherent challenges including nonlinear observation function, constrained UE state, and unknown observation statistics, we develop a Riemannian manifold-based unscented Kalman filter (UKF) method. This method propagates statistics over nonlinear functions using generated sigma points and maintains state constraints through projection onto the defined manifold space. Additionally, by employing Fisher information matrices (FIMs) of the sigma points, a belief assignment principle is proposed to approximate the unknown observation covariance matrix, thereby ensuring accurate measurement updates in the UKF procedure. Numerical results demonstrate a substantial enhancement in tracking accuracy facilitated by RIS integration, despite urban signal reception challenges from LEO satellites. In addition, extensive simulations underscore the superior performance of the proposed tracking method and FIM-based belief assignment over the adopted benchmarks. Furthermore, the robustness of the proposed UKF is verified across various uncertainty levels.

ELAA Near-Field Localization and Sensing with Partial Blockage Detection

High-frequency communication systems bring extremely large aperture arrays (ELAA) and large bandwidths, integrating localization and (bi-static) sensing functions without extra infrastructure. Such systems are likely to operate in the near-field (NF), where the performance of localization and sensing is degraded if a simplified far-field channel model is considered. However, when taking advantage of the additional geometry information in the NF, e.g., the encapsulated information in the wavefront, localization and sensing performance can be improved. In this work, we formulate a joint synchronization, localization, and sensing problem in the NF. Considering the array size could be much larger than an obstacle, the effect of partial blockage (i.e., a portion of antennas are blocked) is investigated, and a blockage detection algorithm is proposed. The simulation results show that blockage greatly impacts performance for certain positions, and the proposed blockage detection algorithm can mitigate this impact by identifying the blocked antennas.

LEO Satellite and RIS: Two Keys to Seamless Indoor and Outdoor Localization

The contemporary landscape of wireless technology underscores the critical role of precise localization services. Traditional global navigation satellite systems (GNSS)-based solutions, however, fall short when it comes to indoor environments, and existing indoor localization techniques such as electromagnetic fingerprinting methods face challenges of high implementation costs and limited coverage. This article explores an innovative solution that seamlessly blends low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites with reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs), unlocking its potential for realizing uninterrupted indoor and outdoor localization with global coverage. By leveraging the strong signal reception of the LEO satellite signals and capitalizing on the radio environment-reshaping capability of RISs, the integration of these two technologies presents a vision of a future where localization services transcend existing constraints. After a comprehensive review of the distinctive attributes of LEO satellites and RISs, we evaluate the localization error bounds for the proposed collaborative system, showcasing their promising performance on simultaneous indoor and outdoor localization. To conclude, we engage in a discussion on open problems and future research directions for LEO satellite and RIS-enabled localization.

Mutual Coupling in RIS-Aided Communication: Experimental Validation and Performance Evaluation

This paper explores the mutual coupling in the reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-aided communication. Despite the existence of several mutual coupling-aware models for RIS-aided communication, a notable gap remains due to the lack of experimental validation. This paper bridges this gap by first introducing a novel model training approach based on the 3D full-wave simulation and subsequently validating the obtained model via experimental measurements in a 1-bit quasi-passive RIS prototype operating in the mmWave band. Comparative analyses reveal precision in both the employed mutual coupling-aware model and the assessed model parameters, offering a realistic evaluation of mutual coupling in authentic RIS hardware. Utilizing the validated mutual coupling-aware communication model, we systematically examine the impact of mutual coupling on communication performance by adopting the achievable rate as a performance indicator. Our results reveal that the mutual coupling in RIS exhibits heightened significance with increased RIS amplitude gains and showcases a frequency-dependent effect.

Beamforming Design and Performance Evaluation for RIS-aided Localization using LEO Satellite Signals

The growing availability of low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, coupled with the anticipated widespread deployment of reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs), opens up promising prospects for new localization paradigms. This paper studies RIS-aided localization using LEO satellite signals. The Cram\'er-Rao bound of the considered localization problem is derived, based on which an optimal RIS beamforming design that minimizes the derived bound is proposed. Numerical results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed beamforming scheme over benchmark alternatives, while also revealing that the synergy between LEO satellites and RISs holds the promise of achieving localization accuracy at the meter or even sub-meter level.

On the Impact of Mutual Coupling on RIS-Assisted Channel Estimation

Amid the demand for densely integrated elements in holographic reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs), the mutual coupling effect has gained prominence. By performing a misspecified Cram\'er-Rao bound analysis within an electromagnetics-compliant communication model, this letter offers a quantitative evaluation of the impact of mutual coupling on RIS-assisted channel estimation. Our analysis provides insights into situations where mutual coupling can be disregarded safely. The numerical results reveal that within practical scenarios, closer integration of RIS elements or the enlargement of RIS size accentuates the impact of neglecting mutual coupling. In addition, even with mutual coupling-aware setups, excessively tight RIS element spacing can lead to substantial degradation in the channel estimation performance.

Attitude Determination in Urban Canyons: A Synergy between GNSS and 5G Observations

This paper considers the attitude determination problem based on the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) and fifth-generation (5G) measurement fusion to address the shortcomings of standalone GNSS and 5G techniques in deep urban regions. The tight fusion of the GNSS and the 5G observations results in a unique hybrid integer- and orthonormality-constrained optimization problem. To solve this problem, we propose an estimation method consisting of the steps of float solution computation, ambiguity resolution, and fixed solution computation. Numerical results reveal that the proposed method can effectively improve the attitude determination accuracy and reliability compared to either the pure GNSS solution or the pure 5G solution.

JrCUP: Joint RIS Calibration and User Positioning for 6G Wireless Systems

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted localization has attracted extensive attention as it can enable and enhance localization services in extreme scenarios. However, most existing works treat RISs as anchors with known positions and orientations, which is not realistic in the applications for mobile RISs or uncalibrated RISs. This work considers the joint RIS calibration and user positioning (JrCUP) problem in an uplink system with an active RIS. We propose a novel two-stage method to solve the considered JrCUP problem. The first stage comprises a tensor-ESPRIT estimator, followed by channel parameters refinement using least-squares. In the second stage, we propose a 2D search-based algorithm to estimate the 3D user position, 3D RIS position, 1D RIS orientation, and clock bias from the estimated channel parameters. The Cram\'er- Rao lower bounds (CRLBs) of the channel parameters and localization parameters are derived, which verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms. In addition, simulation studies reveal that the active RIS can significantly improve the localization performance compared to the passive case even with a small power supply. Moreover, we find that blind areas may occur where JrCUP localization performance is limited, which can be mitigated by either providing extra prior information or deploying more base stations.

5G-Aided RTK Positioning in GNSS-Deprived Environments

This paper considers the localization problem in a 5G-aided global navigation satellite system (GNSS) based on real-time kinematic (RTK) technique. Specifically, the user's position is estimated based on the hybrid measurements, including GNSS pseudo-ranges, GNSS carrier phases, 5G angle-of-departures, and 5G channel delays. The underlying estimation problem is solved by steps that comprise obtaining the float solution, ambiguity resolution, and resolving the fixed solution. The analysis results show that the involvement of 5G observations can enable localization under satellite-deprived environments, inclusive of extreme cases with only 2 or 3 visible satellites. Moreover, extensive simulation results reveal that with the help of 5G observations, the proposed algorithm can significantly reduce the estimation error of the user's position and increase the success rate of carrier-phase ambiguity resolution.

Multi-RIS-Enabled 3D Sidelink Positioning

Positioning is expected to be a core function in intelligent transportation systems (ITSs) to support communication and location-based services, such as autonomous driving, traffic control, etc. With the advent of low-cost reflective reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) to be deployed in beyond 5G/6G networks, extra anchors with high angular resolutions can boost signal quality and makes high-precision positioning with extended coverage possible in ITS scenarios. However, the passive nature of the RIS requires a signal source such as a base station (BS), which limits the positioning service in extreme situations, such as tunnels or dense urban areas, where 5G/6G BSs are not accessible. In this work, we show that with the assistance of (at least) two RISs and sidelink communication between two user equipments (UEs), these UEs can be localized even without any BSs involvement. A two-stage 3D sidelink positioning algorithm is proposed, benchmarked by the derived Cram\'er-Rao bounds. The effects of multipath and RIS profile designs on positioning performance are evaluated, and several scenarios with different RIS and UE locations are discussed for localizability analysis. Simulation results demonstrate the promising positioning accuracy of the proposed BS-free sidelink communication system in challenging ITS scenarios. Additionally, we propose and evaluate several solutions to eliminate potential blind areas where positioning performance is poor, such as removing clock offset via round-trip communication, adding geometrical prior or constraints, as well as introducing more RISs.