Generalized Pinching-Antenna Systems: A Radio-Stripe-Based Realization

2026-06-17

AI Summary

This work addresses the limitations of conventional passive compressive antennas, which suffer from inflexible deployment and poor frequency adaptability due to their reliance on passive coupling mechanisms. To overcome these challenges, the paper proposes a generalized compressive antenna framework based on radio stripes (RS-GPA), introducing RS as an active implementation wherein distributed active antenna processing units (APUs) along a shared cable perform localized transmission, reception, and signal processing. The core contributions include the development of a distance-dependent channel model, formulation of APU activation criteria that balance performance and power consumption, and design of low-complexity algorithms—namely, reweighted group-sparse beamforming, geometry-guided sparse APU activation, and joint uplink power control with APU selection. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach significantly reduces total power consumption, with the geometry-guided strategy achieving substantial runtime savings at negligible performance loss.

Abstract

This paper investigates radio stripes (RSs) as a practical realization of generalized pinching antennas and proposes an RS-based generalized pinching-antenna (RS-GPA) framework. Unlike dielectric-waveguide-based passive pinching antennas that rely on passive coupling from a guided wave into free space, RSs employ active antenna processing units (APUs) deployed along a shared cable for local transmission, reception, and signal processing. This cable-like active architecture offers flexible installation and broad frequency applicability, while allowing selected APUs to act as discrete and controllable radiation or reception points for location-flexible wireless access. Based on the proposed RS-GPA framework, we establish the system and channel models by accounting for the distance-dependent APU-user channels. For downlink transmission, we formulate a circuit-power-aware sparse APU activation and beamforming problem and develop a reweighted group-sparse beamforming algorithm. To reveal the activation principle, we analyze the single-user downlink case and characterize when an additional APU should be activated by balancing transmit-power saving and circuit-power cost. Inspired by this insight, a geometry-guided low-complexity multiuser algorithm is proposed. For uplink transmission, we formulate a joint APU activation and user power control problem and develop a geometry-guided sparse activation design. Numerical results show that the proposed RS-GPA framework substantially reduces the total consumed power compared with benchmark schemes, while the geometry-guided algorithm achieves near-identical consumed-power performance to the group-sparse design with significantly lower runtime.

Problem

• radio stripes
• generalized pinching antenna
• APU activation
• power minimization
• beamforming

Innovation

• radio stripe
• generalized pinching antenna
• active antenna processing unit
• sparse activation
• geometry-guided algorithm