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T9 - Multiple Access Techniques for 6G - VTC2025-Fall Chengdu

VTC2025-Fall Chengdu > Program > Tutorials Currently Available > T9 – Multiple Access Techniques for 6G

T9 – Multiple Access Techniques for 6G

Co-organizer: Bruno Clerckx, Imperial College London, London, UK
Co-organizer: Yijie (Lina) Mao, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China
Co-organizer: Kangchun Zhao, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China

Abstract: Multiple access (MA) is essential in wireless systems, using dimensions like time, frequency, power, antennas, and code to serve multiple users efficiently. As wireless networks evolve to support communication, sensing, localization, and computing—along with the rise of machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI)— MA techniques are expected to undergo major changes in 6G and future networks. This tutorial offers a comprehensive overview of past, emerging, and future MA techniques, emphasizing how wireless intelligence and multifunctionality will reshape them. The tutorial begins with an overview of orthogonal and non-orthogonal MA schemes across various domains, including the physical layer, space domain, power domain, rate-splitting, code domain, and other emerging dimensions. It emphasizes the importance of researching universal multiple access to unify our understanding of MA schemes across all resource dimensions—aiming to consolidate rather than expand the current fragmented knowledge tree. The tutorial then delves into the design and resource allocation strategies developed for MA, along with the growing integration of MA with AI. This includes model-based and AI-driven approaches for MA, such as resource allocation, optimization, channel estimation, receiver design, and user behavior prediction across various MA schemes. It also explores how MA enables AI, including applications in federated learning, edge intelligence, and over-the-air computation. Finally, the tutorial explores various applications of multiple access MA, with a particular emphasis on its role in enabling multifunctionality. It examines the interplay between MA and integrated sensing, localization, and communication, highlighting how MA facilitates joint sensing and communication systems.

Co-organizer’s Bios:

Bruno Clerckx

Bruno Clerckx is Professor of Wireless Communications and Signal Processing, the Head of the Communications and Signal Processing Group, and the Head of the Wireless Communications and
Signal Processing Lab, within the Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department, Imperial College London, London, U.K. He spent many years in industry with Silicon Austria Labs (SAL), Austria, where he was the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) responsible for all research areas of Austria’s top research center for electronic based systems, and with Samsung Electronics, South Korea, where he actively contributed to 4G (3GPP LTE/LTE-A and IEEE 802.16m) standardization. He also was a Professor at Korea University and a visiting Professor at Seoul National University, South Korea, and held various long or short-term visiting research appointments at Stanford University, EURECOM, National University of Singapore, The University of Hong Kong, Princeton University, The University of Edinburgh, The University of New South Wales, and Tsinghua University. He has authored two books on “MIMO Wireless Communications” and “MIMO Wireless Networks”, 300 peer reviewed international research papers, and 150 standards contributions, and is the inventor of 80 issued or pending patents among which several have been adopted in the specifications of 4G (and still in use in 5G) standards and are used by billions of devices worldwide. His research spans the general area of wireless communications and signal processing for wireless networks. He has been a Technical Program Committee (TPC) member, a symposium chair, or a TPC chair of many symposia on communication theory, signal processing for communications and wireless communications for several leading international IEEE conferences. He was an Elected Member of the IEEE Signal Processing Society SPCOM (Signal Processing for Communications and Networking) Technical Committee. He served as an Editor for the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS, the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS, and the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SIGNAL PROCESSING. He has also been a (lead) guest editor for special issues of the EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking, IEEE ACCESS, the IEEE JOURNAL ON SELECTED AREAS IN COMMUNICATIONS and the IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN SIGNAL PROCESSING, and the PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE. He was an Editor for the 3GPP LTE-Advanced Standard Technical Report on CoMP. He is the founding chair of IEEE special interest groups on Rate Splitting Multiple Access (RSMA) and Beyond Diagonal Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (BD-RIS), both being promising technologies for 6G and beyond. He received the prestigious Blondel Medal 2021 from France for exceptional work contributing to the progress of Science and Electrical and Electronic Industries, the 2021 Adolphe Wetrems Prize in mathematical and physical sciences from Royal Academy of Belgium, multiple awards from Samsung, IEEE best student paper award, and the EURASIP (European Association for Signal Processing) best paper award 2022. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and the IET, and an IEEE Communications Society Distinguished Lecturer 2021-2023. He received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), Belgium, and the Doctor of Science (DSc) degree from Imperial College London, U.K. He is also the founder and vice-chair of ETSI Industry Specification Group on Multiple Access Techniques for 6G.

Yijie (Lina) Mao

Yijie (Lina) Mao is an Assistant Professor at the School of Information Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China. She received the B.Eng. degree from the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, and the B.Eng. (Hons.) degree from the Queen Mary University of London (London, United Kingdom) in 2014. She received the Ph.D. degree in the Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department from the University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong, China) in 2018. She was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong, China) from Oct. 2018 to Jul. 2019 and a postdoctoral research associate with the Communications and Signal Processing Group (CSP), Department of the Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the Imperial College London (London, United Kingdom) from Aug. 2019 to Jul. 2021. Her research interests include the design of future wireless communications and artificial intelligence-empowered wireless networks. She is a senior member of China Institute of Communications. Dr. Mao receives the Best Paper Awards of EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking (JWCN) 2022 and IEEE International Mediterranean Conference on Communications and Networking (MeditCom) 2023, the Exemplary Reviewers for IEEE Transactions on Communications 2021 and IEEE Communications Letters 2022, 2023. She is currently serving as an associate editor for IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials and IEEE Communications Letters, and the lead guest editor for one special issue of IEEE Transactions on Green Communications and Networking. She was a guest editor for two special issues of IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications and IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society. She has been a workshop co-chair for 2020-2022 IEEE ICC, 2021-2023 IEEE WCNC, and 2020-2022 IEEE PIMRC, and she has been a Technical Program Committee (TPC) member of many symposia on wireless communication for several leading international IEEE conferences. She has been recognized as the World’s Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University in 2023, 2024.