T6: Near-Field XL-MIMO Communication and Sensing Towards 6G: Opportunities and Challenges

Organizer: Changsheng You, Southern University of Science and Technology, China
Organizer: Yong Zeng, Southeast University, China
Organizer: Jiayi Zhang, Beijing Jiaotong University, China

Abstract: Extremely large-scale multiple-input multiple-output (XL-MIMO) is a promising technology for the sixth-generation (6G) mobile communication networks. By significantly boost- ing the antenna number or size to at least an order of magnitude beyond current massive MIMO systems, XL-MIMO is expected to unprecedentedly enhance the spectral efficiency and spatial resolution for wireless communication. The evolution from massive MIMO to XL-MIMO is not simply an increase in the array size, but faces new design challenges, in terms of near-field channel modelling, performance analysis, channel estimation, sensing, and practical implementation, which have not been well studied in the existing literature. In this tutorial, we will give a comprehensive tutorial overview on near-field XL-MIMO communication and sensing, aiming to provide useful guidance for tackling the above challenges. To this end, we will first introduce the basic near-field modelling for XL- MIMO, by considering the new characteristics of non-uniform spherical wave (NUSW) and spatial non-stationarity. Next, for near-field XL-MIMO communication systems, the communication performance analysis will be presented, including near-field signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) scaling laws, beam focusing pattern, achievable rate, and degrees-of-freedom (DoF). Moreover, various communication design issues will be discussed such as near-field beam codebook, beam training, channel estimation, and delay alignment modulation (DAM) transmission. On the other hand, for near-field XL-MIMO sensing, we will elaborate its efficient signal processing techniques as well as near-field sensing performance. Finally, we will point out promising directions to inspire future research on near-field XL-MIMO communication and sensing.

Organizer’s bios:

Changsheng You is an Assistant Professor at Southern University of Science and Technology. He received his B.Eng. degree in 2014 from University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) and Ph.D. degree in 2018 from The University of Hong Kong (HKU). He is currently an Assistant Profes- sor at Southern University of Science and Technology, and was a Research Fellow at National University of Singapore (NUS). His research interests include intelligent reflecting surface, UAV communications, edge learning, mobile-edge computing. Dr. You is a Guest Editor for IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications (JSAC), an editor for IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications (TWC), IEEE Communications Letters (CL), IEEE Transactions on Green Communications and Networking (TGCN), and IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society (OJ-COMS). He has published more than 60 papers in IEEE leading journals and conferences in wireless communications, among which three papers are listed as ESI Hot Papers, and nine are ESI Highly Cited; his Google Scholar Citation has reached 12,000. He received the IEEE Communications Society Asia-Pacific Region Outstanding Paper Award in 2019, IEEE ComSoc Best Survey Paper Award in 2021, IEEE ComSoc Best Tutorial Paper Award in 2023. He is listed as the Highly Cited Chinese Researcher.

Yong Zeng is a Professor with the National Mobile Communications Research Laboratory, Southeast University, China, and also with the Purple Mountain Laboratories, Nanjing, China. He received the Bachelor of Engineering and Ph.D. degrees from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. From 2013 to 2018, he was a Research Fellow and Senior Research Fellow at National University of Singapore. From 2018 to 2019, he was a Lecturer at the School of Electrical and Information Engineering, the University of Sydney, Australia. Prof. Zeng was listed as Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate Analytics for four consecutive years (2019-2022). He is the recipient of the Australia Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA), 2020 IEEE Marconi Prize Paper Award in Wireless Communications, 2018 IEEE Communications Society Asia-Pacific Outstanding Young Researcher Award, 2020 & 2017 IEEE Communications Society Heinrich Hertz Prize Paper Award, 2021 IEEE ICC Best Paper Award, and 2021 China Communications Best Paper Award. He serves as an Associated Editor for IEEE Communications Letters and IEEE Open Journal of Vehicular Technology, Leading Guest Editor for IEEE Wireless Communications on “Integrating UAVs into 5G and Beyond” and China Communications on “Network-Connected UAV Communications”. He is the Symposium Chair for IEEE Globecom 2021 Track on Aerial Communications, the workshop co-chair for ICC 2018-2023 workshop on UAV communications, the tutorial speaker for IEEE Globecom 2018/2019 and ICC 2019 tutorials on UAV communications.

Jiayi Zhang received the Ph.D. degree of Communication Engineering from Beijing Jiao-tong University, China in 2014. Since 2016, he has been a Professor with School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, China. From 2014 to 2016, he was a Post- doctoral Research Associate with the Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University, China. From 2014 to 2015, he was also a Humboldt Research Fellow in Institute for Digital Communications, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Germany. His current research interests include cell- free massive MIMO, reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS), communication theory and applied mathematics. Dr. Zhang received the Best Paper Awards at IEEE ICC 2023, WCSP 2017 and APCC 2017, the URSI Young Scientist Award in 2020, and the IEEE ComSoc Asia-Pacific Outstanding Young Researcher Award in 2020. He was recognized as an exemplary reviewer of the IEEE COMMUNICATIONS LETTERS in 2015- 2017. He was also recognized as an exemplary reviewer of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COM- MUNICATIONS in 2017-2019. He was the Lead Guest Editor of the special issue on “Multiple Antenna Technologies for Beyond 5G” of the IEEE JOURNAL ON SELECTED AREAS IN COMMUNICATIONS. He was the Editor of IEEE COM- MUNICATIONS LETTERS from 2017-2021. He currently serves as an Associate Editor for IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS and IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS.