Fluid Antenna-Aided Rate-Splitting Multiple Access

This letter considers a fluid antenna system (FAS)-aided rate-splitting multiple access (RSMA) approach for downlink transmission. In particular, a base station (BS) equipped with a single traditional antenna system (TAS) uses RSMA signaling to send information to several mobile users (MUs) each equipped with FAS. To understand the achievable performance, we first present the distribution of the equivalent channel gain based on the joint multivariate t-distribution and then derive a compact analytical expression for the outage probability (OP). Moreover, we obtain the asymptotic OP in the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regime. Numerical results show that combining FAS with RSMA significantly outperforms TAS and conventional multiple access schemes, such as non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), in terms of OP. The results also indicate that FAS can be the tool that greatly improves the practicality of RSMA.

Performance Analysis of FAS-Aided NOMA-ISAC: A Backscattering Scenario

This paper investigates a two-user downlink system for integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) in which the two users deploy a fluid antenna system (FAS) and adopt the nonorthogonal multiple access (NOMA) strategy. Specifically, the integrated sensing and backscatter communication (ISABC) model is considered, where a dual-functional base station (BS) serves to communicate the two users and sense a tag's surrounding. In contrast to conventional ISAC, the backscattering tag reflects the signals transmitted by the BS to the NOMA users and enhances their communication performance. Furthermore, the BS extracts environmental information from the same backscatter signal in the sensing stage. Firstly, we derive closed-form expressions for both the cumulative distribution function (CDF) and probability density function (PDF) of the equivalent channel at the users utilizing the moment matching method and the Gaussian copula. Then in the communication stage, we obtain closed-form expressions for both the outage probability and for the corresponding asymptotic expressions in the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regime. Moreover, using numerical integration techniques such as the Gauss-Laguerre quadrature (GLQ), we have series-form expressions for the user ergodic communication rates (ECRs). In addition, we get a closed-form expression for the ergodic sensing rate (ESR) using the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB). Finally, the accuracy of our analytical results is validated numerically, and we confirm the superiority of employing FAS over traditional fixed-position antenna systems in both ISAC and ISABC.

Physical Layer Security over Fluid Antenna Systems

This paper investigates the performance of physical layer security (PLS) in fluid antenna-aided communication systems under arbitrary correlated fading channels. In particular, it is considered that a single fixed-antenna transmitter aims to send confidential information to a legitimate receiver equipped with a planar fluid antenna system (FAS), while an eavesdropper, also taking advantage of a planar FAS, attempts to decode the desired message. For this scenario, we first present analytical expressions of the equivalent channel distributions at the legitimate user and eavesdropper by using copula, so that the obtained analytical results are valid for any arbitrarily correlated fading distributions. Then, with the help of Gauss-Laguerre quadrature, we derive compact analytical expressions for the average secrecy capacity (ASC), the secrecy outage probability (SOP), and the secrecy energy efficiency (SEE) for the FAS wiretap channel. Moreover, for exemplary purposes, we also obtain the compact expression of ASC, SOP, and SEE by utilizing the Gaussian copula under correlated Rayleigh fading channels as a special case. Eventually, numerical results indicate that applying the fluid antenna with only one active port to PLS can guarantee more secure and reliable transmission, when compared to traditional antenna systems (TAS) exploiting maximal ratio combining (MRC).

Fluid Antenna-Assisted Dirty Multiple Access Channels over Composite Fading

This letter investigates the application of the emerging fluid antenna (FA) technology in multiuser communication systems when side information (SI) is available at the transmitters. In particular, we consider a K-user dirty multiple access channel (DMAC) with non-causally known SI at the transmitters, where K users send independent messages to a common receiver with a FA capable of changing its location depending on the channel condition. By connecting Jakes' model to copula theory through Spearman's {\rho} rank correlation coefficient, we accurately describe the spatial correlation between the FA channels, and derive a closed-form expression for the outage probability (OP) under Fisher-Snedecor F fading. Numerical results illustrate how considering FA can improve the performance of multiuser communication systems in terms of the OP and also support a large number of users using only one FA at the common receiver in a few wavelengths of space.

A Gaussian Copula Approach to the Performance Analysis of Fluid Antenna Systems

This paper investigates the performance of a singleuser fluid antenna system (FAS), by exploiting a class of elliptical copulas to describe the structure of dependency amongst the fluid antenna ports. By expressing Jakes' model in terms of the Gaussian copula, we consider two cases: (i) the general case, i.e., any arbitrary correlated fading distribution; and (ii) the specific case, i.e., correlated Nakagami-m fading. For both scenarios, we first derive analytical expressions for the cumulative distribution function (CDF) and probability density function (PDF) of the equivalent channel in terms of multivariate normal distribution. Then, we obtain the outage probability (OP) and the delay outage rate (DOR) to analyze the performance of the FAS. By employing the popular rank correlation coefficients such as Spearman's \{rho} and Kendall's {\tau}, we measure the degree of dependency in correlated arbitrary fading channels and illustrate how the Gaussian copula can be accurately connected to Jakes' model in FAS without complicated mathematical analysis. Numerical results show that increasing the fluid antenna size provides lower OP and DOR, but the system performance saturates as the number of antenna ports increases. In addition, our results indicate that FAS provides better performance compared to conventional single-fixed antenna systems even when the size of fluid antenna is small.

Empirical Validation of a Class of Ray-Based Fading Models

As new wireless standards are developed, the use of higher operation frequencies comes in hand with new use cases and propagation effects that differ from the well-established state of the art. Numerous stochastic fading models have recently emerged under the umbrella of generalized fading conditions, to provide a fine-grain characterization of propagation channels in the mmWave and sub-THz bands. For the first time in literature, this work carries out an experimental validation of a class of such ray-based models, in a wide range of propagation conditions (anechoic, reverberation and indoor) at mmWave bands. We show that the independently fluctuating two-ray (IFTR) model has good capabilities to recreate rather dissimilar environments with high accuracy. We also put forth that the key limitations of the IFTR model arise in the presence of reduced diffuse propagation, and also due to a limited phase variability for the dominant specular components.

Analytical Characterization of Coverage Regions for STAR-RIS-aided NOMA/OMA Communication Systems

We provide an analytical characterization of the coverage region of simultaneously transmitting and reflecting reconfigurable intelligent surface (STAR-RIS)-aided two-user downlink communication systems. The cases of orthogonal multiple access (OMA) and non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) are considered, under the energy-splitting (ES) protocol. Results confirm that the use of STAR-RISs is beneficial to extend the coverage region, and that the use of NOMA provides a better performance compared to the OMA counterpart.

Copula-based Performance Analysis for Fluid Antenna Systems under Arbitrary Fading Channels

In this letter, we study the performance of a single-user fluid antenna system (FAS) under arbitrary fading distributions, in which the fading channel coefficients over the ports are correlated. We adopt copula theory to model the structure of dependency between fading coefficients. Specifically, we first derive an exact closed-from expression for the outage probability in the most general case, i.e., for any arbitrary choice of fading distribution and copula. Afterwards, for an important specific case, we analyze the performance of the outage probability under correlated Nakagami-$m$ fading channels by exploiting popular Archimedean copulas, namely, Frank, Clayton, and Gumbel. The results demonstrate that FAS outperforms the conventional single fixed-antenna system in terms of the outage probability. We also see that the spatial correlation dependency structure for the FAS is a key factor to determine its performance, which is natively captured through the choice of copula.

Joint User Scheduling and Precoding for XL-MIMO Systems with Imperfect CSI

We propose an algorithm for joint precoding and user selection in multiple-input multiple-output systems with extremely-large aperture arrays, assuming realistic channel conditions and imperfect channel estimates. The use of long-term channel state information (CSI) for user scheduling, and a proper selection of the set of users for which CSI is updated allow for obtaining an improved achievable sum spectral efficiency. We also confirm that the effect of imperfect CSI in the precoding vector design and the cost of training must be taken into consideration for realistic performance prediction.

The Second Order Scattering Fading Model with Fluctuating Line-of-Sight

We present a generalization of the notoriously unwieldy second-order scattering fading model, which is helpful to alleviate its mathematical complexity while providing an additional degree of freedom. This is accomplished by allowing its dominant specular component associated to line-of-sight propagation to randomly fluctuate. The statistical characterization of the newly proposed model is carried out, providing closed-form expressions for its probability and cumulative distribution functions, as well as for its generalized Laplace-domain statistics and raw moments. We exemplify how performance analysis can be done in this scenario, and discuss the role of the fading model parameters on system performance.