Low-Complexity Optimization of Antenna Switching Schemes for Dynamic Channel Sounding
(2026) In IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications 25. p.7729-7743- Abstract
Understanding wireless channels is crucial for the design of wireless systems. For mobile communication, sounders and antenna arrays with short measurement times are required to simultaneously capture the dynamic and spatial channel characteristics. Switched antenna arrays are an attractive option that can overcome the high cost of real arrays and the long measurement times of virtual arrays. Optimization of the switching sequences is then essential to avoid aliasing and increase the accuracy of channel parameter estimates. This paper provides a novel and comprehensive analysis of the design of switching sequences. We first review the conventional spatio-temporal ambiguity function, extend it to dual-polarized antenna arrays, and... (More)
Understanding wireless channels is crucial for the design of wireless systems. For mobile communication, sounders and antenna arrays with short measurement times are required to simultaneously capture the dynamic and spatial channel characteristics. Switched antenna arrays are an attractive option that can overcome the high cost of real arrays and the long measurement times of virtual arrays. Optimization of the switching sequences is then essential to avoid aliasing and increase the accuracy of channel parameter estimates. This paper provides a novel and comprehensive analysis of the design of switching sequences. We first review the conventional spatio-temporal ambiguity function, extend it to dual-polarized antenna arrays, and analyze its prohibitive complexity when applied to ultra-massive antenna arrays. We thus propose a new method that uses the Fisher information matrix to tackle the estimation accuracy. We also propose to minimize the ambiguity by choosing a switching sequence that minimizes side lobes in its Fourier spectrum. In this sense, we divide the sequence design problem into Fourier-based ambiguity reduction and Fisher-based accuracy improvement, and coin the resulting design approach as Fourier-Fisher. Simulations and measurements show that the Fourier-Fisher approach achieves identical performance and significantly lower computational complexity than that of the conventional ambiguity-based approach.
(Less)
- author
- Sanchez, Juan
LU
; Cai, Xuesong
LU
; Al-Ameri, Ali
LU
and Tufvesson, Fredrik
LU
- organization
-
- Department of Electrical and Information Technology
- Communications Engineering
- LTH Profile Area: AI and Digitalization
- ELLIIT: the Linköping-Lund initiative on IT and mobile communication
- NEXTG2COM – a Vinnova Competence Centre in Advanced Digitalisation
- LU Profile Area: Natural and Artificial Cognition
- publishing date
- 2026
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Channel sounding, Fisher information, Fourier transform, parameter estimation, switched antenna array, ultra-massive MIMO
- in
- IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications
- volume
- 25
- pages
- 15 pages
- publisher
- IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:105023063960
- ISSN
- 1536-1276
- DOI
- 10.1109/TWC.2025.3633242
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 113536a1-236f-4b4f-a7a8-d95589268cdb
- date added to LUP
- 2026-02-04 12:23:17
- date last changed
- 2026-02-04 12:24:34
@article{113536a1-236f-4b4f-a7a8-d95589268cdb,
abstract = {{<p>Understanding wireless channels is crucial for the design of wireless systems. For mobile communication, sounders and antenna arrays with short measurement times are required to simultaneously capture the dynamic and spatial channel characteristics. Switched antenna arrays are an attractive option that can overcome the high cost of real arrays and the long measurement times of virtual arrays. Optimization of the switching sequences is then essential to avoid aliasing and increase the accuracy of channel parameter estimates. This paper provides a novel and comprehensive analysis of the design of switching sequences. We first review the conventional spatio-temporal ambiguity function, extend it to dual-polarized antenna arrays, and analyze its prohibitive complexity when applied to ultra-massive antenna arrays. We thus propose a new method that uses the Fisher information matrix to tackle the estimation accuracy. We also propose to minimize the ambiguity by choosing a switching sequence that minimizes side lobes in its Fourier spectrum. In this sense, we divide the sequence design problem into Fourier-based ambiguity reduction and Fisher-based accuracy improvement, and coin the resulting design approach as Fourier-Fisher. Simulations and measurements show that the Fourier-Fisher approach achieves identical performance and significantly lower computational complexity than that of the conventional ambiguity-based approach.</p>}},
author = {{Sanchez, Juan and Cai, Xuesong and Al-Ameri, Ali and Tufvesson, Fredrik}},
issn = {{1536-1276}},
keywords = {{Channel sounding; Fisher information; Fourier transform; parameter estimation; switched antenna array; ultra-massive MIMO}},
language = {{eng}},
pages = {{7729--7743}},
publisher = {{IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.}},
series = {{IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications}},
title = {{Low-Complexity Optimization of Antenna Switching Schemes for Dynamic Channel Sounding}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TWC.2025.3633242}},
doi = {{10.1109/TWC.2025.3633242}},
volume = {{25}},
year = {{2026}},
}