Mert Ozates;Mohammad Javad Ahmadi;Mohammad Kazemi;Deniz Gündüz;Tolga M. Duman
{"title":"Unsourced Random Access: A Comprehensive Survey","authors":"Mert Ozates;Mohammad Javad Ahmadi;Mohammad Kazemi;Deniz Gündüz;Tolga M. Duman","doi":"10.1109/COMST.2025.3637685","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Multiple access communication systems enable numerous users to share common communication resources, playing a crucial role in wireless networks. With the emergence of the sixth generation (6G) and beyond communication networks, supporting massive machine-type communications with sporadic activity patterns is expected to become a critical challenge. Unsourced random access (URA) has emerged as a promising paradigm to address this challenge by decoupling user identification from data transmission through the use of a common codebook. This survey offers a comprehensive overview of URA solutions, encompassing both theoretical foundations and practical applications. We present a systematic classification of URA solutions across three primary channel models: Gaussian multiple access channels (GMACs), single-antenna fading channels, and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) fading channels. For each category, we analyze and compare state-of-the-art solutions in terms of performance, complexity, and practical feasibility. Additionally, we discuss critical challenges such as interference management, computational complexity, and synchronization. The survey concludes with promising future research directions and potential methods to address existing limitations, providing a roadmap for researchers and practitioners in this rapidly evolving field.","PeriodicalId":55029,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials","volume":"28 ","pages":"955-984"},"PeriodicalIF":50.6000,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials","FirstCategoryId":"94","ListUrlMain":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11269777/","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/11/26 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"COMPUTER SCIENCE, INFORMATION SYSTEMS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Multiple access communication systems enable numerous users to share common communication resources, playing a crucial role in wireless networks. With the emergence of the sixth generation (6G) and beyond communication networks, supporting massive machine-type communications with sporadic activity patterns is expected to become a critical challenge. Unsourced random access (URA) has emerged as a promising paradigm to address this challenge by decoupling user identification from data transmission through the use of a common codebook. This survey offers a comprehensive overview of URA solutions, encompassing both theoretical foundations and practical applications. We present a systematic classification of URA solutions across three primary channel models: Gaussian multiple access channels (GMACs), single-antenna fading channels, and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) fading channels. For each category, we analyze and compare state-of-the-art solutions in terms of performance, complexity, and practical feasibility. Additionally, we discuss critical challenges such as interference management, computational complexity, and synchronization. The survey concludes with promising future research directions and potential methods to address existing limitations, providing a roadmap for researchers and practitioners in this rapidly evolving field.
期刊介绍:
IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials is an online journal published by the IEEE Communications Society for tutorials and surveys covering all aspects of the communications field. Telecommunications technology is progressing at a rapid pace, and the IEEE Communications Society is committed to providing researchers and other professionals the information and tools to stay abreast. IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials focuses on integrating and adding understanding to the existing literature on communications, putting results in context. Whether searching for in-depth information about a familiar area or an introduction into a new area, IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials aims to be the premier source of peer-reviewed, comprehensive tutorials and surveys, and pointers to further sources. IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials publishes only articles exclusively written for IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials and go through a rigorous review process before their publication in the quarterly issues.
A tutorial article in the IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials should be designed to help the reader to become familiar with and learn something specific about a chosen topic. In contrast, the term survey, as applied here, is defined to mean a survey of the literature. A survey article in IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials should provide a comprehensive review of developments in a selected area, covering its development from its inception to its current state and beyond, and illustrating its development through liberal citations from the literature. Both tutorials and surveys should be tutorial in nature and should be written in a style comprehensible to readers outside the specialty of the article.