Chirp Delay-Doppler Domain Modulation: A New Paradigm of Integrated Sensing and Communication for Autonomous Vehicles

Autonomous driving is reshaping the way humans travel, with millimeter wave (mmWave) radar playing a crucial role in this transformation to enabe vehicle-to-everything (V2X). Although chirp is widely used in mmWave radar systems for its strong sensing capabilities, the lack of integrated communication functions in existing systems may limit further advancement of autonomous driving. In light of this, we first design ``dedicated chirps" tailored for sensing chirp signals in the environment, facilitating the identification of idle time-frequency resources. Based on these dedicated chirps, we propose a chirp-division multiple access (Chirp-DMA) scheme, enabling multiple pairs of mmWave radar transceivers to perform integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) without interference. Subsequently, we propose two chirp-based delay-Doppler domain modulation schemes that enable each pair of mmWave radar transceivers to simultaneously sense and communicate within their respective time-frequency resource blocks. The modulation schemes are based on different multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar schemes: the time division multiplexing (TDM)-based scheme offers higher communication rates, while the Doppler division multiplexing (DDM)-based scheme is suitable for working in a lower signal-to-noise ratio range. We then validate the effectiveness of the proposed DDM-based scheme through simulations. Finally, we present some challenges and issues that need to be addressed to advance ISAC in V2X for better autonomous driving. Simulation codes are provided to reproduce the results in this paper: \href{https://github.com/LiZhuoRan0/2025-IEEE-Network-ChirpDelayDopplerModulationISAC}{https://github.com/LiZhuoRan0}.

Toward Near-Space Communication Network in the 6G and Beyond Era

Near-space communication network (NS-ComNet), as an indispensable component of sixth-generation (6G) and beyond mobile communication systems and the space-air-ground-sea integrated network (SAGSIN), demonstrates unique advantages in wide-area coverage, long-endurance high-altitude operation, and highly flexible deployment. This paper presents a comprehensive review of NS-ComNet for 6G and beyond era. Specifically, by contrasting satellite, low-altitude unmanned-aerial-vehicle (UAV), and terrestrial communications, we first elucidate the background and motivation for integrating NS-ComNet into 6G network architectures. Subsequently, we review the developmental status of near-space platforms, including high-altitude balloons, solar-powered UAVs, and stratospheric airships, and analyze critical challenges faced by NS-ComNet. To address these challenges, the research focuses on key enabling technologies such as topology design, resource and handover management, multi-objective joint optimization, etc., with particular emphasis on artificial intelligence techniques for NS-ComNet. Finally, envisioning future intelligent collaborative networks that integrate NS-ComNet with satellite-UAV-terrestrial systems, we explore promising directions. This paper aims to provide technical insights and research foundations for the systematic construction of NS-ComNet and its deep deployment in the 6G and beyond era.

CSI-GPT: Integrating Generative Pre-Trained Transformer with Federated-Tuning to Acquire Downlink Massive MIMO Channels

In massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, how to reliably acquire downlink channel state information (CSI) with low overhead is challenging. In this work, by integrating the generative pre-trained Transformer (GPT) with federated-tuning, we propose a CSI-GPT approach to realize efficient downlink CSI acquisition. Specifically, we first propose a Swin Transformer-based channel acquisition network (SWTCAN) to acquire downlink CSI, where pilot signals, downlink channel estimation, and uplink CSI feedback are jointly designed. Furthermore, to solve the problem of insufficient training data, we propose a variational auto-encoder-based channel sample generator (VAE-CSG), which can generate sufficient CSI samples based on a limited number of high-quality CSI data obtained from the current cell. The CSI dataset generated from VAE-CSG will be used for pre-training SWTCAN. To fine-tune the pre-trained SWTCAN for improved performance, we propose an online federated-tuning method, where only a small amount of SWTCAN parameters are unfrozen and updated using over-the-air computation, avoiding the high communication overhead caused by aggregating the complete CSI samples from user equipment (UEs) to the BS for centralized fine-tuning. Simulation results verify the advantages of the proposed SWTCAN and the communication efficiency of the proposed federated-tuning method.