6G New Multiple Access Technology
As a basic technology at physical layer of mobile communications, non-orthogonal multiple access has been attracting wide attention across the academia and the industry. During the standardization of the fifth-generation (5G) of mobile communications, 3GPP conducted preliminary study on non-orthogonal multiple access without reaching the consensus to standardize the technology. Since 2017, there have been a number of breakthroughs in the area of massive access by academic researchers. With the consideration of finite codeword length, several information-theoretic capacity bounds were derived for non-orthogonal unsourced transmission, showing the enormous performance advantage over orthogonal multiple access. Meanwhile, channel coding for multi-user systems has become a hot topic in academia, and is being combined with the compressed sensing technology for active user detection and the estimation of wireless channels in massive access. Extensive papers on scheduling-based superposition transmissions are also seen in academia, for instance, rate-splitting multiple access (RSMA), etc.
In early 2022, an emerging technology initiative (ETI) was formed in IEEE--Next-Generation Multiple Access (NGMA) with the purpose of encouraging research on multiple access in academia and industry, and their collaboration. In May 2022, new multiple access (NMA) task force group was created in IMT-2030 Promotion Group of China, with the hope to accelerate the study on transmission schemes, channel coding and modulation, receiver algorithms, system performance analysis, etc. The NMA group would facilitate the early harmonization of technical solutions, prepare for the input to ITU-R Technical Trends of IMT-2030 and provide design guidance of multiple access in 6G air interface standards to be started in 2025.
This feature topic is aimed at encouraging academic researchers and industry engineers to explore and discuss use scenarios, fundamental theories, technical challenges and breakthrough of 6G new multiple access. Most of the guest editors are affiliated with the leader institutes or companies that see the importance of engineering feasibility and would play important roles in pushing forward new multiple access technology.
Topics include (but not limited to):
● Theory of multi-user random access, capacity analysis of unsourced transmission
● Capacity regions of multi-point multi-user systems
● Channel coding for multi-user transmissions
● Reliability- and latency-sensitive multiple access designs
● Related theory in compressed sensing, related solutions in AI and machine learning
● Transmitter-side baseband signal processing, such as channel coding, modulation, spreading, interleaving, scrambling, etc.
● Channel estimation, time/frequency offset estimation, active user detection
● Demodulation, channel decoding, complexity analysis of receive algorithms
● Security and encryption of data transmissions for unsourced transmission, connectionless or light-connection transmissions
● Link-level, system-level simulations and performance evaluations
● Related key performance indicators (KPIs) in 6G
● Combination with other technologies, such as multi-antennas, integrated sensing and communications
Schedule
Submission Deadline: July 15, 2023
Acceptance Notification (1st round): August 25, 2023
Minor Revision Due: September 25, 2023
Final Decision Due: October 30, 2023
Final Manuscript Due: November 25, 2023
Publication Date: January 15, 2024
Guest Editors
Yifei Yuan, China Mobile, China
Yongpeng Wu, Shanghai Jiaotong University, China
Lei Wang, Huawei Technologies, China
Zhifeng Yuan, ZTE Corporation, China
Wei Bai, CICT Mobile, China
Yuanwei Liu, Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom
Submission guidelines
This feature topic “6G multiple access technology” seeks for original, UNPUBLISHED research papers reporting substantive new work in various aspects of topics above. Papers MUST clearly indicate your contributions to the topic field and properly cite related work in this field.
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 http://mc03.manuscriptcentral.com/chinacomm, then go to the author center and follow the instructions there. Remember to select “6G Multiple Access Technology--January Issue 2024” as your manuscript type when submitting; otherwise, it might be considered as a regular paper.
Each submission must be accompanied by the following information:
● an abstract of no more than 150 words
● 3-8 keywords
● original photographs with high-resolution (300 dpi or greater); eps. ortif. format is preferred; sequentially numbered references.
● 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, “peradventure in wireless heterogeneous…”, 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