On the Performance of Continuous Aperture Array (CAPA)-Based Wireless Communications

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the uplink performance of continuous aperture array (CAPA) wireless systems, deriving new capacity expressions and demonstrating significant capacity gains over traditional discrete arrays through analytical and numerical methods.

Contribution

It introduces an analytical framework for CAPA-based uplink transmission, deriving novel capacity expressions and decoding schemes that differ from conventional array models.

Findings

CAPA offers significantly higher capacity than SPD arrays.

New capacity expressions for single-user and multiuser scenarios.

Analytical framework based on electromagnetic field theories.

Abstract

The performance of continuous aperture array (CAPA)-based wireless communications is analyzed in an uplink scenario. An analytical framework is proposed to characterize uplink CAPA-based transmission using electromagnetic field theories. On this basis, new expressions are derived for the channel capacity in a single-user scenario and the sum-rate capacity in a multiuser scenario, along with the capacity-achieving decoding schemes. These findings are proved to differ greatly from those established for conventional spatially discrete (SPD) arrays. Numerical results are provided to demonstrate that CAPA offers significant capacity gains compared to the SPD array.