Channel Estimation for Pinching-Antenna Systems (PASS)

Pinching Antennas (PAs) represent a revolutionary flexible antenna technology that leverages dielectric waveguides and electromagnetic coupling to mitigate large-scale path loss. This letter is the first to explore channel estimation for Pinching-Antenna SyStems (PASS), addressing their uniquely ill-conditioned and underdetermined channel characteristics. In particular, two efficient deep learning-based channel estimators are proposed. 1) PAMoE: This estimator incorporates dynamic padding, feature embedding, fusion, and mixture of experts (MoE) modules, which effectively leverage the positional information of PAs and exploit expert diversity. 2) PAformer: This Transformer-style estimator employs the self-attention mechanism to predict channel coefficients in a per-antenna manner, which offers more flexibility to adaptively deal with dynamic numbers of PAs in practical deployment. Numerical results demonstrate that 1) the proposed deep learning-based channel estimators outperform conventional methods and exhibit excellent zero-shot learning capabilities, and 2) PAMoE delivers higher channel estimation accuracy via MoE specialization, while PAformer natively handles an arbitrary number of PAs, trading self-attention complexity for superior scalability.

Unsupervised Learning for AoD Estimation in MISO Downlink LoS Transmissions

With the emerging of simultaneous localization and communication (SLAC), it becomes more and more attractive to perform angle of departure (AoD) estimation at the receiving Internet of Thing (IoT) user end for improved positioning accuracy, flexibility and enhanced user privacy. To address challenges like large number of real-time measurements required for latency-critical applications and enormous data collection for training deep learning models in conventional AoD estimation methods, we propose in this letter an unsupervised learning framework, which unifies training for both deterministic maximum likelihood (DML) and stochastic maximum likelihood (SML) based AoD estimation in multiple-input single-output (MISO) downlink (DL) wireless transmissions. Specifically, under the line-of-sight (LoS) assumption, we incorporate both the received signals and pilot-sequence information, as per its availability at the DL user, into the input of the deep learning model, and adopt a common neural network architecture compatible with input data in both DML and SML cases. Extensive numerical results validate that the proposed unsupervised learning based AoD estimation not only improves estimation accuracy, but also significantly reduces required number of observations, thereby reducing both estimation overhead and latency compared to various benchmarks.

Phase-mismatched STAR-RIS with FAS-assisted RSMA Users

This paper considers communication between a base station (BS) to two users, each from one side of a simultaneously transmitting-reflecting reconfigurable intelligent surface (STAR-RIS) in the absence of a direct link. Rate-splitting multiple access (RSMA) strategy is employed and the STAR-RIS is subjected to phase errors. The users are equipped with a planar fluid antenna system (FAS) with position reconfigurability for spatial diversity. First, we derive the distribution of the equivalent channel gain at the FAS-equipped users, characterized by a t-distribution. We then obtain analytical expressions for the outage probability (OP) and average capacity (AC), with the latter obtained via a heuristic approach. Our findings highlight the potential of FAS to mitigate phase imperfections in STAR-RIS-assisted communications, significantly enhancing system performance compared to traditional antenna systems (TAS). Also, we quantify the impact of practical phase errors on system efficiency, emphasizing the importance of robust strategies for next-generation wireless networks.

Physical Layer Security for Pinching-Antenna Systems (PASS)

The pinching-antenna system (PASS) introduces new degrees of freedom (DoFs) for physical layer security (PLS) through pinching beamforming. In this paper, a couple of scenarios for secure beamforming for PASS are studied. 1) For the case with a single legitimate user (Bob) and a single eavesdropper (Eve), a closed-form expression for the optimal baseband beamformer is derived. On this basis, a gradient-based method is proposed to optimize the activated positions of pinching antennas (PAs). 2) For the case with multiple Bobs and multiple Eves, a fractional programming (FP)-based block coordinate descent (BCD) algorithm, termed FP-BCD, is proposed for optimizing the weighted secrecy sum-rate (WSSR). Specifically, a closed-form baseband beamformer is obtained via Lagrange multiplier method. Furthermore, owing to the non-convex objective function exhibiting numerous stationary points, a low-complexity one-dimensional search is used to find a high-quality solution of the PAs' activated locations. Numerical results are provided to demonstrate that: i) All proposed algorithms achieve stable convergence within a few iterations, ii) across all considered power ranges, the FP-BCD algorithm outperforms baseline methods using zero-forcing (ZF) and maximal-ratio transmission (MRT) beamforming in terms of the WSSR, and iii) PASS achieves a significantly higher secrecy rate than traditional fixed-antenna systems.

Waveguide Division Multiple Access for Pinching-Antenna Systems (PASS)

A novel concept of waveguide division multiple access (WDMA) is proposed for multi-user pinching-antenna systems (PASS). The key principle of WDMA is to allocate each user with a dedicated waveguide, which is regarded as a new type of radio resources, so as to facilitate multi-user communications. By adjusting the activation positions of pinching antennas (PAs) over each waveguide, the pinching beamforming can be exploited for intended user signal enhancement and inter-user interference mitigation. Considering both ideal continuous and practical discrete PA position activation schemes, a joint power allocation and pinching beamforming optimization problem is formulated for the maximization of the sum rate. An alternating optimization-based algorithm is developed to address the formulated nonconvex problem. For solving the power allocation subproblem, the successive convex approximation method is invoked. For the pinching beamforming design subproblem, a penalty-based gradient ascent algorithm is first developed for the continuous PA activation case. Then, for the discrete PA activation case, a matching theory-based algorithm is proposed to achieve the near-optimal performance but with a low complexity. Numerical results unveil that: 1) For both continuous and discrete activation cases, PASS can achieve a significant performance gain over conventional fixed-position antenna systems; 2) the proposed WDMA can effectively underpin multi-user communications with the near orthogonality in free space achieved by the pinching beamforming; and 3) the performance gap between the discrete and continuous activation cases can be significantly alleviated with practically feasible numbers of PA candidate positions.

Pinching-Antenna System (PASS)-enabled Multicast Communications

Pinching-antenna system (PASS) is a novel flexible-antenna technology, which employs long-spread waveguides to convey signals with negligible path loss and pinching antennas (PAs) with adjustable positions to radiate signals from the waveguide into the free space. Therefore, short-distance and strong line-of-sight transmission can be established. In this paper, a novel PASS-enabled multicast communication framework is proposed, where multiple PAs on a single waveguide radiate the broadcast signals to multiple users. The multicast performance maximization problem is formulated to optimize the positions of all PAs. To address this non-convex problem, a particle swarm optimization-based algorithm is developed. Numerical results show that PASS can significantly outperform the conventional multiple-antenna transmission.

Near-Field Motion Parameter Estimation: A Variational Bayesian Approach

A near-field motion parameter estimation method is proposed. In contract to far-field sensing systems, the near-field sensing system leverages spherical-wave characteristics to enable full-vector location and velocity estimation. Despite promising advantages, the near-field sensing system faces a significant challenge, where location and velocity parameters are intricately coupled within the signal. To address this challenge, a novel subarray-based variational message passing (VMP) method is proposed for near-field joint location and velocity estimation. First, a factor graph representation is introduced, employing subarray-level directional and Doppler parameters as intermediate variables to decouple the complex location-velocity dependencies. Based on this, the variational Bayesian inference is employed to obtain closed-form posterior distributions of subarray-level parameters. Subsequently, the message passing technique is employed, enabling tractable computation of location and velocity marginal distributions. Two implementation strategies are proposed: 1) System-level fusion that aggregates all subarray posteriors for centralized estimation, or 2) Subarray-level fusion where locally processed estimates from subarrays are fused through Guassian product rule. Cram\'er-Rao bounds for location and velocity estimation are derived, providing theoretical performance limits. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed VMP method outperforms existing approaches while achieving a magnitude lower complexity. Specifically, the proposed VMP method achieves centimeter-level location accuracy and sub-m/s velocity accuracy. It also demonstrates robust performance for high-mobility targets, making the proposed VMP method suitable for real-time near-field sensing and communication applications.

Electromagnetic Degrees of Freedom for Continuous-Aperture Array (CAPA) Systems

The spatial degrees of freedom (DoFs) of a continuous-aperture array (CAPA)-based continuous electromagnetic (EM) channel are analyzed. To this end, a simplified spatial model is derived using the Fresnel approximation. Leveraging this model and Landau's theorem, a closed-form expression for the spatial DoFs is derived. It is demonstrated that the number of DoFs is proportional to the transmit and receive aperture sizes while being inversely proportional to the propagation distance. Numerical results are provided to validate the accuracy of the derived expressions.

Joint Transmit and Pinching Beamforming for PASS: Optimization-Based or Learning-Based?

A novel pinching antenna system (PASS)-enabled downlink multi-user multiple-input single-output (MISO) framework is proposed. PASS consists of multiple waveguides spanning over thousands of wavelength, which equip numerous low-cost dielectric particles, named pinching antennas (PAs), to radiate signals into free space. The positions of PAs can be reconfigured to change both the large-scale path losses and phases of signals, thus facilitating the novel pinching beamforming design. A sum rate maximization problem is formulated, which jointly optimizes the transmit and pinching beamforming to adaptively achieve constructive signal enhancement and destructive interference mitigation. To solve this highly coupled and nonconvex problem, both optimization-based and learning-based methods are proposed. 1) For the optimization-based method, a majorization-minimization and penalty dual decomposition (MM-PDD) algorithm is developed, which handles the nonconvex complex exponential component using a Lipschitz surrogate function and then invokes PDD for problem decoupling. 2) For the learning-based method, a novel Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT)-guided dual learning (KDL) approach is proposed, which enables KKT solutions to be reconstructed in a data-driven manner by learning dual variables. Following this idea, a KDL-Tranformer algorithm is developed, which captures both inter-PA/inter-user dependencies and channel-state-information (CSI)-beamforming dependencies by attention mechanisms. Simulation results demonstrate that: i) The proposed PASS framework significantly outperforms conventional massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) system even with a few PAs. ii) The proposed KDL-Transformer can improve over 30% system performance than MM-PDD algorithm, while achieving a millisecond-level response on modern GPUs.

Electromagnetic Channel Statistics for Continuous-Aperture Array (CAPA) Systems

The channel statistics of a continuous-aperture array (CAPA)-based channel are analyzed using its continuous electromagnetic (EM) properties. The received signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is discussed under isotropic scattering conditions. Using Landau's theorem, the eigenvalues of the autocorrelation of the EM fading channel are shown to exhibit a step-like behavior. Building on this, closed-form expressions for the probability distribution of the SNR and the average channel capacity are derived. Numerical results are provided to validate the accuracy of the derivations.