Past decade has witnessed the tremendous increases in data throughput and the number of connected nodes, and recent studies have also foreboded these increases in next generation networks. These tremendous increases will undoubtedly result in increasingly stringent requirements of spectral efficiency and energy efficiency. To meet these two requirements, sparsity modulation, such as index modulation, media-based modulation, RIS-based/reflecting modulation, OTFS, and subcarrier number modulation, attracts researchers’ attention in recent years. Different from conventional amplitude-phase modulation schemes, sparsity modulation employs one or more modulation dimension(s) in addition to the classic amplitude-phase constellation diagram, so as to form a higher-dimensional modulation scheme, which considerably enhances the spectral efficiency under proper system configurations.

By sparsity modulation, only a subset of media resources or functional blocks will be activated to form a unique activation pattern. Consequently, the activation pattern per se can be used to modulate extra bit stream in addition to the bit stream modulated by data constellation symbols. As a paradigm in its infancy, there are still a large number of open research questions awaiting solutions and further research activities are of high importance to finally promote sparsity modulation to the practical implementation stage. Apart from theoretical research, the concerns of practical implementation are required to be addressed.

In light of the aforementioned advantages of applying sparsity modulation for 6G communications and the remaining research problems, this feature topic aims to bring together leading researchers in both academia and industry from diversified backgrounds to attract original and high-quality publications addressing the theoretical and practical issues related to sparsity modulation. Extended versions of papers published in conferences, symposiums, or workshop proceedings are encouraged for considerations.

  

● Dr. Jun Li, Guangzhou University, China, lijun52018@gzhu.edu.cn

● Dr. Shuping Dang, University of Bristol, UK, shuping.dang@bristol.ac.uk

● Prof. Jia Hou, Soochow University, China, houjia@suda.edu.cn

● Prof. Marco Di Renzo, IEEE Fellow, Paris-Saclay University, France, marco.direnzo@centralesupelec.fr

● Prof. Mohamed-Slim Alouini, IEEE Fellow, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia, slim.alouini@kaust.edu.sa

 

● Artificial intelligence and learning techniques assisted sparsity modulation

● Massive MIMO and reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) assisted sparsity modulation

● Sparsity modulation in millimeter-wave, terahertz and optical wireless communications

● Sparsity modulation for underwater optical/acoustic communications

● Distance-aware and space-frequency-correlated sparsity modulation

● Sparsity modulation with high mobility

● Physical security and secrecy related issues of sparsity modulation

● Sparsity modulation in multi-user and cooperative relay networks

● Performance analysis for sparsity modulation based communication systems

● Resource allocation and optimization for sparsity modulation based communication systems

● Detection and transceiver designs for sparsity modulation

● Sparsity modulation aided interference mitigation techniques

● Pilot designs and channel estimation techniques for sparsity modulation

● Network architecture designs for sparsity modulation

● Signal processing techniques for sparsity modulation

● Novel sparsity modulation bit-to-pattern mapping relation designs

● Sparsity modulation aided non-orthogonal multiple access, energy harvesting, and cognitive radio schemes

● Emerging applications of sparsity modulation

● Implementation challenges and future research directions of sparsity modulation

This feature topic “Sparsity Modulation for 6G Communications” invites submissions of high-quality original research papers capturing the state-of-the-art advances in sparsity modulation and foster new avenues for research in this area. Potential topics of interest include, but not limited to areas listed above.

Papers should be submitted in two separate .doc files (preferred) or .pdf files: 1) Main Document (including paper title, abstract, key words, and full text); 2) Title page (including paper title, author affiliation, acknowledgement and any other information related with the authors’ identification) through the Manuscript Central. Please register or login at , then go to the author center and follow the instructions there. Remember to select “Sparsity Modulation for 6G Communications–October Issue, 2023” as your manuscript type when submitting; otherwise, it might be considered as a regular paper. http://mc03.manuscriptcentral.com/chinacomm

Each submission must be accompanied by the following information:

● An abstract of about 150 words

● 3-8 keywords

● Original photographs with high-resolution (300 dpi or greater); eps. or tif. format is preferred sequentially numbered references. The basic reference format is: author name, "article name", issue name(italic）, vol, no., page, month, year. for example: Y.M Huang, "pervateture in wireless hetergeneous..",IEEE Journal on Selected Areas, vol.27, no. 5, pp 34-50, May, 2009.

● Brief biographies of authors (50-75 words)

● Contact information, including email and mailing addresses