Presenters:
Changsheng You, Southern University of Science and Technology, China
Yong Zeng, Southeast University, China
Jiayi Zhang, Beijing Jiaotong University, China
Cunhua Pan, Southeast University, China
Abstract:
Extremely large-scale multiple-input multiple-output (XL-MIMO) is a key enabling technology for sixth-generation (6G) mobile networks, extending current massive MIMO systems by increasing antenna number or array size by at least an order of magnitude to achieve unprecedented gains in spectral efficiency and spatial resolution. This evolution is not merely a matter of scaling array dimensions but introduces new challenges in near-field channel modeling, performance analysis, channel estimation, sensing, and practical implementation that remain insufficiently explored. This tutorial provides a comprehensive overview of the foundations and recent advances in near-field XL-MIMO communication and sensing. It begins with basic near-field modeling that captures non-uniform spherical wave propagation and spatial non-stationarity, then examines communication performance aspects such as near-field signal-to-noise ratio scaling laws, beam focusing characteristics, achievable rates, and degrees of freedom. The tutorial further discusses key design issues including near-field beam codebooks, beam training, channel estimation, and delay alignment modulation transmission. It also covers efficient signal processing techniques and performance considerations for near-field XL-MIMO sensing, and concludes by outlining promising research directions to guide future developments in near-field XL-MIMO communication and sensing.
Biographies:
Changsheng You is an Assistant Professor at Southern University of Science and Technology. He received his B.Eng. degree in 2014 from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) and his Ph.D. degree in 2018 from The University of Hong Kong (HKU). He was previously a Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore (NUS). His research interests include intelligent reflecting surfaces, UAV communications, edge learning, and mobile-edge computing. Dr. You serves as a Guest Editor for IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications (JSAC) and as an editor for IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications (TWC), IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing (TMC), IEEE Communications Letters (CL), IEEE Transactions on Green Communications and Networking (TGCN), and IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society (OJ-COMS). He has published more than 70 papers in leading IEEE journals and conferences, including 16 ESI Highly Cited papers, with over 19,000 Google Scholar citations. His honors include the IEEE Communications Society Leonard G. Abraham Prize (2025), IEEE ComSoc Asia-Pacific Best Young Researcher Award (2024), IEEE ComSoc Asia-Pacific Region Outstanding Paper Award (2019), IEEE ComSoc Best Survey Paper Award (2021), and IEEE ComSoc Best Tutorial Paper Award (2023).
Yong Zeng (Fellow, IEEE) is a Professor with the National Mobile Communications Research Laboratory at Southeast University, China, and with the Purple Mountain Laboratories in Nanjing. He received both his Bachelor of Engineering and Ph.D. degrees from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He was a Research Fellow and Senior Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore from 2013 to 2018 and a Lecturer at the University of Sydney from 2018 to 2019. Prof. Zeng was listed as a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher for four consecutive years (2019–2022). His awards include the ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA), the 2020 IEEE Marconi Prize Paper Award in Wireless Communications, the 2018 IEEE ComSoc Asia-Pacific Outstanding Young Researcher Award, the 2020 and 2017 IEEE ComSoc Heinrich Hertz Prize Paper Awards, the 2021 IEEE ICC Best Paper Award, and the 2021 China Communications Best Paper Award. He serves as an Associate Editor for IEEE Communications Letters and IEEE Open Journal of Vehicular Technology and as a Leading Guest Editor for IEEE Wireless Communications and China Communications.
Jiayi Zhang received his Ph.D. degree in Communication Engineering from Beijing Jiaotong University in 2014 and has been a Professor at the School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, since 2016. He was a Post-doctoral Research Associate at Tsinghua University from 2014 to 2016 and a Humboldt Research Fellow at Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Germany, from 2014 to 2015. His research interests include cell-free massive MIMO, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS), communication theory, and applied mathematics. Dr. Zhang received Best Paper Awards at IEEE ICC 2023, WCSP 2017, and APCC 2017, the URSI Young Scientist Award in 2020, and the IEEE ComSoc Asia-Pacific Outstanding Young Researcher Award in 2020. He has been recognized as an exemplary reviewer for IEEE Communications Letters and IEEE Transactions on Communications and has served as Lead Guest Editor for IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications. He is currently an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Communications and IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications.
Cunhua Pan is a Full Professor at Southeast University. His research focuses on reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS), AI for wireless communications, near-field communications and sensing, and integrated sensing and communications. He has published over 200 IEEE journal papers and has accumulated more than 19,000 Google Scholar citations with an H-index of 70. He is a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher and has served as an editor for IEEE Transactions on Communications, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, IEEE Wireless Communications Letters, and IEEE Communications Letters. He has also served as a leading Guest Editor for multiple IEEE journals and magazines, including IEEE JSAC and IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing. His awards include the IEEE ComSoc Leonard G. Abraham Prize (2022), IEEE ComSoc Asia-Pacific Outstanding Young Researcher Award (2022), IEEE ComSoc Fred W. Ellersick Prize (2024), IEEE ComSoc CTTC and SPCC Early Achievement Awards (2024), and the IEEE WCSP 2022 Best Paper Award. He has supervised a Ph.D. student who received the IEEE Signal Processing Society Best Ph.D. Dissertation Award.