Extremely Large-Scale MIMO Technologies for 6G Near-Field Communications
A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Communications".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 December 2025 | Viewed by 980
Special Issue Editors
Interests: 6G near-field communications; MIMO communication and signal processing
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Extremely large-scale multiple-input and multiple-output (XL-MIMO) is recognized as one of the key physical-layer technologies for 6G mobile communication systems. XL antenna arrays, deploying hundreds or even thousands of antennas at the transceiver, can significantly enhance the key performance indicators (KPIs) of 6G systems. However, in such networks, near-field communication with spherical wavefronts becomes crucial, as conventional far-field propagation with planar wavefronts is no longer applicable. The utilization of spherical waves in the near-field region offers several advantages over traditional far-field communications. One of the primary benefits is that the wavefront in the radiating near-field region provides additional degrees of freedom and high resolution with distance-dependent beamwidth, which can be leveraged to improve wireless operations. Moreover, the spherical nature of the wavefront of the transmitted signal allows for more precise localization of the receiver based on the phase and amplitude of the received signal. This Special Issue focuses on the latest research achievements from academia and industry and discusses related research directions for near-field XL-MIMO systems. The submissions can cover, but are not limited to, the following topics:
- Channel measurement and channel modelling in near-field communication;
- Electromagnetic information theory for near-field communication;
- Channel estimation and channel tracking for near-field XL-MIMO systems;
- Low-complexity beamforming design for near-field wireless communication;
- Holographic MIMO/RIS for near-field operations;
- Near-field simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT);
- Near-field and mmWave/THz communications, localization, and sensing;
- Near-field integrated sensing and communications;
- AI-assisted near-field
Dr. Haiyang Zhang
Dr. Wei Huang
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- MIMO
- near-field communications
- 6G mobile communication systems
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