Semantic Pilot Design for Data-Aided Channel Estimation Using a Large Language Model

This paper proposes a semantic pilot design for data-aided channel estimation in text-inclusive data transmission, using a large language model (LLM). In this scenario, channel impairments often appear as typographical errors in the decoded text, which can be corrected using an LLM. The proposed method compares the initially decoded text with the LLM-corrected version to identify reliable decoded symbols. A set of selected symbols, referred to as a semantic pilot, is used as an additional pilot for data-aided channel estimation. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first to leverage semantic information for reliable symbol selection. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme outperforms conventional pilot-only estimation, achieving lower normalized mean squared error and phase error of the estimated channel, as well as reduced bit error rate.

User-Centric Stream Sensing for Grant-Free Access: Deep Learning with Covariance Differencing

Grant-free (GF) access is essential for massive connectivity but faces collision risks due to uncoordinated transmissions. While user-side sensing can mitigate these collisions by enabling autonomous transmission decisions, conventional methods become ineffective in overloaded scenarios where active streams exceed receive antennas. To address this problem, we propose a differential stream sensing framework that reframes the problem from estimating the total stream count to isolating newly activated streams via covariance differencing. We analyze the covariance deviation induced by channel variations to establish a theoretical bound based on channel correlation for determining the sensing window size. To mitigate residual interference from finite sampling, a deep learning (DL) classifier is integrated. Simulations across both independent and identically distributed flat Rayleigh fading and standardized channel environments demonstrate that the proposed method consistently outperforms non-DL baselines and remains robust in overloaded scenarios.

ALERT Open Dataset and Input-Size-Agnostic Vision Transformer for Driver Activity Recognition using IR-UWB

Distracted driving contributes to fatal crashes worldwide. To address this, researchers are using driver activity recognition (DAR) with impulse radio ultra-wideband (IR-UWB) radar, which offers advantages such as interference resistance, low power consumption, and privacy preservation. However, two challenges limit its adoption: the lack of large-scale real-world UWB datasets covering diverse distracted driving behaviors, and the difficulty of adapting fixed-input Vision Transformers (ViTs) to UWB radar data with non-standard dimensions. This work addresses both challenges. We present the ALERT dataset, which contains 10,220 radar samples of seven distracted driving activities collected in real driving conditions. We also propose the input-size-agnostic Vision Transformer (ISA-ViT), a framework designed for radar-based DAR. The proposed method resizes UWB data to meet ViT input requirements while preserving radar-specific information such as Doppler shifts and phase characteristics. By adjusting patch configurations and leveraging pre-trained positional embedding vectors (PEVs), ISA-ViT overcomes the limitations of naive resizing approaches. In addition, a domain fusion strategy combines range- and frequency-domain features to further improve classification performance. Comprehensive experiments demonstrate that ISA-ViT achieves a 22.68% accuracy improvement over an existing ViT-based approach for UWB-based DAR. By publicly releasing the ALERT dataset and detailing our input-size-agnostic strategy, this work facilitates the development of more robust and scalable distracted driving detection systems for real-world deployment.

Faithful and Fast Influence Function via Advanced Sampling

How can we explain the influence of training data on black-box models? Influence functions (IFs) offer a post-hoc solution by utilizing gradients and Hessians. However, computing the Hessian for an entire dataset is resource-intensive, necessitating a feasible alternative. A common approach involves randomly sampling a small subset of the training data, but this method often results in highly inconsistent IF estimates due to the high variance in sample configurations. To address this, we propose two advanced sampling techniques based on features and logits. These samplers select a small yet representative subset of the entire dataset by considering the stochastic distribution of features or logits, thereby enhancing the accuracy of IF estimations. We validate our approach through class removal experiments, a typical application of IFs, using the F1-score to measure how effectively the model forgets the removed class while maintaining inference consistency on the remaining classes. Our method reduces computation time by 30.1% and memory usage by 42.2%, or improves the F1-score by 2.5% compared to the baseline.

Large Multimodal Models-Empowered Task-Oriented Autonomous Communications: Design Methodology and Implementation Challenges

Large language models (LLMs) and large multimodal models (LMMs) have achieved unprecedented breakthrough, showcasing remarkable capabilities in natural language understanding, generation, and complex reasoning. This transformative potential has positioned them as key enablers for 6G autonomous communications among machines, vehicles, and humanoids. In this article, we provide an overview of task-oriented autonomous communications with LLMs/LMMs, focusing on multimodal sensing integration, adaptive reconfiguration, and prompt/fine-tuning strategies for wireless tasks. We demonstrate the framework through three case studies: LMM-based traffic control, LLM-based robot scheduling, and LMM-based environment-aware channel estimation. From experimental results, we show that the proposed LLM/LMM-aided autonomous systems significantly outperform conventional and discriminative deep learning (DL) model-based techniques, maintaining robustness under dynamic objectives, varying input parameters, and heterogeneous multimodal conditions where conventional static optimization degrades.

Multiple Active STAR-RIS-Assisted Secure Integrated Sensing and Communication via Cooperative Beamforming

This paper explores an integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) network empowered by multiple active simultaneously transmitting and reflecting reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (STAR-RISs). A base station (BS) furnishes downlink communication to multiple users while concurrently interrogating a sensing target. We jointly optimize the BS transmit beamformer and the reflection/transmission coefficients of every active STAR-RIS in order to maximize the aggregate communication sum-rate, subject to (i) a stringent sensing signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) requirement, (ii) an upper bound on the leakage of confidential information, and (iii) individual hardware and total power constraints at both the BS and the STAR-RISs. The resulting highly non-convex program is tackled with an efficient alternating optimization (AO) framework. First, the original formulation is reformulated into an equivalent yet more tractable representation and partitioned into subproblems. The BS beamformer is updated in closed form via the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) conditions, whereas the STAR-RIS reflection and transmission vectors are refined through successive convex approximation (SCA), yielding a semidefinite program that is then solved via semidefinite relaxation. Comprehensive simulations demonstrate that the proposed algorithm delivers substantial sum-rate gains over passive-RIS and single STAR-RIS baselines, all the while rigorously meeting the prescribed sensing and security constraints.

Joint Spectrum Sensing and Resource Allocation for OFDMA-based Underwater Acoustic Communications

Underwater acoustic (UWA) communications generally rely on cognitive radio (CR)-based ad-hoc networks due to challenges such as long propagation delay, limited channel resources, and high attenuation. To address the constraints of limited frequency resources, UWA communications have recently incorporated orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), significantly enhancing spectral efficiency (SE) through multiplexing gains. Still, {the} low propagation speed of UWA signals, combined with {the} dynamic underwater environment, creates asynchrony in multiple access scenarios. This causes inaccurate spectrum sensing as inter-carrier interference (ICI) increases, which leads to difficulties in resource allocation. As efficient resource allocation is essential for achieving high-quality communication in OFDMA-based CR networks, these challenges degrade communication reliability in UWA systems. To resolve the issue, we propose an end-to-end sensing and resource optimization method using deep reinforcement learning (DRL) in an OFDMA-based UWA-CR network. Through extensive simulations, we confirm that the proposed method is superior to baseline schemes, outperforming other methods by 42.9 % in SE and 4.4 % in communication success rate.

Joint Optimization of User Association and Resource Allocation for Load Balancing With Multi-Level Fairness

User association, the problem of assigning each user device to a suitable base station, is increasingly crucial as wireless networks become denser and serve more users with diverse service demands. The joint optimization of user association and resource allocation (UARA) is a fundamental issue for future wireless networks, as it plays a pivotal role in enhancing overall network performance, user fairness, and resource efficiency. Given the latency-sensitive nature of emerging network applications, network management favors algorithms that are simple and computationally efficient rather than complex centralized approaches. Thus, distributed pricing-based strategies have gained prominence in the UARA literature, demonstrating practicality and effectiveness across various objective functions, e.g., sum-rate, proportional fairness, max-min fairness, and alpha-fairness. While the alpha-fairness frameworks allow for flexible adjustments between efficiency and fairness via a single parameter $\alpha$, existing works predominantly assume a homogeneous fairness context, assigning an identical $\alpha$ value to all users. Real-world networks, however, frequently require differentiated user prioritization due to varying application requirements and latency. To bridge this gap, we propose a novel heterogeneous alpha-fairness (HAF) objective function, assigning distinct {\alpha} values to different users, thereby providing enhanced control over the balance between throughput, fairness, and latency across the network. We present a distributed, pricing-based optimization approach utilizing an auxiliary variable framework and provide analytical proof of its convergence to an $\epsilon$-optimal solution, where the optimality gap $\epsilon$ decreases with the number of iterations.

Secure Multi-Hop Relaying in Large-Scale Space-Air-Ground-Sea Integrated Networks

As a key enabler of borderless and ubiquitous connectivity, space-air-ground-sea integrated networks (SAGSINs) are expected to be a cornerstone of 6G wireless communications. However, the multi-tiered and global-scale nature of SAGSINs also amplifies the security vulnerabilities, particularly due to the hidden, passive eavesdroppers distributed throughout the network. In this paper, we introduce a joint optimization framework for multi-hop relaying in SAGSINs that maximizes the minimum user throughput while ensuring a minimum strictly positive secure connection (SPSC) probability. We first derive a closed-form expression for the SPSC probability and incorporate this into a cross-layer optimization framework that jointly optimizes radio resources and relay routes. Specifically, we propose an $\mathcal{O}(1)$ optimal frequency allocation and power splitting strategy-dividing power levels of data transmission and cooperative jamming. We then introduce a Monte-Carlo relay routing algorithm that closely approaches the performance of the numerical upper-bound method. We validate our framework on testbeds built with real-world dataset. All source code and data for reproducing the numerical experiments will be open-sourced.

Robust Transmission of Punctured Text with Large Language Model-based Recovery

With the recent advancements in deep learning, semantic communication which transmits only task-oriented features, has rapidly emerged. However, since feature extraction relies on learning-based models, its performance fundamentally depends on the training dataset or tasks. For practical scenarios, it is essential to design a model that demonstrates robust performance regardless of dataset or tasks. In this correspondence, we propose a novel text transmission model that selects and transmits only a few characters and recovers the missing characters at the receiver using a large language model (LLM). Additionally, we propose a novel importance character extractor (ICE), which selects transmitted characters to enhance LLM recovery performance. Simulations demonstrate that the proposed filter selection by ICE outperforms random filter selection, which selects transmitted characters randomly. Moreover, the proposed model exhibits robust performance across different datasets and tasks and outperforms traditional bit-based communication in low signal-to-noise ratio conditions.