Near-field communications: research advances, potential, and challenges
Near-field communications: research advances, potential, and challenges
To support high throughput and massive connectivity, next-generation mobile networks are expected to utilize extremely large-scale antenna arrays. This would result in wireless communications occurring in the near-field region. Leveraging the unique channel characteristics of near-field propagation presents both opportunities and challenges, hence we critically appraise near-field communications (NFC). We commence by determining the boundary that distinguishes NFC and conventional far-field communications. Furthermore, some of the key challenges of NFC, including its spherical wavefront-based channel modeling and channel estimation, near-field beamfocusing, hardware design as well as wireless sensing are covered based on a comprehensive survey of existing progress. Two case studies demonstrate the potential of NFC in improving the spatial multiplexing gain and positioning accuracy in the near field. Finally, a suite of open issues are identified for motivating future research, such as dealing with spatial non-stationarity and the potential of stacked intelligent metasurface-based transceiver design.
An, Jiancheng
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Yuen, Chau
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Dai, Linglong
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Renzo, Marco Di
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Debbah, Mérouane
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Hanzo, Lajos
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An, Jiancheng
5fa38cfb-6010-4404-a39c-f03c68f248c5
Yuen, Chau
0dd04333-bade-4812-b3df-a416597f1325
Dai, Linglong
a3b9a8e1-777f-4196-a388-969444c7239d
Renzo, Marco Di
851ec05a-0f5d-49b1-aaf6-563604f8b809
Debbah, Mérouane
fe23e026-1926-49c7-97d7-425ad555152a
Hanzo, Lajos
66e7266f-3066-4fc0-8391-e000acce71a1
An, Jiancheng, Yuen, Chau, Dai, Linglong, Renzo, Marco Di, Debbah, Mérouane and Hanzo, Lajos
(2024)
Near-field communications: research advances, potential, and challenges.
IEEE Communications Magazine.
(In Press)
Abstract
To support high throughput and massive connectivity, next-generation mobile networks are expected to utilize extremely large-scale antenna arrays. This would result in wireless communications occurring in the near-field region. Leveraging the unique channel characteristics of near-field propagation presents both opportunities and challenges, hence we critically appraise near-field communications (NFC). We commence by determining the boundary that distinguishes NFC and conventional far-field communications. Furthermore, some of the key challenges of NFC, including its spherical wavefront-based channel modeling and channel estimation, near-field beamfocusing, hardware design as well as wireless sensing are covered based on a comprehensive survey of existing progress. Two case studies demonstrate the potential of NFC in improving the spatial multiplexing gain and positioning accuracy in the near field. Finally, a suite of open issues are identified for motivating future research, such as dealing with spatial non-stationarity and the potential of stacked intelligent metasurface-based transceiver design.
Text
Near_Field_Communications__Research_Advances__Potential__and_Challenges
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 7 March 2024
Additional Information:
L. Hanzo would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Engineering and
Physical Sciences Research Council projects EP/W016605/1, EP/X01228X/1, EP/Y026721/1, and EP/W032635/1 as well as of the European Research Council’s Advanced Fellow Grant QuantCom (Grant No. 789028).
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 487974
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/487974
ISSN: 0163-6804
PURE UUID: 753047d4-e355-4af1-a72a-27390f8fcfdf
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Date deposited: 12 Mar 2024 17:35
Last modified: 12 Apr 2024 04:01
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Contributors
Author:
Jiancheng An
Author:
Chau Yuen
Author:
Linglong Dai
Author:
Marco Di Renzo
Author:
Mérouane Debbah
Author:
Lajos Hanzo
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