IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society最新文献

{"title":"Guest Editorial Special Section on Generative AI and Large Language Models Enhanced 6G Wireless Communication and Sensing","authors":"Jiacheng Wang;Geng Sun;Dusit Niyato;Hina Tabassum;Gabriel-Miro Muntean;Nelson Fonseca","doi":"10.1109/OJCOMS.2025.3571515","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/OJCOMS.2025.3571515","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":33803,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society","volume":"6 ","pages":"0-2"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11044318","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144323028","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Enhanced Signal-to-Noise Ratio Estimation in Optical Fiber Communications: A Pilot-Based Approach","authors":"Mohamed Al-Nahhal;Ibrahim Al-Nahhal;Sunish Kumar Orappanpara Soman;Octavia A. Dobre","doi":"10.1109/OJCOMS.2025.3581473","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/OJCOMS.2025.3581473","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents two innovative, pilot-assisted, neural network (NN)-based signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) estimators for application in optical fiber communications. These estimators, termed pilot-assisted feature complexity reduction (PAF-CR) and pilot-assisted feature accuracy enhancement (PAF-AE), are designed to jointly estimate both linear and non-linear SNR components. The architectures of these proposed estimators employ feedforward NNs (FFNNs) for the SNR estimation, with PAF-CR utilizing a two-hidden layer FFNN and PAF-AE employing a single-hidden layer FFNN. Novel features are extracted from pilot signals to utilize the pilot overhead in transmitted signals, such as mean absolute error and mean signed deviation, which statistically measure the error between transmitted and received pilot signals. Additionally, features are directly extracted from the received data signal, such as average absolute deviation, entropy, and arithmetic mean, to capture its statistical dispersion characteristics. The proposed features are carefully selected to effectively capture the characteristics of both linear and non-linear SNR components. The estimation accuracy of the SNR components achieved by the proposed estimators is evaluated using the normalized root mean square error and the standard deviation of the estimation errors. A comprehensive computational complexity analysis of the proposed PAF-CR and PAF-AE estimators is conducted, expressed in terms of real-valued multiplications and additions. Numerical results illustrate that the proposed PAF-CR and PAF-AE estimators achieve a favorable trade-off between the SNR estimation accuracy and computational complexity compared with existing literature estimators. The proposed PAF-CR offers significant computational complexity reduction with a slight enhancement in estimation accuracy, while the proposed PAF-AE provides substantial estimation accuracy improvement while slightly decreasing computational complexity.","PeriodicalId":33803,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society","volume":"6 ","pages":"5552-5567"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11045136","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144597773","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Adaptive Throughput Optimization in Multi-Rate IEEE 802.11 WLANs via Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning","authors":"Ming-Chu Chou;Cheng-Feng Hung;Chin-Ya Huang;Chih-Heng Ke","doi":"10.1109/OJCOMS.2025.3580886","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/OJCOMS.2025.3580886","url":null,"abstract":"As wireless networks become increasingly important in modern society, their application scenarios are becoming more diverse and complex. However, the heterogeneity of nodes and transmission conditions presents significant challenges to existing wireless strategies and traditional centralized AI methods, making it difficult to meet user demands for network throughput. This paper proposes a distributed architecture based on multi-agent reinforcement learning combined with deep reinforcement learning. Agents are deployed on individual transmission nodes, enabling distributed observation and autonomous decision-making, while the access point provides feedback derived from the network performance resulting from their individual decisions. By experimentally comparing centralized and distributed architectures in multi-rate environments, this paper analyzes trade-offs in scalability and network performance. Additional experiments conducted under dynamic network conditions with node mobility and static scenarios involving a larger number of coexisting nodes further validate the system’s robustness and adaptability. The analysis of training loss trends shows that although the distributed architecture incurs a higher training cost, it achieves improved throughput. In particular, the distributed method outperforms the centralized method by nearly 30% when the number of nodes is relatively small, and maintains a 5–10% performance advantage as the network continues to scale.","PeriodicalId":33803,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society","volume":"6 ","pages":"5384-5394"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11039654","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144581583","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Efficient Interference Management Design for NTN/TN Co-Existence in HAP-Based 6G Networks","authors":"Muhammet Kirik;Aseel Alkana’Neh;Liza Afeef;Hüseyin Arslan","doi":"10.1109/OJCOMS.2025.3580452","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/OJCOMS.2025.3580452","url":null,"abstract":"High-altitude platforms (HAPs) are critical for 6th generation (6G) networks, particularly in autonomous flying ad-hoc networks (FANETs). However, their extensive coverage areas cause severe co-channel interference (CCI) when overlapping with terrestrial networks (TNs) that share the same frequency bands as mandated by 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). To address this, we propose a novel three-phase interference mitigation design that operates without requiring non-terrestrial network (NTN)/TN coordination. First, subspace-based blind channel estimation extracts the channel state information (CSI) of the aggressor base station (BS). Next, an optimized sparse codebook is designed using the estimated victim channel to suppress interference and enhance spectral efficiency. Finally, the codebook is utilized for pilot-assisted data transmission, ensuring reliable communication despite CCI. Mathematical analysis and numerical results validate the proposed method, demonstrating significant reductions in CCI and inter-carrier interference (ICI), maintained similar level of peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR), and enhanced signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR), making it a scalable and efficient solution for non-terrestrial network (NTN)/terrestrial network (TN) co-existence in 6G networks.","PeriodicalId":33803,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society","volume":"6 ","pages":"5434-5449"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11039059","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144581737","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"PAPR Performance Evaluation of OFDM, RPDM, and ORPDM Multicarrier Modulation Schemes","authors":"Shaik Basheeruddin Shah;Nazar T. Ali;Goli Srikanth;Ahmed Altunaiji;Dragan I. Olćan","doi":"10.1109/OJCOMS.2025.3579725","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/OJCOMS.2025.3579725","url":null,"abstract":"Multicarrier Modulation (MCM) schemes based on Nested Periodic Matrices (NPMs) offer promising solutions to the high Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR) problem in Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). Among these, Ramanujan Periodic-subspace Division Multiplexing (RPDM) emerges as a candidate and has been analyzed when the number of subcarriers q is an integer power of 2, which represents a small subset of <inline-formula> <tex-math>$mathbb {N}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. Moreover, RPDM’s transformation matrix loses orthogonality for non-integer-power-of-two subcarriers, leading to increased computational complexity. To address these limitations, this work introduces Orthogonal Ramanujan Periodic-subspace Division Multiplexing (ORPDM), an MCM scheme leveraging Orthogonal Ramanujan Bases (ORBs) that retain transformation matrix orthogonality for all <inline-formula> <tex-math>$qin mathbb {N}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> with an enhanced computational efficiency over RPDM. The PAPR performance of OFDM, RPDM, and ORPDM is comprehensively evaluated across all natural numbers. Our theoretical and numerical analyses reveal: 1) RPDM and ORPDM consistently provide lower PAPR than OFDM; 2) For prime q, RPDM provides the lowest PAPR; 3) For prime power <inline-formula> <tex-math>$(q=p^{m})$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, ORPDM excels for smaller prime powers <inline-formula> <tex-math>$(plt 7)$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, while RPDM is superior when <inline-formula> <tex-math>$pgeq 7$ </tex-math></inline-formula>; 4) For composite q, if all prime factors are <inline-formula> <tex-math>$leq 5$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, ORPDM achieves the best PAPR reduction; if all prime factors are <inline-formula> <tex-math>$geq 7$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, RPDM remains optimal. In addition to PAPR, we evaluate and compare spectral efficiency, Out-of-Band (OOB) emissions, and Bit Error Rate (BER) performance across the three MCM schemes.","PeriodicalId":33803,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society","volume":"6 ","pages":"5297-5318"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11036771","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144536563","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Adaptive User Pairing With Non-Orthogonal Medium Access Choices for Balanced Coexistence of Mission-Critical and eMBB Services in Cellular IoT","authors":"Farnaz Khodakhah;Aamir Mahmood;Patrik Österberg;Mikael Gidlund","doi":"10.1109/OJCOMS.2025.3578727","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/OJCOMS.2025.3578727","url":null,"abstract":"This paper investigates adaptive user pairing (UP) under different non-orthogonal medium access choices in 5G-and-beyond cellular IoT networks to balance the uplink performance of mission-critical (MC) and enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) services. Our objective is to enhance eMBB rates while ensuring quality of service (QoS) for MC users, assessed through average age of information (AoI) and peak AoI (PAoI) violation probabilities. By deriving a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) gap threshold between a pair of eMBB and MC users, we identify optimal access scheme—puncturing, non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), or rate-splitting multiple access (RSMA)—with respect to activation probability <inline-formula> <tex-math>$(p_{m})$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and cellular network radius. By using this derived threshold, we design an adaptive pairing algorithm that achieves near-optimal QoS for MC users and maximizes eMBB data rates. To realize different spatial associations among users in the cell, the proposed pairing strategy for eMBB and MC services is evaluated for three user distributions around the base station: concave (eMBB users concentrated near the BS), uniform (evenly spread eMBB and MC users), and convex (MC users concentrated near the BS). The extensive numerical analysis of the proposed solution demonstrates significant performance gains over random and traditional NOMA-based pairings, especially under concave scenarios. In concave distributions, our strategy reduces MC users’ QoS outage by 85% at <inline-formula> <tex-math>$p_{m} = 0.1$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, achieving zero outage for <inline-formula> <tex-math>$p_{m} geq 0.3$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. Uniform and convex distributions confirm method robustness, maintaining low or zero outage probabilities across all <inline-formula> <tex-math>$p_{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> values. We also analyzed the impact of network radius and MC user activation probabilities on access scheme selection. Results show that RSMA generally outperforms other multiple access schemes in terms of eMBB rate, but NOMA exhibits superior performance compared to RSMA and puncturing in larger networks.","PeriodicalId":33803,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society","volume":"6 ","pages":"5414-5433"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11036787","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144581735","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Modeling and Optimization of Co-TDMA in Next-Generation Wi-Fi Systems Based on Optimal Transportation Theory","authors":"Junxiong Zhang;Weimin Wu;Xiaohu Ge;Yingzhuang Liu","doi":"10.1109/OJCOMS.2025.3579526","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/OJCOMS.2025.3579526","url":null,"abstract":"The importance and commercial value of wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) technology are now widely recognized. However, the traditional Wi-Fi technology causes the throughput of access points (APs) to quickly approaches a saturated level when the number of accessing stations (STAs) is large than a specified threshold. To improve the saturated throughput of APs, a new multi-AP cooperative architecture assisted by a centralized AP controller is proposed. Based on the proposed architecture, a new channel access mechanism called optimal transportation channel access (OTCA) mechanism is proposed to reduce the collision among STAs in Wi-Fi networks. Based on the modulation and coding scheme, a subordinate AP negotiates with the STA to confirm the STA transmission rate in OTCA mechanism. Moreover, the subordinate AP reports the confirmed transmission rate to the centralized AP controller. The centralized AP controller distributes data to the associated subordinate AP based on the optimal transportation theory. Considering the latency constraint, a new algorithm called optimal transportation (OT) algorithm is developed to adjust the STA data volume for associated subordinate APs and improve the throughput of Wi-Fi networks. Compared to the traditional enhanced distributed channel access algorithm, simulation results indicate that the OT algorithm reduces the average latency by 14.14% and improves the average throughput by 21.90%.","PeriodicalId":33803,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society","volume":"6 ","pages":"5479-5489"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11036323","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144598032","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Novel Opportunistic Buffer-Aided Relaying Scheme for Mitigating the Challenges of Single-Relay Energy Harvesting Systems","authors":"Rania Minkara;Chadi Abou-Rjeily","doi":"10.1109/OJCOMS.2025.3579531","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/OJCOMS.2025.3579531","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, a three-node cooperative network with an energy harvesting (EH) decode-and-forward (DF) buffer-aided (BA) relay is considered. The relay relies solely on the energy harvested from the radio frequency (RF) signal transmitted by the source. This energy is accumulated in an energy buffer to be subsequently used for data transmission based on the harvest-store-use (HSU) architecture. A novel relaying scheme, referred as energy-harvesting-first (EHF), is proposed. This scheme prioritizes energy harvesting (EH) when the content of the energy buffer falls below a predefined threshold. Moreover, opportunistic EH is triggered when significant energy levels fall on the relay and this energy can be completely stored in the finite-size energy buffer. An additional threshold level on the data buffer content further controls the switching between the transmission and reception modes. A Markov chain analysis is performed, where the state transition probabilities are calculated and used to determine the analytical expressions of the outage probability (OP) and average packet delay (APD). An elaborate analysis is also presented highlighting the impact of the parameters of the relaying scheme on the system performance.","PeriodicalId":33803,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society","volume":"6 ","pages":"5344-5358"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11036539","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144581584","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Terrestrial 5G and Starlink NTN Multi-Connectivity Toward 6G Communications Integration Era: An Empirical Assessment","authors":"Alejandro Ramírez-Arroyo;Troels B. Sørensen;Preben Mogensen","doi":"10.1109/OJCOMS.2025.3579240","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/OJCOMS.2025.3579240","url":null,"abstract":"5G networks have become the leading cellular connectivity standard with significant market penetration and widespread mobile infrastructure deployment. However, connectivity can degrade at cell edges even under optimal deployment conditions and high infrastructure density. This is not admissible in critical mobile applications with high-reliability requirements, e.g., autonomous driving. Integration of terrestrial 5G networks with satellite networks, referred to as multi-connectivity, emerges as an opportunity to improve performance and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in vehicular connectivity conditions. Therefore, this paper evaluates, empirically, cellular and satellite connectivity in high-mobility scenarios over 5G and Starlink networks, jointly considering latency and throughput KPIs impacting user experience at the network layer and signal quality at the physical layer. The empirical assessment demonstrates the benefit in terms of performance when applying multi-connectivity techniques, highlighting the strong correlation between signal quality and user equipment location within the terrestrial cell. These findings pave the way for selective packet duplication by predicting when and how multi-connectivity strategies should be employed, thus resulting in several packet duplication strategies.","PeriodicalId":33803,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society","volume":"6 ","pages":"5269-5283"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11032162","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144536651","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Energy Consumption Modeling for Wi-Fi HaLow Networks","authors":"Zhiqiang Xu;Luke Kane;Vicky Liu;Matthew McKague;Yuefeng Li","doi":"10.1109/OJCOMS.2025.3578864","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/OJCOMS.2025.3578864","url":null,"abstract":"Wi-Fi HaLow (IEEE 802.11ah) has emerged as a promising solution which can support Internet of Things (IoT) applications where energy efficiency and extended coverage are important. A key feature of Wi-Fi HaLow is the Target Wake Time (TWT) mechanism, which allows devices to schedule wake-up times, significantly reducing IDLE listening and energy consumption. However, there is currently no energy consumption model, leaving a gap in calculating how much energy a device actually consumes in a real network. This study aims to bridge this gap by developing a forecast model to accurately predict the energy consumption of devices with TWT enabled. The proposed model is then validated through experimental measurements using real Wi-Fi HaLow-compatible devices, ensuring an accurate representation of practical energy consumption. This research provides empirical insights and recommendations for optimizing network configurations in battery-constrained environments. In particular, the proposed energy consumption model can assist businesses in accurately estimating and managing energy usage, which is essential for cost-effective planning and improving operational efficiency in real-world IoT deployments.","PeriodicalId":33803,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society","volume":"6 ","pages":"5204-5220"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11030817","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144519398","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}