Ronald Y. Chang

Po-Heng Chou, Jia-Qing Lin, Wan-Jen Huang et al.

In this paper, we propose a feedback-efficient hybrid precoding framework for wideband millimeter-wave (mmWave) multiple-input multiple-output orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) systems. To mitigate the high cost of radio frequency (RF) chains and channel state information (CSI) feedback in large-scale antenna arrays, we first construct frequency-flat analog precoders by extracting dominant angle-of-arrival (AoA) and angle-of-departure (AoD) directions from sparse frequency-domain channels. For digital precoding, we design a quantized codebook using the Lloyd algorithm and develop a binary-search-based hierarchical interpolation algorithm that adaptively assigns codewords according to subcarrier correlation. The proposed method achieves sub-linear feedback scaling by reducing the feedback overhead from O(K) to O(K/M + log M), where K is the number of subcarriers and M is the pilot spacing. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves comparable or superior spectral efficiency and bit error rate (BER) performance to existing clustering and interpolation schemes, while significantly reducing computational complexity and exhibiting robustness under imperfect CSI.

Po-Heng Chou, Bo-Ren Zheng, Wan-Jen Huang et al.

This study considers multiple reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs)-aided multiuser downlink systems with the goal of jointly optimizing the transmitter precoding and RIS phase shift matrix to maximize spectrum efficiency. Unlike prior work that assumed ideal RIS reflectivity, a practical coupling effect is considered between reflecting amplitude and phase shift for the RIS elements. This makes the optimization problem non-convex. To address this challenge, we propose a deep deterministic policy gradient (DDPG)-based deep reinforcement learning (DRL) framework. The proposed model is evaluated under both fixed and random numbers of users in practical mmWave channel settings. Simulation results demonstrate that, despite its complexity, the proposed DDPG approach significantly outperforms optimization-based algorithms and double deep Q-learning, particularly in scenarios with random user distributions.

Po-Heng Chou, Ching-Wen Chen, Wan-Jen Huang et al.

In this paper, the precoding design is investigated for maximizing the throughput of millimeter wave (mmWave) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems with obstructed direct communication paths. In particular, a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) is employed to enhance MIMO transmissions, considering mmWave characteristics related to line-of-sight (LoS) and multipath effects. The traditional exhaustive search (ES) for optimal codewords in the continuous phase shift is computationally intensive and time-consuming. To reduce computational complexity, permuted discrete Fourier transform (DFT) vectors are used for finding codebook design, incorporating amplitude responses for practical or ideal RIS systems. However, even if the discrete phase shift is adopted in the ES, it results in significant computation and is time-consuming. Instead, the trained deep neural network (DNN) is developed to facilitate faster codeword selection. Simulation results show that the DNN maintains sub-optimal spectral efficiency even as the distance between the end-user and the RIS has variations in the testing phase. These results highlight the potential of DNN in advancing RIS-aided systems.

Po-Heng Chou, Jiun-Jia Wu, Wan-Jen Huang et al.

In this paper, we propose a sustainable long short-term memory (LSTM)-based precoding framework for reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted millimeter-wave (mmWave) MIMO systems. Instead of explicit channel state information (CSI) estimation, the framework exploits uplink pilot sequences to implicitly learn channel characteristics, reducing both pilot overhead and inference complexity. Practical hardware constraints are addressed by incorporating the phase-dependent amplitude model of RIS elements, while a multi-label training strategy improves robustness when multiple near-optimal codewords yield comparable performance. Simulations show that the proposed design achieves over 90% of the spectral efficiency of exhaustive search (ES) with only 2.2% of its computation time, cutting energy consumption by nearly two orders of magnitude. The method also demonstrates resilience under distribution mismatch and scalability to larger RIS arrays, making it a practical and energy-efficient solution for sustainable 6G wireless networks.

Chia-Ho Kuo, Hsin-Yuan Chang, Ronald Y. Chang et al.

Millimeter wave (mmWave) is a key technology for fifth-generation (5G) and beyond communications. Hybrid beamforming has been proposed for large-scale antenna systems in mmWave communications. Existing hybrid beamforming designs based on infinite-resolution phase shifters (PSs) are impractical due to hardware cost and power consumption. In this paper, we propose an unsupervised-learning-based scheme to jointly design the analog precoder and combiner with low-resolution PSs for multiuser multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) systems. We transform the analog precoder and combiner design problem into a phase classification problem and propose a generic neural network architecture, termed the phase classification network (PCNet), capable of producing solutions of various PS resolutions. Simulation results demonstrate the superior sum-rate and complexity performance of the proposed scheme, as compared to state-of-the-art hybrid beamforming designs for the most commonly used low-resolution PS configurations.

Bing-Jia Chen, Ronald Y. Chang

Device-free wireless indoor localization is an essential technology for the Internet of Things (IoT), and fingerprint-based methods are widely used. A common challenge to fingerprint-based methods is data collection and labeling. This paper proposes a few-shot transfer learning system that uses only a small amount of labeled data from the current environment and reuses a large amount of existing labeled data previously collected in other environments, thereby significantly reducing the data collection and labeling cost for localization in each new environment. The core method lies in graph neural network (GNN) based few-shot transfer learning and its modifications. Experimental results conducted on real-world environments show that the proposed system achieves comparable performance to a convolutional neural network (CNN) model, with 40 times fewer labeled data.

Tz-Wei Mo, Ronald Y. Chang, Te-Yi Kan

This paper proposes a novel multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) symbol detector that incorporates a deep reinforcement learning (DRL) agent into the Monte Carlo tree search (MCTS) detection algorithm. We first describe how the MCTS algorithm, used in many decision-making problems, is applied to the MIMO detection problem. Then, we introduce a self-designed deep reinforcement learning agent, consisting of a policy value network and a state value network, which is trained to detect MIMO symbols. The outputs of the trained networks are adopted into a modified MCTS detection algorithm to provide useful node statistics and facilitate enhanced tree search process. The resulted scheme, termed the DRL-MCTS detector, demonstrates significant improvements over the original MCTS detection algorithm and exhibits favorable performance compared to other existing linear and DNN-based detection methods under varying channel conditions.

Kevin M. Chen, Ronald Y. Chang

Device-free wireless indoor localization is a key enabling technology for the Internet of Things (IoT). Fingerprint-based indoor localization techniques are a commonly used solution. This paper proposes a semi-supervised, generative adversarial network (GAN)-based device-free fingerprinting indoor localization system. The proposed system uses a small amount of labeled data and a large amount of unlabeled data (i.e., semi-supervised), thus considerably reducing the expensive data labeling effort. Experimental results show that, as compared to the state-of-the-art supervised scheme, the proposed semi-supervised system achieves comparable performance with equal, sufficient amount of labeled data, and significantly superior performance with equal, highly limited amount of labeled data. Besides, the proposed semi-supervised system retains its performance over a broad range of the amount of labeled data. The interactions between the generator, discriminator, and classifier models of the proposed GAN-based system are visually examined and discussed. A mathematical description of the proposed system is also presented.

Shing-Jiuan Liu, Ronald Y. Chang, Feng-Tsun Chien

Device-free Wi-Fi indoor localization has received significant attention as a key enabling technology for many Internet of Things (IoT) applications. Machine learning-based location estimators, such as the deep neural network (DNN), carry proven potential in achieving high-precision localization performance by automatically learning discriminative features from the noisy wireless signal measurements. However, the inner workings of DNNs are not transparent and not adequately understood especially in the indoor localization application. In this paper, we provide quantitative and visual explanations for the DNN learning process as well as the critical features that DNN has learned during the process. Toward this end, we propose to use several visualization techniques, including: 1) dimensionality reduction visualization, to project the high-dimensional feature space to the 2D space to facilitate visualization and interpretation, and 2) visual analytics and information visualization, to quantify relative contributions of each feature with the proposed feature manipulation procedures. The results provide insightful views and plausible explanations of the DNN in device-free Wi-Fi indoor localization using channel state information (CSI) fingerprints.