Yuanhao Cui

Weijie Yuan, Yuanhao Cui, Jiacheng Wang et al.

In this article, we introduce a novel low-altitude wireless network (LAWN), which is a reconfigurable, three-dimensional (3D) layered architecture. In particular, the LAWN integrates connectivity, sensing, control, and computing across aerial and terrestrial nodes that enable seamless operation in complex, dynamic, and mission-critical environments. Different from the conventional aerial communication systems, LAWN's distinctive feature is its tight integration of functional planes in which multiple functionalities continually reshape themselves to operate safely and efficiently in the low-altitude sky. With the LAWN, we discuss several enabling technologies, such as integrated sensing and communication (ISAC), semantic communication, and fully-actuated control systems. Finally, we identify potential applications and key cross-layer challenges. This article offers a comprehensive roadmap for future research and development in the low-altitude airspace.

Muhammad Umar Farooq Qaisar, Weijie Yuan, Onur Günlü et al.

The commencement of the sixth-generation (6G) wireless networks represents a fundamental shift in the integration of communication and sensing technologies to support next-generation applications. Integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) is a key concept in this evolution, enabling end-to-end support for both communication and sensing within a unified framework. It enhances spectrum efficiency, reduces latency, and supports diverse use cases, including smart cities, autonomous systems, and perceptive environments. This tutorial provides a comprehensive overview of ISAC's role in 6G networks, beginning with its evolution since 5G and the technical drivers behind its adoption. Core principles and system variations of ISAC are introduced, followed by an in-depth discussion of the enabling technologies that facilitate its practical deployment. The paper further analyzes current research directions to highlight key challenges, open issues, and emerging trends. Design insights and recommendations are also presented to support future development and implementation. This work ultimately tries to address three central questions: Why is ISAC essential for 6G? What innovations does it bring? How will it shape the future of wireless communication?

Fuwang Dong, Fan Liu, Yifeng Xiong et al.

In the low-altitude wireless networks, the simultaneous sensing data acquisition and sharing (SDAS) through an ISAC signaling strategy becomes a typical application scenario. In this paper, we mainly investigate three primary aspects of the SDAS system, namely, the information-theoretic framework, the optimal distribution of channel input, and the optimal waveform design for Gaussian signaling. First, we establish the information-theoretic framework and develop a modified source-channel separation theorem (MSST) tailored for the SDAS systems. The proposed MSST elucidates the relationship between achievable distortion, coding rate, and communication channel capacity in cases where the distortion metric is separable for sensing and communication (S\&C) processes. Second, we present an optimal channel input design for dual-functional signaling, which aims to minimize SDAS distortion under the constraints of the MSST and resource budget. We then conceive a two-step Blahut-Arimoto (BA)-based optimal search algorithm to numerically solve the functional optimization problem. Third, to provide practical design insights, we further propose an optimal waveform design for Gaussian signaling in multi-input multi-output (MIMO) SDAS systems. The associated covariance matrix optimization problem is addressed using a successive convex approximation (SCA)-based waveform design algorithm. Finally, we provide numerical simulation results to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms, which characterize the unique performance tradeoff between S&C processes.

Yuanhao Cui, Jiali Nie, Weijie Yuan et al.

Low-altitude airspace, roughly defined as the region up to 3000 meters above ground level, is envisioned as a new spatial domain for daily human and machine activities. This article introduces the concept of the Low-Altitude Wireless Network (LAWN), which represents a paradigm shift from the current ground-based communication-only network to a three-dimensional (3D) multifunctional network. We analyze the key driving forces, network architecture, and limiting factors of LAWN, with a particular focus on the tight integration of communication, sensing, and control in highly dynamic airspace environments. By establishing the coupling between airspace capacity and wireless channel capacity, we reveal the intrinsic limits of airspace management and identify the fundamental challenges and opportunities associated with its evolution.

Zhaohui Yang, Wei Xu, Le Liang et al.

Combining wireless communication with large artificial intelligence (AI) models can open up a myriad of novel application scenarios. In sixth generation (6G) networks, ubiquitous communication and computing resources allow large AI models to serve democratic large AI models-related services to enable real-time applications like autonomous vehicles, smart cities, and Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystems. However, the security considerations and sustainable communication resources limit the deployment of large AI models over distributed wireless networks. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of privacy, security, and trustworthy for distributed wireless large AI model (WLAM). In particular, a detailed privacy and security are analysis for distributed WLAM is fist revealed. The classifications and theoretical findings about privacy and security in distributed WLAM are discussed. Then the trustworthy and ethics for implementing distributed WLAM are described. Finally, the comprehensive applications of distributed WLAM are presented in the context of electromagnetic signal processing.

Fei Wang, Tingting Zhang, Wei Xi et al.

Wi-Fi sensing has emerged as a powerful non-intrusive technology for recognizing human activities, monitoring vital signs, and enabling context-aware applications using commercial wireless devices. However, the performance of Wi-Fi sensing often degrades when applied to new users, devices, or environments due to significant domain shifts. To address this challenge, researchers have proposed a wide range of generalization techniques aimed at enhancing the robustness and adaptability of Wi-Fi sensing systems. In this survey, we provide a comprehensive and structured review of over 200 papers published since 2015, categorizing them according to the Wi-Fi sensing pipeline: experimental setup, signal preprocessing, feature learning, and model deployment. We analyze key techniques, including signal preprocessing, domain adaptation, meta-learning, metric learning, data augmentation, cross-modal alignment, federated learning, and continual learning. Furthermore, we summarize publicly available datasets across various tasks,such as activity recognition, user identification, indoor localization, and pose estimation, and provide insights into their domain diversity. We also discuss emerging trends and future directions, including large-scale pretraining, integration with multimodal foundation models, and continual deployment. To foster community collaboration, we introduce the Sensing Dataset Platform (SDP) for sharing datasets and models. This survey aims to serve as a valuable reference and practical guide for researchers and practitioners dedicated to improving the generalizability of Wi-Fi sensing systems.

Dingzhu Wen, Sijing Xie, Xiaowen Cao et al.

This paper studies an over-the-air federated edge learning (Air-FEEL) system with integrated sensing, communication, and computation (ISCC), in which one edge server coordinates multiple edge devices to wirelessly sense the objects and use the sensing data to collaboratively train a machine learning model for recognition tasks. In this system, over-the-air computation (AirComp) is employed to enable one-shot model aggregation from edge devices. Under this setup, we analyze the convergence behavior of the ISCC-enabled Air-FEEL in terms of the loss function degradation, by particularly taking into account the wireless sensing noise during the training data acquisition and the AirComp distortions during the over-the-air model aggregation. The result theoretically shows that sensing, communication, and computation compete for network resources to jointly decide the convergence rate. Based on the analysis, we design the ISCC parameters under the target of maximizing the loss function degradation while ensuring the latency and energy budgets in each round. The challenge lies on the tightly coupled processes of sensing, communication, and computation among different devices. To tackle the challenge, we derive a low-complexity ISCC algorithm by alternately optimizing the batch size control and the network resource allocation. It is found that for each device, less sensing power should be consumed if a larger batch of data samples is obtained and vice versa. Besides, with a given batch size, the optimal computation speed of one device is the minimum one that satisfies the latency constraint. Numerical results based on a human motion recognition task verify the theoretical convergence analysis and show that the proposed ISCC algorithm well coordinates the batch size control and resource allocation among sensing, communication, and computation to enhance the learning performance.

Zhijie Cai, Xiaowen Cao, Xu Chen et al.

Recent breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI), wireless communications, and sensing technologies have accelerated the evolution of edge intelligence. However, conventional systems still grapple with issues such as low communication efficiency, redundant data acquisition, and poor model generalization. To overcome these challenges, we propose an innovative framework that enhances edge intelligence through AI-in-the-loop joint sensing and communication (JSAC). This framework features an AI-driven closed-loop control architecture that jointly optimizes system resources, thereby delivering superior system-level performance. A key contribution of our work is establishing an explicit relationship between validation loss and the system's tunable parameters. This insight enables dynamic reduction of the generalization error through AI-driven closed-loop control. Specifically, for sensing control, we introduce an adaptive data collection strategy based on gradient importance sampling, allowing edge devices to autonomously decide when to terminate data acquisition and how to allocate sample weights based on real-time model feedback. For communication control, drawing inspiration from stochastic gradient Langevin dynamics (SGLD), our joint optimization of transmission power and batch size converts channel and data noise into gradient perturbations that help mitigate overfitting. Experimental evaluations demonstrate that our framework reduces communication energy consumption by up to 77 percent and sensing costs measured by the number of collected samples by up to 52 percent while significantly improving model generalization -- with up to 58 percent reductions of the final validation loss. It validates that the proposed scheme can harvest the mutual benefit of AI and JSAC systems by incorporating the model itself into the control loop of the system.

Jiawei Huang, Di Zhang, Yuanhao Cui et al.

Wireless sensing has become a fundamental enabler for intelligent environments, supporting applications such as human detection, activity recognition, localization, and vital sign monitoring. Despite rapid advances, existing datasets and pipelines remain fragmented across sensing modalities, hindering fair comparison, transfer, and reproducibility. We propose the Sensing Dataset Protocol (SDP), a protocol-level specification and benchmark framework for large-scale wireless sensing. SDP defines how heterogeneous wireless signals are mapped into a unified perception data-block schema through lightweight synchronization, frequency-time alignment, and resampling, while a Canonical Polyadic-Alternating Least Squares (CP-ALS) pooling stage provides a task-agnostic representation that preserves multipath, spectral, and temporal structures. Built upon this protocol, a unified benchmark is established for detection, recognition, and vital-sign estimation with consistent preprocessing, training, and evaluation. Experiments under the cross-user split demonstrate that SDP significantly reduces variance (approximately 88%) across seeds while maintaining competitive accuracy and latency, confirming its value as a reproducible foundation for multi-modal and multitask sensing research.

Jihao Luo, Zesong Fei, Xinyi Wang et al.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are emerging as key enablers for low-altitude wireless network (LAWN), particularly when terrestrial networks are unavailable. In such scenarios, the environmental topology is typically unknown; hence, designing efficient and safe UAV trajectories is essential yet challenging. To address this, we propose a digital twin (DT)-assisted training and deployment framework. In this framework, the UAV transmits integrated sensing and communication signals to provide communication services to ground users, while simultaneously collecting echoes that are uploaded to the DT server to progressively construct virtual environments (VEs). These VEs accelerate model training and are continuously updated with real-time UAV sensing data during deployment, supporting decision-making and enhancing flight safety. Based on this framework, we further develop a trajectory design scheme that integrates simulated annealing for efficient user scheduling with the twin-delayed deep deterministic policy gradient algorithm for continuous trajectory design, aiming to minimize mission completion time while ensuring obstacle avoidance. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed approach achieves faster convergence, higher flight safety, and shorter mission completion time compared with baseline methods, providing a robust and efficient solution for LAWN deployment in unknown environments.

Jiali Nie, Yuanhao Cui, Zhaohui Yang et al.

Extremely Large-scale Array (ELAA) is considered a frontier technology for future communication systems, pivotal in improving wireless systems' rate and spectral efficiency. As ELAA employs a multitude of antennas operating at higher frequencies, users are typically situated in the near-field region where the spherical wavefront propagates. The near-field beam training in ELAA requires both angle and distance information, which inevitably leads to a significant increase in the beam training overhead. To address this problem, we propose a near-field beam training method based on deep learning. We use a convolutional neural network (CNN) to efficiently learn channel characteristics from historical data by strategically selecting padding and kernel sizes. The negative value of the user average achievable rate is utilized as the loss function to optimize the beamformer. This method maximizes multi-user networks' achievable rate without predefined beam codebooks. Upon deployment, the model requires solely the pre-estimated channel state information (CSI) to derive the optimal beamforming vector. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme achieves a more stable beamforming gain and significantly improves performance compared to the traditional beam training method. Furthermore, owing to the inherent traits of deep learning methodologies, this approach substantially diminishes the near-field beam training overhead.

Wenzhe Lv, Sheng Wu, Chunxiao Jiang et al.

Activity-tracking applications and location-based services using short-range communication (SRC) techniques have been abruptly demanded in the COVID-19 pandemic, especially for automated contact tracing. The attention from both public and policy keeps raising on related practical problems, including \textit{1) how to protect data security and location privacy? 2) how to efficiently and dynamically deploy SRC Internet of Thing (IoT) witnesses to monitor large areas?} To answer these questions, in this paper, we propose a decentralized and permissionless blockchain protocol, named \textit{Bychain}. Specifically, 1) a privacy-preserving SRC protocol for activity-tracking and corresponding generalized block structure is developed, by connecting an interactive zero-knowledge proof protocol and the key escrow mechanism. As a result, connections between personal identity and the ownership of on-chain location information are decoupled. Meanwhile, the owner of the on-chain location data can still claim its ownership without revealing the private key to anyone else. 2) An artificial potential field-based incentive allocation mechanism is proposed to incentivize IoT witnesses to pursue the maximum monitoring coverage deployment. We implemented and evaluated the proposed blockchain protocol in the real-world using the Bluetooth 5.0. The storage, CPU utilization, power consumption, time delay, and security of each procedure and performance of activities are analyzed. The experiment and security analysis is shown to provide a real-world performance evaluation.