Pinching-Antenna Systems with LoS Blockages

TL;DR

This paper investigates pinching-antenna systems that dynamically establish LoS links in the presence of blockages, optimizing waveguide and antenna activation to improve system throughput.

Contribution

It introduces a novel use of pinching antennas with a matching algorithm for optimizing LoS link construction amid blockages.

Findings

Enhanced system throughput through dynamic LoS link establishment.

Effective interference mitigation using the proposed antenna activation strategy.

Significant throughput improvement demonstrated in simulations.

Abstract

The aim of this letter is to explore the capability of pinching-antenna systems to construct line-of-sight (LoS) links in the presence of LoS blockages. Specifically, pinching antennas are pre-installed at preconfigured positions along waveguides and can be selectively activated to create LoS links for enhancing desired signals and non-line-of-sight (NLoS) links for eliminating inter-user interference. On this basis, a sum-rate maximization problem is formulated by jointly optimizing waveguide assignment and antenna activation. To solve this problem, a matching based algorithm is proposed using two distinct preference designs. Simulation results demonstrate that the considered pinching-antenna system and proposed solutions can dynamically establish LoS links and effectively exploit LoS blockages to mitigate interference, thereby significantly improving system throughput.