Movable Antenna Enhanced Integrated Sensing and Communication Via Antenna Position Optimization

In this paper, we propose an integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) system aided by the movable-antenna (MA) array, which can improve the communication and sensing performance via flexible antenna movement over conventional fixed-position antenna (FPA) array. First, we consider the downlink multiuser communication, where each user is randomly distributed within a given three-dimensional zone with local movement. To reduce the overhead of frequent antenna movement, the antenna position vector (APV) is designed based on users' statistical channel state information (CSI), so that the antennas only need to be moved in a large timescale. Then, for target sensing, the Cramer-Rao bounds (CRBs) of the estimation mean square error for different spatial angles of arrival (AoAs) are derived as functions of MAs' positions. Based on the above, we formulate an optimization problem to maximize the expected minimum achievable rate among all communication users, with given constraints on the maximum acceptable CRB thresholds for target sensing. An alternating optimization algorithm is proposed to iteratively optimize one of the horizontal and vertical APVs of the MA array with the other being fixed. Numerical results demonstrate that our proposed MA arrays can significantly enlarge the trade-off region between communication and sensing performance compared to conventional FPA arrays with different inter-antenna spacing. It is also revealed that the steering vectors of the designed MA arrays exhibit low correlation in the angular domain, thus effectively reducing channel correlation among communication users to enhance their achievable rates, while alleviating ambiguity in target angle estimation to achieve improved sensing accuracy.

Movable Antenna Enhanced DF and AF Relaying Systems: Performance Analysis and Optimization

Movable antenna (MA) has been deemed as a promising technology to flexibly reconfigure wireless channels by adjusting the antenna positions in a given local region. In this paper, we investigate the application of the MA technology in both decode-and-forward (DF) and amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying systems, where a relay is equipped with multiple MAs to assist in the data transmission between two single-antenna nodes. For the DF relaying system, our objective is to maximize the achievable rate at the destination by jointly optimizing the positions of the MAs in two stages for receiving signals from the source and transmitting signals to the destination, respectively. To drive essential insights, we first derive a closed-form upper bound on the maximum achievable rate of the DF relaying system. Then, a low-complexity algorithm based on projected gradient ascent (PGA) and alternating optimization (AO) is proposed to solve the antenna position optimization problem. For the AF relaying system, our objective is to maximize the achievable rate by jointly optimizing the two-stage MA positions as well as the AF beamforming matrix at the relay, which results in a more challenging optimization problem due to the intricate coupling variables. To tackle this challenge, we first reveal the hidden separability among the antenna position optimization in the two stages and the beamforming optimization. Based on such separability, we derive a closed-form upper bound on the maximum achievable rate of the AF relaying system and propose a low-complexity algorithm to obtain a high-quality suboptimal solution to the considered problem. Simulation results validate the efficacy of our theoretical analysis and demonstrate the superiority of the MA-enhanced relaying systems to the conventional relaying systems with fixed-position antennas (FPAs) and other benchmark schemes.

6DMA-Aided Hybrid Beamforming with Joint Antenna Position and Orientation Optimization

This paper studies a sub-connected six-dimensional movable antenna (6DMA)-aided multi-user communication system. In this system, each sub-array is connected to a dedicated radio frequency chain and collectively moves and rotates as a unit within specific local regions. The movement and rotation capabilities of 6DMAs enhance design flexibility, facilitating the capture of spatial variations for improved communication performance. To fully characterize the effect of antenna position and orientation on wireless channels between the base station (BS) and users, we develop a field-response-based 6DMA channel model to account for the antenna radiation pattern and polarization. We then maximize the sum rate of multiple users, by jointly optimizing the digital and unit-modulus analog beamformers given the transmit power budget as well as the positions and orientations of sub-arrays within given movable and rotatable ranges at the BS. Due to the highly coupled variables, the formulated optimization problem is non-convex and thus challenging to solve. We develop a fractional programming-aided alternating optimization framework that integrates the Lagrange multiplier method, manifold optimization, and gradient descent to solve the problem. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed 6DMA-aided sub-connected structure achieves a substantial sum-rate improvement over various benchmark schemes with less flexibility in antenna movement and can even outperform fully-digital beamforming systems that employ antenna position or orientation adjustments only. The results also highlight the necessity of considering antenna polarization for optimally adjusting antenna orientation.

Movable Antenna Aided NOMA: Joint Antenna Positioning, Precoding, and Decoding Design

This paper investigates movable antenna (MA) aided non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) for multi-user downlink communication, where the base station (BS) is equipped with a fixed-position antenna (FPA) array to serve multiple MA-enabled users. An optimization problem is formulated to maximize the minimum achievable rate among all the users by jointly optimizing the MA positioning of each user, the precoding matrix at the BS, and the successive interference cancellation (SIC) decoding indicator matrix at the users, subject to a set of constraints including the limited movement area of the MAs, the maximum transmit power of the BS, and the SIC decoding condition. To solve this non-convex problem, we propose a two-loop iterative optimization algorithm that combines the hippopotamus optimization (HO) method with the alternating optimization (AO) method to obtain a suboptimal solution efficiently. Specifically, in the inner loop, the complex-valued precoding matrix and the binary decoding indicator matrix are optimized alternatively by the successive convex approximation (SCA) technique with customized greedy search to maximize the minimum achievable rate for the given positions of the MAs. In the outer loop, each user's antenna position is updated using the HO algorithm, following a novel nature-inspired intelligent optimization framework. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithms can effectively avoid local optimum for highly coupled variables and significantly improve the rate performance of the NOMA system compared to the conventional FPA system as well as other benchmark schemes.

6D Movable Antenna Enhanced Multi-Access Point Coordination via Position and Orientation Optimization

The effective utilization of unlicensed spectrum is regarded as an important direction to enable the massive access and broad coverage for next-generation wireless local area network (WLAN). Due to the crowded spectrum occupancy and dense user terminals (UTs), the conventional fixed antenna (FA)-based access points (APs) face huge challenges in realizing massive access and interference cancellation. To address this issue, in this paper we develop a six-dimensional movable antenna (6DMA) enhanced multi-AP coordination system for coverage enhancement and interference mitigation. First, we model the wireless channels between the APs and UTs to characterize their variation with respect to 6DMA movement, in terms of both the three-dimensional (3D) position and 3D orientation of each distributed AP's antenna. Then, an optimization problem is formulated to maximize the weighted sum rate of multiple UTs for their uplink transmissions by jointly optimizing the antenna position vector (APV), the antenna orientation matrix (AOM), and the receive combining matrix over all coordinated APs, subject to the constraints on local antenna movement regions. To solve this challenging non-convex optimization problem, we first transform it into a more tractable Lagrangian dual problem. Then, an alternating optimization (AO)-based algorithm is developed by iteratively optimizing the APV and AOM, which are designed by applying the successive convex approximation (SCA) technique and Riemannian manifold optimization-based algorithm, respectively. Simulation results show that the proposed 6DMA-enhanced multi-AP coordination system can significantly enhance network capacity, and both of the online and offline 6DMA schemes can attain considerable performance improvement compared to the conventional FA-based schemes.

RSRP Measurement Based Channel Autocorrelation Estimation for IRS-Aided Wideband Communication

The passive and frequency-flat reflection of IRS, as well as the high-dimensional IRS-reflected channels, have posed significant challenges for efficient IRS channel estimation, especially in wideband communication systems with significant multi-path channel delay spread. To address these challenges, we propose a novel neural network (NN)-empowered framework for IRS channel autocorrelation matrix estimation in wideband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. This framework relies only on the easily accessible reference signal received power (RSRP) measurements at users in existing wideband communication systems, without requiring additional pilot transmission. Based on the estimates of channel autocorrelation matrix, the passive reflection of IRS is optimized to maximize the average user received signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) over all subcarriers in the OFDM system. Numerical results verify that the proposed algorithm significantly outperforms existing powermeasurement-based IRS reflection designs in wideband channels.

Multi-IRS Enhanced Wireless Coverage: Deployment Optimization Based on Large-Scale Channel Knowledge

In this paper, we study the intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) deployment problem where a number of IRSs are optimally placed in a target area to improve its signal coverage with the serving base station (BS). To achieve this, we assume that there is a given set of candidate sites in the target area for deploying IRSs and divide the area into multiple grids of identical size. Then, we derive the average channel power gains from the BS to IRS in each candidate site and from this IRS to any grid in the target area in terms of IRS deployment parameters, including its size, position, height, and orientation. Thus, we are able to approximate the average cascaded channel power gain from the BS to each grid via any IRS, assuming an effective IRS reflection gain based on the large-scale channel knowledge only. Next, we formulate a multi-IRS deployment optimization problem to minimize the total deployment cost by selecting a subset of candidate sites for deploying IRSs and jointly optimizing their heights, orientations, and numbers of reflecting elements while satisfying a given coverage rate performance requirement over all grids in the target area. To solve this challenging combinatorial optimization problem, we first reformulate it as an integer linear programming problem and solve it optimally using the branch-and-bound (BB) algorithm. In addition, we propose an efficient successive refinement algorithm to further reduce computational complexity. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed lower-complexity successive refinement algorithm achieves near-optimal performance but with significantly reduced running time compared to the proposed optimal BB algorithm, as well as superior performance-cost trade-off than other baseline IRS deployment strategies.

Codebook Design and Performance Analysis for Wideband Beamforming in Terahertz Communications

The codebook-based analog beamforming is appealing for future terahertz (THz) communications since it can generate high-gain directional beams with low-cost phase shifters via low-complexity beam training. However, conventional beamforming codebook design based on array response vectors for narrowband communications may suffer from severe performance loss in wideband systems due to the ``beam squint" effect over frequency. To tackle this issue, we propose in this paper a new codebook design method for analog beamforming in wideband THz systems. In particular, to characterize the analog beamforming performance in wideband systems, we propose a new metric termed wideband beam gain, which is given by the minimum beamforming gain over the entire frequency band given a target angle. Based on this metric, a wideband analog beamforming codebook design problem is formulated for optimally balancing the beamforming gains in both the spatial and frequency domains, and the performance loss of conventional narrowband beamforming in wideband systems is analyzed. To solve the new wideband beamforming codebook design problem, we divide the spatial domain into orthogonal angular zones each associated with one beam, thereby decoupling the codebook design into a zone division sub-problem and a set of beamforming optimization sub-problems each for one zone. For the zone division sub-problem, we propose a bisection method to obtain the optimal boundaries for separating adjacent zones. While for each of the per-zone-based beamforming optimization sub-problems, we further propose an efficient augmented Lagrange method (ALM) to solve it. Numerical results demonstrate the performance superiority of our proposed codebook design for wideband analog beamforming to the narrowband beamforming codebook and also validate our performance analysis.

Movable-Antenna Aided Secure Transmission for RIS-ISAC Systems

Integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) systems have the issue of secrecy leakage when using the ISAC waveforms for sensing, thus posing a potential risk for eavesdropping. To address this problem, we propose to employ movable antennas (MAs) and reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) to enhance the physical layer security (PLS) performance of ISAC systems, where an eavesdropping target potentially wiretaps the signals transmitted by the base station (BS). To evaluate the synergistic performance gain provided by MAs and RIS, we formulate an optimization problem for maximizing the sum-rate of the users by jointly optimizing the transmit/receive beamformers of the BS, the reflection coefficients of the RIS, and the positions of MAs at communication users, subject to a minimum communication rate requirement for each user, a minimum radar sensing requirement, and a maximum secrecy leakage to the eavesdropping target. To solve this non-convex problem with highly coupled variables, a two-layer penalty-based algorithm is developed by updating the penalty parameter in the outer-layer iterations to achieve a trade-off between the optimality and feasibility of the solution. In the inner-layer iterations, the auxiliary variables are first obtained with semi-closed-form solutions using Lagrange duality. Then, the receive beamformer filter at the BS is optimized by solving a Rayleigh-quotient subproblem. Subsequently, the transmit beamformer matrix is obtained by solving a convex subproblem. Finally, the majorization-minimization (MM) algorithm is employed to optimize the RIS reflection coefficients and the positions of MAs. Extensive simulation results validate the considerable benefits of the proposed MAs-aided RIS-ISAC systems in enhancing security performance compared to traditional fixed position antenna (FPA)-based systems.

Channel Estimation for Movable Antenna Aided Wideband Communication Systems

Movable antenna (MA) is an emerging technology that can significantly improve communication performance via the continuous adjustment of the antenna positions. To unleash the potential of MAs in wideband communication systems, acquiring accurate channel state information (CSI), i.e., the channel frequency responses (CFRs) between any position pair within the transmit (Tx) region and the receive (Rx) region across all subcarriers, is a crucial issue. In this paper, we study the channel estimation problem for wideband MA systems. To start with, we express the CFRs as a combination of the field-response vectors (FRVs), delay-response vector (DRV), and path-response tensor (PRT), which exhibit sparse characteristics and can be recovered by using a limited number of channel measurements at selected position pairs of Tx and Rx MAs over a few subcarriers. Specifically, we first formulate the recovery of the FRVs and DRV as a problem with multiple measurement vectors in compressed sensing (MMV-CS), which can be solved via a simultaneous orthogonal matching pursuit (SOMP) algorithm. Next, we estimate the PRT using the least-square (LS) method. Moreover, we also devise an alternating refinement approach to further improve the accuracy of the estimated FRVs, DRV, and PRT. This is achieved by minimizing the discrepancy between the received pilots and those constructed by the estimated CSI, which can be efficiently carried out by using the gradient descent algorithm. Finally, simulation results demonstrate that both the SOMP-based channel estimation method and alternating refinement method can reconstruct the complete wideband CSI with high accuracy, where the alternating refinement method performs better despite a higher complexity.