Overview

Wireless communications studies how transmitters and receivers exchange information despite noise, interference, mobility, and limited spectrum and power. Physical-layer work develops channel estimation, beamforming, modulation, coding, and signal detection, using tools such as ray tracing, deep learning, and reconfigurable intelligent surfaces. At the network level, researchers use optimization, bandits, and reinforcement learning for scheduling, routing, handover, and resource allocation across cellular, Wi-Fi, satellite, and UAV systems; newer work also explores integrated sensing and communication and semantic transmission. Results are tested in standards-based channel simulations, ray-traced environments, and real testbeds, but generalization across hardware and settings, deployment cost, and the gap between simulated and operational performance remain central challenges.

Latest papers

403 papers40 papers in the last four weeks, down 17% on the four weeks before. 0.2% of all new papers.

Mar 7, 2026

Explainable and Hardware-Efficient Jamming Detection for 5G Networks Using the Convolutional Tsetlin Machine

All applications in fifth-generation (5G) networks rely on stable radio-frequency (RF) environments to support mission-critical services in mobility, automation, and connected intelligence. Their exposure to intentional interference or low-power jamming threatens availability and reliability, especially when such attacks remain below link-layer observability. This paper investigates lightweight, explainable, and hardware-efficient jamming detection using the Convolutional Tsetlin Machine (CTM) operating directly on 5G Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) features. CTM formulates Boolean logic clauses over quantized inputs, enabling bit-level inference and deterministic deployment on FPGA fabrics. These properties make CTM well suited for real-time, resource-constrained edge environments anticipated in 5G. The proposed approach is experimentally validated on a real 5G testbed using over-the-air SSB data, emulating practical downlink conditions. We benchmark CTM against a convolutional neural network (CNN) baseline under identical preprocessing and training pipelines. On the real dataset, CTM achieves comparable detection performance (Accuracy 91.53 +/- 1.01 vs. 96.83 +/- 1.19 for CNN) while training 9.5×9.5\times faster and requiring 14x less memory (45MB vs.\ 624MB). Furthermore, we outline a compact FPGA-oriented design for Zybo~Z7 (Zynq-7000) and provide resource projections (not measured) under three deployment profiles optimized for latency, power, and accuracy trade-offs. The results show that the CTM provides a practical, interpretable, and resource-efficient alternative to conventional DNNs for RF-domain jamming detection, establishing it as a strong candidate for edge-deployed, low-latency, and security-critical 5G applications while laying the groundwork for B5G systems.
Mar 5, 2026

Deep Learning-Driven Friendly Jamming for Secure Multicarrier ISAC Under Channel Uncertainty

Integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) systems promise efficient spectrum utilization by jointly supporting radar sensing and wireless communication. This paper presents a deep learning-driven framework for enhancing physical-layer security in multicarrier ISAC systems under imperfect channel state information (CSI) and in the presence of unknown eavesdropper (Eve) locations. Unlike conventional ISAC-based friendly jamming (FJ) approaches that require Eve's CSI or precise angle-of-arrival (AoA) estimates, our method exploits radar echo feedback to guide directional jamming without explicit Eve's information. To enhance robustness to radar sensing uncertainty, we propose a radar-aware neural network that jointly optimizes beamforming and jamming by integrating a novel nonparametric Fisher Information Matrix (FIM) estimator based on f-divergence. The jamming design satisfies the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) constraints even in the presence of noisy AoA. For efficient implementation, we introduce a quantized tensor train-based encoder that reduces the model size by more than 100 times with negligible performance loss. We also integrate a non-overlapping secure scheme into the proposed framework, in which specific sub-bands can be dedicated solely to communication. Extensive simulations demonstrate that the proposed solution achieves significant improvements in secrecy rate, reduced block error rate (BLER), and strong robustness against CSI uncertainty and angular estimation errors, underscoring the effectiveness of the proposed deep learning-driven friendly jamming framework under practical ISAC impairments.
Mar 3, 2026

Enhancing User Throughput in Multi-panel mmWave Radio Access Networks for Beam-based MU-MIMO Using a DRL Method

Millimeter-wave (mmWave) communication systems, particularly those leveraging multi-user multiple-input and multiple-output (MU-MIMO) with hybrid beamforming, face challenges in optimizing user throughput and minimizing latency due to the high complexity of dynamic beam selection and management. This paper introduces a deep reinforcement learning (DRL) approach for enhancing user throughput in multi-panel mmWave radio access networks in a practical network setup. Our DRL-based formulation utilizes an adaptive beam management strategy that models the interaction between the communication agent and its environment as a Markov decision process (MDP), optimizing beam selection based on real-time observations. The proposed framework exploits spatial domain (SD) characteristics by incorporating the cross-correlation between the beams in different antenna panels, the measured reference signal received power (RSRP), and the beam usage statistics to dynamically adjust beamforming decisions. As a result, the spectral efficiency is improved and end-to-end latency is reduced. The numerical results demonstrate an increase in throughput of up to 16% and a reduction in latency by factors 3-7x compared to baseline (legacy beam management).
Mar 3, 2026

The Vienna 4G/5G Drive-Test Dataset

Machine learning for mobile network analysis, planning, and optimization is often limited by the lack of large, comprehensive real-world datasets. This paper introduces the Vienna 4G/5G Drive-Test Dataset, a city-scale open dataset of georeferenced Long Term Evolution (LTE) and 5G New Radio (NR) measurements collected across Vienna, Austria. The dataset combines passive wideband scanner observations with active handset logs, providing complementary network-side and user-side views of deployed radio access networks. The measurements cover diverse urban and suburban settings and are aligned with time and location information to support consistent evaluation. For a representative subset of base stations (BSs), we provide inferred deployment descriptors, including estimated BS locations, sector azimuths, and antenna heights. The release further includes high-resolution building and terrain models, enabling geometry-conditioned learning and calibration of deterministic approaches such as ray tracing. To facilitate practical reuse, the data are organized into scanner, handset, estimated cell information, and city-model components, and the accompanying documentation describes the available fields and intended joins between them. The dataset enables reproducible benchmarking across environment-aware learning, propagation modeling, coverage analysis, and ray-tracing calibration workflows.
Mar 3, 2026

Joint Optimization of Model Partitioning and Resource Allocation for Anti-Jamming Collaborative Inference Systems

With the increasing computational demands of deep neural network (DNN) inference on resource-constrained devices, DNN partitioning-based device-edge collaborative inference has emerged as a promising paradigm. However, the transmission of intermediate feature data is vulnerable to malicious jamming, which significantly degrades the overall inference performance. To counter this threat, this letter focuses on an anti-jamming collaborative inference system in the presence of a malicious jammer. In this system, a DNN model is partitioned into two distinct segments, which are executed by wireless devices and edge servers, respectively. We first analyze the effects of jamming and DNN partitioning on inference accuracy via data regression. Based on this, our objective is to maximize the system's revenue of delay and accuracy (RDA) under inference accuracy and computing resource constraints by jointly optimizing computation resource allocation, devices' transmit power, and DNN partitioning. To address the mixed-integer nonlinear programming problem, we propose an efficient alternating optimization-based algorithm, which decomposes the problem into three subproblems that are solved via Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions, convex optimization methods, and a quantum genetic algorithm, respectively. Extensive simulations demonstrate that our proposed scheme outperforms baselines in terms of RDA.
Mar 2, 2026

How Small Can 6G Reason? Scaling Tiny-to-Small Language Models for AI-Native Networks

Emerging 6G visions, reflected in ongoing standardization efforts within 3GPP, IETF, ETSI, ITU-T, and the O-RAN Alliance, increasingly characterize networks as AI-native systems in which high-level semantic reasoning layers operate above standardized control and data-plane functions. Although frontier-scale large language models (LLMs) such as Qwen2.5-7B and Olmo-3-7B demonstrate strong reasoning capability, their computational footprint limits deployment in latency-sensitive, edge-native infrastructures. This paper presents a systematic empirical study of the scaling behavior and deployment efficiency of compact language models for network-level semantic reasoning in AI-native 6G systems. Using 6G-Bench, a standardization-aligned benchmark comprising 30 decision-making tasks across five capability domains, we evaluate models ranging from 135M (SmolLM2-135M) to 7B parameters (Qwen2.5-7B), including mid-scale architectures such as Llama-3.2-1B, Granite-1B, and Qwen2.5-3B. Deterministic accuracy (pass@1) increases from 0.224 at 135M to 0.707 at 7B, but scaling gains are highly non-uniform. A pronounced stability transition occurs in the 1 to 1.5B range, where accuracy rises from 0.373 (Llama-3.2-1B) to 0.531 (Qwen2.5-1.5B) and the instability gap Delta_5 contracts from 0.356 to 0.138. Beyond 3B parameters, improvements diminish (+0.064 from 3B to 7B). Through single-query inference profiling and an Edge Score metric that normalizes accuracy by latency and memory footprint, we show that semantic reliability per unit edge resource does not scale monotonically with parameter count. Instead, mid-scale models (approximately 1.5 to 3B) achieve the most favorable balance between deterministic stability and computational efficiency, providing deployment-relevant guidance for AI-native 6G architectures. All scripts and results are publicly available at https://github.com/maferrag/6G-Bench
Mar 2, 2026

Federated Agentic AI for Wireless Networks: Fundamentals, Approaches, and Applications

Agentic artificial intelligence (AI) presents a promising pathway toward realizing autonomous and self-improving wireless network services. However, resource-constrained, widely distributed, and data-heterogeneous nature of wireless networks poses significant challenges to existing agentic AI that relies on centralized architectures, leading to high communication overhead, privacy risks, and non-independent and identically distributed (non-IID) data. Federated learning (FL) has the potential to improve the overall loop of agentic AI through collaborative local learning and parameter sharing without exchanging raw data. This paper proposes new federated agentic AI approaches for wireless networks. We first summarize fundamentals of agentic AI and mainstream FL types. Then, we illustrate how each FL type can strengthen a specific component of agentic AI's loop. Moreover, we conduct a case study on using FRL to improve the performance of agentic AI's action decision in low-altitude wireless networks (LAWNs). Finally, we provide a conclusion and discuss future research directions.
Mar 1, 2026

Communication-Efficient Quantum Federated Learning over Large-Scale Wireless Networks

Quantum federated learning (QFL) combines the robust data processing of quantum computing with the privacy-preserving features of federated learning (FL). However, in large-scale wireless networks, optimizing sum-rate is crucial for unlocking the true potential of QFL, facilitating effective model sharing and aggregation as devices compete for limited bandwidth amid dynamic channel conditions and fluctuating power resources. This paper studies a novel sum-rate maximization problem within a muti-channel QFL framework, specifically designed for non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA)-based large-scale wireless networks. We develop a sum-rate maximization problem by jointly considering quantum device's channel selection and transmit power. Our formulated problem is a non-convex, mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) challenge that remains non-deterministic polynomial time (NP)-hard even with specified channel selection parameters. The complexity of the problem motivates us to create an effective iterative optimization approach that utilizes the sophisticated quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA) to derive high-quality approximate solutions. Additionally, our study presents the first theoretical exploration of QFL convergence properties under full device participation, rigorously analyzing real-world scenarios with nonconvex loss functions, diverse data distributions, and the effects of quantum shot noise. Extensive simulation results indicate that our multi-channel NOMA-based QFL framework enhances model training and convergence behavior, surpassing conventional algorithms in terms of accuracy and loss. Moreover, our quantum-centric joint optimization approach achieves more than a 100% increase in sum-rate while ensuring rapid convergence, significantly outperforming the state-of-the-arts.
Feb 28, 2026

WirelessAgent++: Automated Agentic Workflow Design and Benchmarking for Wireless Networks

The integration of large language models (LLMs) into wireless networks has sparked growing interest in building autonomous AI agents for wireless tasks. However, existing approaches rely heavily on manually crafted prompts and static agentic workflows, a process that is labor-intensive, unscalable, and often suboptimal. In this paper, we propose WirelessAgent++, a framework that automates the design of agentic workflows for various wireless tasks. By treating each workflow as an executable code composed of modular operators, WirelessAgent++ casts agent design as a program search problem and solves it with a domain-adapted Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) algorithm. Moreover, we establish WirelessBench, a standardized multi-dimensional benchmark suite comprising Wireless Communication Homework (WCHW), Network Slicing (WCNS), and Mobile Service Assurance (WCMSA), covering knowledge reasoning, code-augmented tool use, and multi-step decision-making. Experiments demonstrate that \wap{} autonomously discovers superior workflows, achieving test scores of 78.37%78.37\% (WCHW), 90.95%90.95\% (WCNS), and 97.07%97.07\% (WCMSA), with a total search cost below \ 5pertask.Notably,ourapproachoutperformsstate−of−the−artpromptingbaselinesbyuptoper task. Notably, our approach outperforms state-of-the-art prompting baselines by up to31%andgeneral−purposeworkflowoptimizersbyand general-purpose workflow optimizers by11.1%$, validating its effectiveness in generating robust, self-evolving wireless agents. The code is available at https://github.com/jwentong/WirelessAgent-R2.
Feb 27, 2026

Agentic AI-RAN: Enabling Intent-Driven, Explainable and Self-Evolving Open RAN Intelligence

Open RAN (O-RAN) exposes rich control and telemetry interfaces across the Non-RT RIC, Near-RT RIC, and distributed units, but also makes it harder to operate multi-tenant, multi-objective RANs in a safe and auditable manner. In parallel, agentic AI systems with explicit planning, tool use, memory, and self-management offer a natural way to structure long-lived control loops. This article surveys how such agentic controllers can be brought into O-RAN: we review the O-RAN architecture, contrast agentic controllers with conventional ML/RL xApps, and organise the task landscape around three clusters: network slice life-cycle, radio resource management (RRM) closed loops, and cross-cutting security, privacy, and compliance. We then introduce a small set of agentic primitives (Plan-Act-Observe-Reflect, skills as tool use, memory and evidence, and self-management gates) and show, in a multi-cell O-RAN simulation, how they improve slice life-cycle and RRM performance compared to conventional baselines and ablations that remove individual primitives. Security, privacy, and compliance are discussed as architectural constraints and open challenges for standards-aligned deployments. This framework achieves an average 8.83% reduction in resource usage across three classic network slices.
Feb 26, 2026

Agentic AI for Intent-driven Optimization in Cell-free O-RAN

Agentic artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as a key enabler for autonomous radio access networks (RANs), where multiple large language model (LLM)-based agents reason and collaborate to achieve operator-defined intents. The open RAN (O-RAN) architecture enables the deployment and coordination of such agents. However, most existing works consider simple intents handled by independent agents, while complex intents that require coordination among agents remain unexplored. In this paper, we propose an agentic AI framework for intent translation and optimization in cell-free O-RAN. A supervisor agent translates the operator intents into an optimization objective and minimum rate requirements. Based on this information, a user weighting agent retrieves relevant prior experience from a memory module to determine the user priority weights for precoding. If the intent includes an energy-saving objective, then an open radio unit (O-RU) management agent will also be activated to determine the set of active O-RUs by using a deep reinforcement learning (DRL) algorithm. A monitoring agent measures and monitors the user data rates and coordinates with other agents to guarantee the minimum rate requirements are satisfied. To enhance scalability, we adopt a parameter-efficient fine-tuning (PEFT) method that enables the same underlying LLM to be used for different agents. Simulation results show that the proposed agentic AI framework reduces the number of active O-RUs by 41.93% when compared with three baseline schemes in energy-saving mode. Using the PEFT method, the proposed framework reduces the memory usage by 92% when compared with deploying separate LLM agents.
Feb 24, 2026

Attention-Based SINR Estimation in User-Centric Non-Terrestrial Networks

The signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) is central to performance optimization in user-centric beamforming for satellite-based non-terrestrial networks (NTNs). Its assessment either requires the transmission of dedicated pilots or relies on computing the beamforming matrix through minimum mean squared error (MMSE)-based formulations beforehand, a process that introduces significant computational overhead. In this paper, we propose a low-complexity SINR estimation framework that leverages multi-head self-attention (MHSA) to extract inter-user interference features directly from either channel state information or user location reports. The proposed dual MHSA (DMHSA) models evaluate the SINR of a scheduled user group without requiring explicit MMSE calculations. The architecture achieves a computational complexity reduction by a factor of three in the CSI-based setting and by two orders of magnitude in the location-based configuration, the latter benefiting from the lower dimensionality of user reports. We show that both DMHSA models maintain high estimation accuracy, with the root mean squared error typically below 1 dB with priority-queuing-based scheduled users. These results enable the integration of DMHSA-based estimators into scheduling procedures, allowing the evaluation of multiple candidate user groups and the selection of those offering the highest average SINR and capacity.
Feb 23, 2026

Learning During Detection: Continual Learning for Neural OFDM Receivers via DMRS

Deep neural networks (DNNs) have been increasingly explored for receiver design because they can handle complex environments without relying on explicit channel models. Nevertheless, because communication channels change rapidly, their distributions can shift over time, often making periodic retraining necessary. This paper proposes a zero-overhead online and continual learning framework for orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) neural receivers that directly detect the soft bits of received signals. Unlike conventional fine-tuning methods that rely on dedicated training intervals or full resource grids, our approach leverages existing demodulation reference signals (DMRS) to simultaneously enable signal demodulation and model adaptation. We introduce three pilot designs: fully randomized, hybrid, and additional pilots that flexibly support joint demodulation and learning. To accommodate these pilot designs, we develop two receiver architectures: (i) a parallel design that separates inference and fine-tuning for uninterrupted operation, and (ii) a forward-pass reusing design that reduces computational complexity. Simulation results show that the proposed method effectively tracks both slow and fast channel distribution variations without additional overhead, service interruption, or catastrophic performance degradation under distribution shift.
Feb 22, 2026

Metasurfaces-Integrated Wireless Neural Networks for Lightweight Over-The-Air Edge Inference

The upcoming sixth Generation (6G) of wireless networks envisions ultra-low latency and energy efficient Edge Inference (EI) for diverse Internet of Things (IoT) applications. However, traditional digital hardware for machine learning is power intensive, motivating the need for alternative computation paradigms. Over-The-Air (OTA) computation is regarded as an emerging transformative approach assigning the wireless channel to actively perform computational tasks. This article introduces the concept of Metasurfaces-Integrated Neural Networks (MINNs), a physical-layer-enabled deep learning framework that leverages programmable multi-layer metasurface structures and Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) channels to realize computational layers in the wave propagation domain. The MINN system is conceptualized as three modules: Encoder, Channel (uncontrollable propagation features and metasurfaces), and Decoder. The first and last modules, realized respectively at the multi-antenna transmitter and receiver, consist of conventional digital or purposely designed analog Deep Neural Network (DNN) layers, and the metasurfaces responses of the Channel module are optimized alongside all modules as trainable weights. This architecture enables computation offloading into the end-to-end physical layer, flexibly among its constituent modules, achieving performance comparable to fully digital DNNs while significantly reducing power consumption. The training of the MINN framework, two representative variations, and performance results for indicative applications are presented, highlighting the potential of MINNs as a lightweight and sustainable solution for future EI-enabled wireless systems. The article is concluded with a list of open challenges and promising research directions.
Feb 22, 2026

LWM-Temporal: Sparse Spatio-Temporal Attention for Wireless Channel Representation Learning

LWM-Temporal is a new member of the Large Wireless Models (LWM) family that targets the spatiotemporal nature of wireless channels. Designed as a task-agnostic foundation model, LWM-Temporal learns universal channel embeddings that capture mobility-induced evolution and are reusable across various downstream tasks. To achieve this objective, LWM-Temporal operates in the angle-delay-time domain and introduces Sparse Spatio-Temporal Attention (SSTA), a propagation-aligned attention mechanism that restricts interactions to physically plausible neighborhoods, reducing attention complexity by an order of magnitude while preserving geometry-consistent dependencies. LWM-Temporal is pretrained in a self-supervised manner using a physics-informed masking curriculum that emulates realistic occlusions, pilot sparsity, and measurement impairments. Experimental results on channel prediction across multiple mobility regimes show consistent improvements over strong baselines, particularly under long horizons and limited fine-tuning data, highlighting the importance of geometry-aware architectures and geometry-consistent pretraining for learning transferable spatiotemporal wireless representations.
Feb 21, 2026

Heterogeneity-agnostic AI/ML-assisted beam selection for multi-panel arrays

AI/ML-based beam selection methods coupled with location information effectively reduce beam training overhead. Unfortunately, heterogeneous antenna hardware with varying dimensions, orientations, codebooks, element patterns, and polarization angles limits their feasibility and generalization. This challenge requires either a heterogeneity-agnostic model functional under these variations, or developing many models for each configuration, which is infeasible and expensive in practice. In this paper, we propose a unifying AI/ML-based beam selection algorithm supporting antenna heterogeneity by predicting wireless propagation characteristics independent of antenna configuration. We derive a reference signal received power (RSRP) model that decouples propagation characteristics from antenna configuration. We propose an optimization framework to extract propagation variables consisting of angle-of-arrival (AoA), angle-of-departure (AoD), and a matrix incorporating path gain and channel depolarization from beamformed RSRP measurements. We develop a three-stage autoregressive network to predict these variables from user location, enabling RSRP calculation and beam selection for arbitrary antenna configurations without retraining or having a separate model for each configuration. Simulation results show our heterogeneity-agnostic method provides spectral efficiency close to that of genie-aided selection both with and without antenna heterogeneity.
Feb 20, 2026

Rethinking Beam Management: Generalization Limits Under Hardware Heterogeneity

Hardware heterogeneity across diverse user devices poses new challenges for beam-based communication in 5G and beyond. This heterogeneity limits the applicability of machine learning (ML)-based algorithms. This article highlights the critical need to treat hardware heterogeneity as a first-class design concern in ML-aided beam management. We analyze key failure modes in the presence of heterogeneity and present case studies demonstrating their performance impact. Finally, we discuss potential strategies to improve generalization in beam management.
Feb 19, 2026

Voice-Driven Semantic Perception for UAV-Assisted Emergency Networks

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-assisted networks are increasingly foreseen as a promising approach for emergency response, providing rapid, flexible, and resilient communications in environments where terrestrial infrastructure is degraded or unavailable. In such scenarios, voice radio communications remain essential for first responders due to their robustness; however, their unstructured nature prevents direct integration with automated UAV-assisted network management. This paper proposes SIREN, an AI-driven framework that enables voice-driven perception for UAV-assisted networks. By integrating Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) with Large Language Model (LLM)-based semantic extraction and Natural Language Processing (NLP) validation, SIREN converts emergency voice traffic into structured, machine-readable information, including responding units, location references, emergency severity, and Quality-of-Service (QoS) requirements. SIREN is evaluated using synthetic emergency scenarios with controlled variations in language, speaker count, background noise, and message complexity. The results demonstrate robust transcription and reliable semantic extraction across diverse operating conditions, while highlighting speaker diarization and geographic ambiguity as the main limiting factors. These findings establish the feasibility of voice-driven situational awareness for UAV-assisted networks and show a practical foundation for human-in-the-loop decision support and adaptive network management in emergency response operations.
Feb 19, 2026

Agentic Wireless Communication for 6G: Intent-Aware and Continuously Evolving Physical-Layer Intelligence

As 6G wireless systems evolve, growing functional complexity and diverse service demands are driving a shift from rule-based control to intent-driven autonomous intelligence. User requirements are no longer captured by a single metric (e.g., throughput or reliability), but by multi-dimensional objectives such as latency sensitivity, energy preference, computational constraints, and service-level requirements. These objectives may also change over time due to environmental dynamics and user-network interactions. Therefore, accurate understanding of both the communication environment and user intent is critical for autonomous and sustainably evolving 6G communications. Large language models (LLMs), with strong contextual understanding and cross-modal reasoning, provide a promising foundation for intent-aware network agents. Compared with rule-driven or centrally optimized designs, LLM-based agents can integrate heterogeneous information and translate natural-language intents into executable control and configuration decisions. Focusing on a closed-loop pipeline of intent perception, autonomous decision making, and network execution, this paper investigates agentic AI for the 6G physical layer and its realization pathways. We review representative physical-layer tasks and their limitations in supporting intent awareness and autonomy, identify application scenarios where agentic AI is advantageous, and discuss key challenges and enabling technologies in multimodal perception, cross-layer decision making, and sustainable optimization. Finally, we present a case study of an intent-driven link decision agent, termed AgenCom, which adaptively constructs communication links under diverse user preferences and channel conditions.
Feb 18, 2026

RSS map-assisted MIMO channel estimation in the upper mid-band under pilot constraints

Accurate wireless channel estimation is critical for next-generation wireless systems, enabling precise precoding for effective user separation, reduced interference across cells, and high-resolution sensing, among other benefits. Traditional model-based channel estimation methods suffer, however, from performance degradation in complex environments with a limited number of pilots, while purely data-driven approaches lack physical interpretability, require extensive data collection, and are usually site-specific. This paper presents a novel physics-informed neural network (PINN) framework that synergistically combines model-based channel estimation with a deep network to exploit prior information about environmental propagation characteristics and achieve superior performance under pilot-constrained scenarios. The proposed approach employs an enhanced U-Net architecture with transformer modules and cross-attention mechanisms to fuse initial channel estimates with RSS maps to provide refined channel estimates. Comprehensive evaluation using realistic ray-tracing data from urban environments demonstrates significant performance improvements, achieving over 5 dB gain in NMSE compared to state-of-the-art methods, with particularly strong performance in pilot-limited scenarios and robustness across different frequencies and environments with only minimal fine-tuning. We further extend the decoder for multi-step temporal prediction, enabling accurate forecasting of several future channel snapshots from a single estimate, useful for proactive beamforming and scheduling in mobile scenarios. The proposed framework maintains practical computational complexity, making it viable for massive MIMO systems in upper-mid band frequencies. Unlike black-box neural approaches, the physics-informed design provides a more interpretable channel estimation method.
Feb 16, 2026

Data-Driven Optimization of Multi-Generational Cellular Networks: A Performance Classification Framework for Strategic Infrastructure Management

The exponential growth in mobile data demand necessitates intelligent management of telecommunications infrastructure to ensure Quality of Service (QoS) and operational efficiency. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of a multigenerational cellular network dataset, sourced from the OpenCelliD project, to identify patterns in network deployment, utilization, and infrastructure gaps. The methodology involves geographical, temporal, and performance analysis of 1,818 cell tower entries, predominantly Long Term Evolution (LTE), across three countries with a significant concentration in Pakistan. Key findings reveal the long-term persistence of legacy 2G/3G infrastructure in major urban centers, the existence of a substantial number of under-utilized towers representing opportunities for cost savings, and the identification of specific "non-4G demand zones" where active user bases are served by outdated technologies. By introducing a signal-density metric, we distinguish between absolute over-utilization and localized congestion. The results provide actionable intelligence for Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to guide strategic LTE upgrades, optimize resource allocation, and bridge the digital divide in underserved regions.
Feb 16, 2026

Secure and Energy-Efficient Wireless Agentic AI Networks

In this paper, we introduce a secure wireless agentic AI network comprising one supervisor AI agent and multiple other AI agents to provision quality of service (QoS) for users' reasoning tasks while ensuring confidentiality of private knowledge and reasoning outcomes. Specifically, the supervisor AI agent can dynamically assign other AI agents to participate in cooperative reasoning, while the unselected AI agents act as friendly jammers to degrade the eavesdropper's interception performance. To extend the service duration of AI agents, an energy minimization problem is formulated that jointly optimizes AI agent selection, base station (BS) beamforming, and AI agent transmission power, subject to latency and reasoning accuracy constraints. To address the formulated problem, we propose two resource allocation schemes, ASC and LAW, which first decompose it into three sub-problems. Specifically, ASC optimizes each sub-problem iteratively using the proposed alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM)-based algorithm, semi-definite relaxation (SDR), and successive convex approximation (SCA), while LAW tackles each sub-problem using the proposed large language model (LLM) optimizer within an agentic workflow. The experimental results show that the proposed solutions can reduce network energy consumption by up to 59.1% compared to other benchmark schemes. Furthermore, the proposed schemes are validated using a practical agentic AI system based on Qwen, demonstrating satisfactory reasoning accuracy across various public benchmarks.
Feb 16, 2026

RF-GPT: Teaching AI to See the Wireless World

Large language models (LLMs) and multimodal models have become powerful general-purpose reasoning systems. However, radio-frequency (RF) signals, which underpin wireless systems, are still not natively supported by these models. Existing LLM-based approaches for telecom focus mainly on text and structured data, while conventional RF deep-learning models are built separately for specific signal-processing tasks, highlighting a clear gap between RF perception and high-level reasoning. To bridge this gap, we introduce RF-GPT, a radio-frequency language model (RFLM) that utilizes the visual encoders of multimodal LLMs to process and understand RF spectrograms. In this framework, complex in-phase/quadrature (IQ) waveforms are mapped to time-frequency spectrograms and then passed to pretrained visual encoders. The resulting representations are injected as RF tokens into a decoder-only LLM, which generates RF-grounded answers, explanations, and structured outputs. To train RF-GPT, we perform supervised instruction fine-tuning of a pretrained multimodal LLM using a fully synthetic RF corpus. Standards-compliant waveform generators produce wideband scenes for six wireless technologies, from which we derive time-frequency spectrograms, exact configuration metadata, and dense captions. A text-only LLM then converts these captions into RF-grounded instruction-answer pairs, yielding roughly 120,000 RF scenes and 0.625 million instruction examples without any manual labeling. Across benchmarks for wideband modulation classification, overlap analysis, wireless-technology recognition, WLAN user counting, and 5G NR information extraction, RF-GPT achieves strong multi-task performance, whereas general-purpose VLMs with no RF grounding largely fail.
Feb 15, 2026

Toward Autonomous O-RAN: A Multi-Scale Agentic AI Framework for Real-Time Network Control and Management

Open Radio Access Networks (O-RAN) promise flexible 6G network access through disaggregated, software-driven components and open interfaces, but this programmability also increases operational complexity. Multiple control loops coexist across the service management layer and RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC), while independently developed control applications can interact in unintended ways. In parallel, recent advances in generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) are enabling a shift from isolated AI models toward agentic AI systems that can interpret goals, coordinate multiple models and control functions, and adapt their behavior over time. This article proposes a multi-scale agentic AI framework for O-RAN that organizes RAN intelligence as a coordinated hierarchy across the Non-Real-Time (Non-RT), Near-Real-Time (Near-RT), and Real-Time (RT) control loops: (i) A Large Language Model (LLM) agent in the Non-RT RIC translates operator intent into policies and governs model lifecycles. (ii) Small Language Model (SLM) agents in the Near-RT RIC execute low-latency optimization and can activate, tune, or disable existing control applications; and (iii) Wireless Physical-layer Foundation Model (WPFM) agents near the distributed unit provide fast inference close to the air interface. We describe how these agents cooperate through standardized O-RAN interfaces and telemetry. Using a proof-of-concept implementation built on open-source models, software, and datasets, we demonstrate the proposed agentic approach in two representative scenarios: robust operation under non-stationary conditions and intent-driven slice resource control.
Feb 4, 2026

Scalable Cross-Attention Transformer for Cooperative Multi-AP OFDM Uplink Reception

We propose a cross-attention Transformer for joint decoding of uplink OFDM signals received by multiple coordinated access points. A shared per-receiver encoder learns the time-frequency structure of each grid, and a token-wise cross-attention module fuses the receivers to produce soft log-likelihood ratios for a standard channel decoder without explicit channel estimates. Trained with a bit-metric objective, the model adapts its fusion to per-receiver reliability and remains robust under degraded links, strong frequency selectivity, and sparse pilots. Over realistic Wi-Fi channels, it outperforms classical pipelines and strong neural baselines, often matching or surpassing a local perfect-CSI reference while remaining compact and computationally efficient on commodity hardware, making it suitable for next-generation coordinated Wi-Fi receivers.
Jan 2, 2026

CoCo-Fed: A Unified Framework for Memory- and Communication-Efficient Federated Learning at the Wireless Edge

The deployment of large-scale neural networks within the Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) architecture is pivotal for enabling native edge intelligence. However, this paradigm faces two critical bottlenecks: the prohibitive memory footprint required for local training on resource-constrained gNBs, and the saturation of bandwidth-limited backhaul links during the global aggregation of high-dimensional model updates. To address these challenges, we propose CoCo-Fed, a novel Compression and Combination-based Federated learning framework that unifies local memory efficiency and global communication reduction. Locally, CoCo-Fed breaks the memory wall by performing a double-dimension down-projection of gradients, adapting the optimizer to operate on low-rank structures without introducing additional inference parameters/latency. Globally, we introduce a transmission protocol based on orthogonal subspace superposition, where layer-wise updates are projected and superimposed into a single consolidated matrix per gNB, drastically reducing the backhaul traffic. Beyond empirical designs, we establish a rigorous theoretical foundation, proving the convergence of CoCo-Fed even under unsupervised learning conditions suitable for wireless sensing tasks. Extensive simulations on an angle-of-arrival estimation task demonstrate that CoCo-Fed significantly outperforms state-of-the-art baselines in both memory and communication efficiency while maintaining robust convergence under non-IID settings.
Dec 17, 2025

Agentic AI for ISAC: Analysis, Framework, and Case Study

Integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) has emerged as a key development direction in the sixth-generation (6G) era, which provides essential support for the collaborative sensing and communication of future intelligent networks. However, as wireless environments become increasingly dynamic and complex, ISAC systems require more intelligent processing and more autonomous operation to maintain efficiency and adaptability. Meanwhile, agentic artificial intelligence (AI) offers a feasible solution to address these challenges by enabling continuous perception-reasoning-action loops in dynamic environments to support intelligent, autonomous, and efficient operation for ISAC systems. As such, we delve into the application value and prospects of agentic AI in ISAC systems in this work. Firstly, we provide a comprehensive review of agentic AI and ISAC systems to demonstrate their key characteristics. Secondly, we show several common optimization approaches for ISAC systems and highlight the significant advantages of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI)-based agentic AI. Thirdly, we propose a novel agentic ISAC framework and prensent a case study to verify its superiority in optimizing ISAC performance. Finally, we clarify future research directions for agentic AI-based ISAC systems.
Dec 14, 2025

FuseFi: Combining Irregularly Sampled CSI from Diverse Communication Packets and Frequency Bands for Wi-Fi Sensing

Existing Wi-Fi sensing systems rely on injecting high-rate probing packets to extract channel state information (CSI), leading to communication degradation and limited deployment flexibility. Although Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) is a promising direction, existing solutions still rely on auxiliary packet injection because they exploit only uniform CSI from a single frame type, discarding approximately 70% of naturally available packets. We present FuseFi, a novel Wi-Fi-based ISAC framework that directly exploits irregularly sampled CSI from diverse communication packets across multiple frequency bands, eliminating intrusive packet injection and introducing no sensing-specific communication overhead. FuseFi integrates a CSI sanitization pipeline to harmonize heterogeneous packets and remove burst-induced redundancy, together with a time-aware attention model that learns directly from non-uniform CSI sequences without resampling. We further introduce CommCSI-HAR, a new dataset with irregularly sampled CSI from real-world dual-band communication traffic. Extensive evaluations on this dataset and, separately, on four public sensing tasks across three benchmark datasets show that FuseFi achieves state-of-the-art accuracy with a compact model size, while fully preserving communication throughput.
Dec 3, 2025

Over-the-Air Federated Learning: Rethinking Edge AI Through Signal Processing

Over-the-Air Federated Learning (AirFL) is an emerging paradigm that tightly integrates wireless signal processing and distributed machine learning to enable scalable AI at the network edge. By exploiting wireless superposition over a shared multiple-access channel, AirFL turns simultaneous transmissions of local model updates into an analog aggregate at the receiver, thereby reducing communication latency, bandwidth usage, and energy consumption in wireless aggregation domains. This article develops a design-oriented tutorial view of analog AirFL. We organize existing schemes according to the signal-processing mechanism used to enable AirFL aggregation: transmitter-side channel compensation and power control, receiver-side equalization and high-dimensional processing, or learning-aware aggregation weighting. This viewpoint leads to three representative classes -- CSIT-aware, blind, and weighted AirFL -- and clarifies their assumptions, performance tradeoffs, complexity, and deployment limitations. We further discuss synchronization, digital and hybrid analog-digital realization, and open research directions for integrating AirFL into practical wireless edge-AI systems.
Nov 21, 2025

Self-Localizing MIMO Beam Mapping with Continuously Evolving Channel Memory

Machine learning has greatly advanced data-driven channel modeling and resource optimization. However, most existing methods require accurately location-labeled datasets, which are costly to collect and maintain in dynamic environments. This paper develops a self-localizing multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) beam map framework that constructs a hierarchical wireless memory from highly sparse channel state information (CSI) measurements without explicit location labels. To reduce acquisition and processing overhead, we use beamdomain received signal strength (RSS) as compact inputs and theoretically show that they enable asymptotically unbiased spatial signature estimation. A dual-scale extractor captures intrasnapshot angular dependencies and inter-sample correlations for incomplete observations, and a hybrid temporal encoder is designed to consolidate recent CSI into stable short-term context for physical anchor inference. The inferred anchors spatially index a physically structured radio map embedding that stores long-term channel knowledge, which conditions a diffusion decoder for location-consistent full CSI reconstruction. Such a radio map embedding provides a persistent wireless knowledge representation that can be continuously updated and reused without full CSI acquisition. Experiments show that the proposed framework improves physical-anchor recovery accuracy by over 30% under sparse measurements and achieves more than 20% channel-capacity gain in non-line-of-sight (NLOS) beam tracking over Kalman-filter-based methods.