Pinching-Antenna Systems with In-Waveguide Attenuation: Performance Analysis and Algorithm Design

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Xu, Yanqing, Ding, Zhiguo, Schober, Robert, Chang, Tsung-Hui
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Xu, Yanqing
Ding, Zhiguo
Schober, Robert
Chang, Tsung-Hui
author_facet Xu, Yanqing
Ding, Zhiguo
Schober, Robert
Chang, Tsung-Hui
contents Pinching-antenna systems have emerged as a promising flexible-antenna architecture for next-generation wireless networks, enabling enhanced adaptability and user-centric connectivity through antenna repositioning along waveguides. However, existing studies often overlook in-waveguide signal attenuation and in the literature, there is no comprehensive analysis on whether and under what conditions such an assumption is justified. This paper addresses this gap by explicitly incorporating in-waveguide attenuation into both the system model and algorithm design, and studying its impact on the downlink user data rates. We begin with a single-user scenario and derive a closed-form expression for the globally optimal antenna placement, which reveals how the attenuation coefficient and the user-to-waveguide distance jointly affect the optimal antenna position. Based on this analytical solution, we further provide a theoretical analysis identifying the system conditions under which the in-waveguide attenuation has an insignificant impact on the user achievable rate. The study is then extended to the multi-user multiple-input multiple-output setting, where two efficient algorithms are developed, based on the weighted minimum mean square error method and the maximum ratio combining method, to jointly optimize beamforming and antenna placement. Simulation results validate the efficacy of the proposed algorithms and demonstrate that pinching-antenna systems substantially outperform conventional fixed-antenna baselines, underscoring their potential for future flexible wireless communications.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_23966
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Pinching-Antenna Systems with In-Waveguide Attenuation: Performance Analysis and Algorithm Design
Xu, Yanqing
Ding, Zhiguo
Schober, Robert
Chang, Tsung-Hui
Signal Processing
Information Theory
Pinching-antenna systems have emerged as a promising flexible-antenna architecture for next-generation wireless networks, enabling enhanced adaptability and user-centric connectivity through antenna repositioning along waveguides. However, existing studies often overlook in-waveguide signal attenuation and in the literature, there is no comprehensive analysis on whether and under what conditions such an assumption is justified. This paper addresses this gap by explicitly incorporating in-waveguide attenuation into both the system model and algorithm design, and studying its impact on the downlink user data rates. We begin with a single-user scenario and derive a closed-form expression for the globally optimal antenna placement, which reveals how the attenuation coefficient and the user-to-waveguide distance jointly affect the optimal antenna position. Based on this analytical solution, we further provide a theoretical analysis identifying the system conditions under which the in-waveguide attenuation has an insignificant impact on the user achievable rate. The study is then extended to the multi-user multiple-input multiple-output setting, where two efficient algorithms are developed, based on the weighted minimum mean square error method and the maximum ratio combining method, to jointly optimize beamforming and antenna placement. Simulation results validate the efficacy of the proposed algorithms and demonstrate that pinching-antenna systems substantially outperform conventional fixed-antenna baselines, underscoring their potential for future flexible wireless communications.
title Pinching-Antenna Systems with In-Waveguide Attenuation: Performance Analysis and Algorithm Design
topic Signal Processing
Information Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.23966