New Paradigm for Unified Near-Field and Far-Field Wireless Communications

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel codebook that unifies near-field and far-field wireless communications, enabling efficient precoding for all user equipments in 6G MIMO systems without needing to distinguish their regions.

Contribution

It proposes a new codebook design that supports simultaneous near-field and far-field communication, aligning with 3GPP standards and enhancing 6G MIMO system performance.

Findings

Demonstrates superior performance in simulations

Ensures compatibility with current 3GPP standards

Validates effectiveness in unifying near-field and far-field precoding

Abstract

Current Type I and Type II codebooks in fifth generation (5G) wireless communications are limited in supporting the coexistence of far-field and near-field user equipments, as they are exclusively designed for far-field scenarios. To fill this knowledge gap and encourage relevant proposals by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), this article provides a novel codebook to facilitate a unified paradigm for the coexistence of far-field and near-field contexts. It ensures efficient precoding for all user equipments (UEs), while removing the need for the base station to identify whether one specific UE stays in either near-field or far-field regions. Additionally, our proposed codebook ensures compliance with current 3GPP standards for working flow and reference signals. Simulation results demonstrate the superior performance and versatility of our proposed codebook, validating its effectiveness in unifying near-field and far-field precoding for sixth-generation (6G) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems.