pwc-archive/papers-with-abstracts huggingface dataset:
Physics-Aware Initialization Refinement in Code-Aided EM for Blind Channel Estimation
Authors: Chin-Hung Chen, Ivana Nikoloska, Wim van Houtum, Yan Wu, Alex Alvarado
Date: 2025-04-15 00:00:00
Tasks: Decoder, Model Selection

This paper addresses the well-known local maximum problem of the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm in blind intersymbol interference (ISI) channel estimation. This problem primarily results from phase and shift ambiguity during initialization, which blind estimation is inherently unable to distinguish. We propose an effective initialization refinement algorithm that utilizes the decoder output as a model selection metric, incorporating a technique to detect phase and shift ambiguity. Our results show that the proposed algorithm significantly reduces the number of local maximum cases to nearly one-third for a 3-tap ISI channel under highly uncertain initial conditions. The improvement becomes more pronounced as initial errors increase and the channel memory grows. When used in a turbo equalizer, the proposed algorithm is required only in the first turbo iteration, which limits any complexity increase with subsequent iterations.
Guided Wave-Based Structural Awareness Under Varying Operating States via Manifold Representations
Authors: Yiming Fan, Dimitris G Giovanis, Fotis Kopsaftopoulos
Date: 2025-04-15 00:00:00
Tasks: Data Compression, Diagnostic, State Estimation, Structural Health Monitoring

Guided wave-based structural health monitoring (SHM) remains a powerful strategy for identifying early-stage defects and safeguarding vital aerospace structures. Yet, its practical use is often hindered by the enormous, high-dimensional data streams produced by sensor arrays operating at megahertz sampling rates, coupled with the added complexity of shifts in environmental and operational conditions (EOCs). Studies have explored various data-compression approaches that retain critical diagnostic details in a lower-dimensional latent space. While conventional techniques can streamline dimensionality to some extent, they do not always capture the nonlinear interactions typical of guided waves. Manifold learning, as illustrated by Diffusion Maps, tackles these nonlinearities by deriving low-dimensional embeddings directly from wave signals, minimizing the need for manual feature extraction. In parallel, developments in deep learning -- particularly autoencoders -- provide an encoder-decoder model for both data compression and reconstruction. Convolutional autoencoders (CAEs) and variational autoencoders (VAEs) have been particularly effective for guided wave applications. However, current methods can still struggle to maintain accurate state estimation under changing EOCs, and they are often limited to a single task. In response, the proposed framework adopts a two-fold strategy: it compresses high-dimensional signals into lower-dimensional representations and then leverages those representations to both estimate structural states and reconstruct the original data, even as conditions vary. Applied to two real-world SHM use-cases, this integrated method has proven its ability to preserve and retrieve key damage signatures under noise, shifting operational parameters, and other complicating factors.
Rotatable Antenna-Enabled Secure Wireless Communication
Authors: Liang Dai, Beixiong Zheng, Qingjie Wu, Changsheng You, Robert Schober, Rui Zhang
Date: 2025-04-14 00:00:00

Rotatable antenna (RA) is a promising technology that exploits new spatial degree-of-freedom (DoF) to improve wireless communication and sensing performance. In this letter, we investigate an RA-enabled secure communication system where confidential information is transmitted from an RA-based access point (AP) to a single-antenna legitimate user in the presence of multiple eavesdroppers. We aim to maximize the secrecy rate by jointly optimizing the transmit beamforming and the deflection angles of all RAs at the AP. Accordingly, we propose an efficient alternating optimization (AO) algorithm to obtain a high-quality suboptimal solution in an iterative manner, where the generalized Rayleigh quotient-based beamforming is applied and the RAs' deflection angles are optimized by the successive convex approximation (SCA) technique. Our simulation results show that the proposed RA-enabled secure communication system achieves a significantly higher secrecy rate as compared to various benchmark schemes.
A Fully Asynchronous Unsourced Random Access Scheme
Authors: Mert Ozates, Mohammad Kazemi, Gianluigi Liva, Deniz Gündüz
Date: 2025-04-15 00:00:00

We investigate fully asynchronous unsourced random access (URA), and propose a high-performing scheme that employs on-off division multiple access (ODMA). In this scheme, active users distribute their data over the transmit block based on a sparse transmission pattern without any limitations on the starting time. At the receiver side, we adopt a double sliding-window decoding approach, utilizing a smaller inner decoding window of two block lengths within a larger outer window to enhance the interference cancellation process. Within the inner window, the receiver iteratively applies preamble-free joint starting time and pattern detection, single-user decoding, and successive interference cancellation operations. A notable feature of the proposed scheme is its elimination of the need for a preamble for starting time detection; this is achieved using ODMA transmission patterns. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed asynchronous URA scheme outperforms existing alternatives.
Continuous Aperture Array (CAPA)-Based Secure Wireless Communications
Authors: Jingjing Zhao, Haowen Song, Xidong Mu, Kaiquan Cai, YanBo Zhu, Yuanwei Liu
Date: 2025-04-15 00:00:00

A continuous aperture array (CAPA)-based secure communication system is investigated, where a base station equipped with a CAPA transmits signals to a legitimate user under the existence of an eavesdropper. For improving the secrecy performance, the artificial noise (AN) is employed at the BS for the jamming purpose. We aim at maximizing the secrecy rate by jointly optimizing the information-bearing and AN source current patterns, subject to the maximum transmit power constraint. To solve the resultant non-convex integral-based functional programming problem, a channel subspace-based approach is first proposed via exploiting the result that the optimal current patterns always lie within the subspace spanned by all users' channel responses. Then, the intractable CAPA continuous source current pattern design problem with an infinite number of optimization variables is equivalently transformed into the channel-subspace weighting factor optimization problem with a finite number of optimization variables. A penalty-based successive convex approximation method is developed for iteratively optimizing the finite-size weighting vectors. To further reduce the computational complexity, we propose a two-stage source current patterns design scheme. Specifically, the information-bearing and AN patterns are first designed using the maximal ration transmission and zero-forcing transmission, respectively. Then, the remaining power allocation is addressed via the one-dimensional search method. Numerical results unveil that 1) the CAPA brings in significant secrecy rate gain compared to the conventional discrete multiple-input multiple-output; 2) the proposed channel subspace-based algorithm outperforms the conventional Fourier-based approach, while sustaining much lower computational complexity; and 3) the two-stage ZF-MRT approach has negligible performance loss for the large transmit power regime.
A Signal Matrix-Based Local Flaw Detection Framework for Steel Wire Ropes Using Convolutional Neural Networks
Authors: Siyu You, Leilei Yang, Zixu Kuang, Huayi Gou, Longlong Zhang, Zhiliang Liu
Date: 2025-04-15 00:00:00
Tasks: Computational Efficiency, Defect Detection

Steel wire ropes (SWRs) are critical load-bearing components in industrial applications, yet their structural integrity is often compromised by local flaws (LFs). Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL) is a widely used non-destructive testing method that detects defects by measuring perturbations in magnetic fields. Traditional MFL detection methods suffer from critical limitations: one-dimensional approaches fail to capture spatial relationships across sensor channels, while multi-dimensional image-based techniques introduce interpolation artifacts and computational inefficiencies. This paper proposes a novel detection framework based on signal matrices, directly processing raw multi-channel MFL signals using a specialized Convolutional Neural Network for signal matrix as input (SM-CNN). The architecture incorporates stripe pooling to preserve channel-wise features and symmetric padding to improve boundary defect detection. Our model achieves state-of-the-art performance with 98.74% accuracy and 97.85% recall. Additionally, it demonstrates exceptional computational efficiency, processing at 87.72 frames per second (FPS) with a low inference latency of 2.6ms and preprocessing time of 8.8ms. With only 1.48 million parameters, this lightweight design supports real-time processing, establishing a new benchmark for SWR inspection in industrial settings.
Fast-Powerformer: A Memory-Efficient Transformer for Accurate Mid-Term Wind Power Forecasting
Authors: Mingyi Zhu, Zhaoxin Li, Qiao Lin, Li Ding
Date: 2025-04-15 00:00:00
Tasks: Computational Efficiency

Wind power forecasting (WPF), as a significant research topic within renewable energy, plays a crucial role in enhancing the security, stability, and economic operation of power grids. However, due to the high stochasticity of meteorological factors (e.g., wind speed) and significant fluctuations in wind power output, mid-term wind power forecasting faces a dual challenge of maintaining high accuracy and computational efficiency. To address these issues, this paper proposes an efficient and lightweight mid-term wind power forecasting model, termed Fast-Powerformer. The proposed model is built upon the Reformer architecture, incorporating structural enhancements such as a lightweight Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) embedding module, an input transposition mechanism, and a Frequency Enhanced Channel Attention Mechanism (FECAM). These improvements enable the model to strengthen temporal feature extraction, optimize dependency modeling across variables, significantly reduce computational complexity, and enhance sensitivity to periodic patterns and dominant frequency components. Experimental results conducted on multiple real-world wind farm datasets demonstrate that the proposed Fast-Powerformer achieves superior prediction accuracy and operational efficiency compared to mainstream forecasting approaches. Furthermore, the model exhibits fast inference speed and low memory consumption, highlighting its considerable practical value for real-world deployment scenarios.
Uplink Assisted Joint Channel Estimation and CSI Feedback: An Approach Based on Deep Joint Source-Channel Coding
Authors: Yiran Guo, Wei Chen, Bo Ai
Date: 2025-04-15 00:00:00

In frequency division duplex (FDD) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communication systems, the acquisition of downlink channel state information (CSI) is essential for maximizing spatial resource utilization and improving system spectral efficiency. The separate design of modules in AI-based CSI feedback architectures under traditional modular communication frameworks, including channel estimation (CE), CSI compression and feedback, leads to sub-optimal performance. In this paper, we propose an uplink assisted joint CE and and CSI feedback approach via deep learning for downlink CSI acquisition, which mitigates performance degradation caused by distribution bias across separately trained modules in traditional modular communication frameworks. The proposed network adopts a deep joint source-channel coding (DJSCC) architecture to mitigate the cliff effect encountered in the conventional separate source-channel coding. Furthermore, we exploit the uplink CSI as auxiliary information to enhance CSI reconstruction accuracy by leveraging the partial reciprocity between the uplink and downlink channels in FDD systems, without introducing additional overhead. The effectiveness of uplink CSI as assisted information and the necessity of an end-toend multi-module joint training architecture is validated through comprehensive ablation and scalability experiments.
Diversity Analysis for Indoor Terahertz Communication Systems under Small-Scale Fading
Authors: Almutasem Bellah Enad, Jihad Fahs, Hakim Jemaa, Hadi Sarieddeen, Tareq Y. Al-Naffouri
Date: 2025-04-14 00:00:00
Tasks: Diversity

Harnessing diversity is fundamental to wireless communication systems, particularly in the terahertz (THz) band, where severe path loss and small-scale fading pose significant challenges to system reliability and performance. In this paper, we present a comprehensive diversity analysis for indoor THz communication systems, accounting for the combined effects of path loss and small-scale fading, with the latter modeled as an $\alpha-\mu$ distribution to reflect THz indoor channel conditions. We derive closed-form expressions for the bit error rate (BER) as a function of the reciprocal of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and propose an asymptotic expression. Furthermore, we validate these expressions through extensive simulations, which show strong agreement with the theoretical analysis, confirming the accuracy and robustness of the proposed methods. Our results show that the diversity order in THz systems is primarily determined by the combined effects of the number of independent paths, the severity of fading, and the degree of channel frequency selectivity, providing clear insights into how diversity gains can be optimized in high-frequency wireless networks.
ACSNet: A Deep Neural Network for Compound GNSS Jamming Signal Classification
Authors: Min Jiang, Ziqiang Ye, Yue Xiao, Yulan Gao, Ming Xiao, Dusit Niyato
Date: 2025-04-15 00:00:00

In the global navigation satellite system (GNSS), identifying not only single but also compound jamming signals is crucial for ensuring reliable navigation and positioning, particularly in future wireless communication scenarios such as the space-air-ground integrated network (SAGIN). However, conventional techniques often struggle with low recognition accuracy and high computational complexity, especially under low jamming-to-noise ratio (JNR) conditions. To overcome the challenge of accurately identifying compound jamming signals embedded within GNSS signals, we propose ACSNet, a novel convolutional neural network designed specifically for this purpose. Unlike traditional methods that tend to exhibit lower accuracy and higher computational demands, particularly in low JNR environments, ACSNet addresses these issues by integrating asymmetric convolution blocks, which enhance its sensitivity to subtle signal variations. Simulations demonstrate that ACSNet significantly improves accuracy in low JNR regions and shows robust resilience to power ratio (PR) variations, confirming its effectiveness and efficiency for practical GNSS interference management applications.
Generative and Explainable AI for High-Dimensional Channel Estimation
Authors: Nghia Thinh Nguyen, Tri Nhu Do
Date: 2025-04-15 00:00:00
Tasks: Explainable artificial intelligence, Generative Adversarial Network

In this paper, we propose a new adversarial training framework to address high-dimensional instantaneous channel estimation in wireless communications. Specifically, we train a generative adversarial network to predict a channel realization in the time-frequency-space domain, in which the generator exploits the third-order moment of the input in its loss function and applies a new reparameterization method for latent distribution learning to minimize the Wasserstein distance between the true and estimated channel distributions. Next, we propose an explainable artificial intelligence mechanism to examine how the critic discriminates the generated channel. We demonstrate that our proposed framework is superior to existing methods in terms of minimizing estimation errors. Additionally, we find that the critic's attention focuses on the high-power portion of the channel's time-frequency representation.
Multi-Stream Transmission in Cell-Free MIMO Networks with Coherent AP Clustering
Authors: Esra Aycan Beyazıt, Jeroen Famaey, Nina Slamnik-Kriještorac, Johann M. Marquez-Barja, Miguel Camelo Botero
Date: 2025-04-14 00:00:00
Tasks: Fairness

This letter proposes a multi-stream selection framework for \ac{CF-MIMO} networks. Partially coherent transmission has been considered by clustering \acp{AP} into phase-aligned clusters to address the challenges of phase misalignment and inter-cluster interference. A novel stream selection algorithm is developed to dynamically allocate multiple streams to each multi-antenna \ac{UE}, ensuring that the system optimizes the sum rate while minimizing inter-cluster and inter-stream interference. Numerical results validate the effectiveness of the proposed method in enhancing spectral efficiency and fairness in distributed \ac{CF-MIMO} networks.
Neyman-Pearson Detector for Ambient Backscatter Zero-Energy-Devices Beacons
Authors: Shanglin Yang, Jean-Marie Gorce, Muhammad Jehangir Khan, Dinh-Thuy Phan-Huy, Guillaume Villemaud
Date: 2025-04-14 00:00:00

Recently, a novel ultra-low power indoor wireless positioning system has been proposed. In this system, Zero-Energy-Devices (ZED) beacons are deployed in Indoor environments, and located on a map with unique broadcast identifiers. They harvest ambient energy to power themselves and backscatter ambient waves from cellular networks to send their identifiers. This paper presents a novel detection method for ZEDs in ambient backscatter systems, with an emphasis on performance evaluation through experimental setups and simulations. We introduce a Neyman-Pearson detection framework, which leverages a predefined false alarm probability to determine the optimal detection threshold. This method, applied to the analysis of backscatter signals in a controlled testbed environment, incorporates the use of BC sequences to enhance signal detection accuracy. The experimental setup, conducted on the FIT/CorteXlab testbed, employs a two-node configuration for signal transmission and reception. Key performance metrics, which is the peak-to-lobe ratio, is evaluated, confirming the effectiveness of the proposed detection model. The results demonstrate a detection system that effectively handles varying noise levels and identifies ZEDs with high reliability. The simulation results show the robustness of the model, highlighting its capacity to achieve desired detection performance even with stringent false alarm thresholds. This work paves the way for robust ZED detection in real-world scenarios, contributing to the advancement of wireless communication technologies.
GPS-Independent Localization Techniques for Disaster Rescue
Authors: Yingquan Li, Bodhibrata Mukhopadhyay, Mohamed-Slim Alouini
Date: 2025-04-14 00:00:00
Tasks: Disaster Response

In this article, we present the limitations of traditional localization techniques, such as those using Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and life detectors, in localizing victims during disaster rescue efforts. These techniques usually fall short in accuracy, coverage, and robustness to environmental interference. We then discuss the necessary requirements for developing GPS-independent localization techniques in disaster scenarios. Practical techniques should be passive, with straightforward hardware, low computational demands, low power, and high accuracy, while incorporating unknown environmental information. We review various implementation strategies for these techniques, categorized by measurements (time, angle, and signal strength) and operation manners (non-cooperative and cooperative). Case studies demonstrate trade-offs between localization accuracy and complexity, emphasizing the importance of choosing appropriate localization techniques based on resources and rescue needs for efficient disaster response.
Correcting Domain Shifts in Electric Motor Vibration Data for Unseen Operating Conditions
Authors: Lesley Wheat, Martin v. Mohrenschildt, Saeid Habibi, Dhafar Al-Ani
Date: 2025-04-14 00:00:00
Tasks: Fault Detection, regression

This paper addresses the problem of domain shifts in electric motor vibration data created by new operating conditions in testing scenarios, focusing on bearing fault detection and diagnosis (FDD). The proposed method combines the Harmonic Feature Space (HFS) with regression to correct for frequency and energy differentials in steady-state data, enabling accurate FDD on unseen operating conditions within the range of the training conditions. The HFS aligns harmonics across different operating frequencies, while regression compensates for energy variations, preserving the relative magnitude of vibrations critical for fault detection. The proposed approach is evaluated on a detection problem using experimental data from a Belt-Starter Generator (BSG) electric motor, with test conditions having a minimum 1000 RPM and 5 Nm difference from training conditions. Results demonstrate that the method outperforms traditional analysis techniques, achieving high classification accuracy at a 94% detection rate and effectively reducing domain shifts. The approach is computationally efficient, requires only healthy data for training, and is well-suited for real-world applications where the exact application operating conditions cannot be predetermined.
Secrecy Rate Maximization with Artificial Noise for Pinching-Antenna Systems
Authors: Pigi P. Papanikolaou, Dimitrios Bozanis, Sotiris A. Tegos, Panagiotis D. Diamantoulakis, George K. Karagiannidis
Date: 2025-04-14 00:00:00

Security is emerging as a critical performance metric for next-generation wireless networks, but conventional multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) systems often suffer from severe path loss and are vulnerable to nearby eavesdroppers due to their fixed-antenna configurations. Pinching-antenna systems (PAS) offer a promising alternative, leveraging reconfigurable pinching antennas (PAs) positioned along low-loss dielectric waveguides to enhance channel conditions and dynamically mitigate security threats. In this paper, we propose an artificial noise (AN)-based beamforming scheme for downlink transmissions in PAS, with the goal of maximizing the secrecy rate. A closed-form solution is derived for the single-waveguide scenario, while an alternating optimization approach addresses more complex multiple waveguide setups. Numerical results show that the proposed scheme significantly outperforms conventional MIMO and existing PAS security schemes.