Hybrid Digital-Wave Domain Channel Estimator for Stacked Intelligent Metasurface Enabled Multi-User MISO Systems
Open accessAbstract
Stacked intelligent metasurface (SIM) is an emerging programmable metasurface architecture that can imple-ment signal processing directly in the electromagnetic wave domain, thereby enabling efficient implementation of ultra-massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transceivers with a limited number of radio frequency (RF) chains. Channel estimation (CE) is challenging for SIM-enabled communication systems due to the multilayer architecture of SIM, and because we need to estimate large dimensional channels between the SIM and users with a limited number of RF chains. To efficiently solve this problem, we develop a novel hybrid digital-wave domain channel estimator, in which the received training symbols are first processed in the wave domain within the SIM layers, and then processed in the digital domain. The wave domain channel estimator, parametrized by the phase shifts applied by the meta-atoms in all layers, is optimized to minimize the mean squared error (MSE) using a gradient descent algorithm, within which the digital part is optimally updated. For an SIM-enabled multi-user system equipped with 4 RF chains and a 6-layer SIM with 64 meta-atoms each, the proposed estimator yields an MSE that becomes close to that achieved by fully digital CE in a massive MIMO system employing 64 RF chains. This high CE accuracy is achieved at the cost of a training overhead that can be reduced by exploiting the potential low rank of channel correlation matrices.
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Yang et al. [93] proposed a joint optimization method for SIM phase shift configuration and power allocation based on TD3 that achieves a higher sum rate compared to DDPG.
“Furthermore, Yang et al. [93] proposed a joint optimization method for SIM phase shift configuration and power allocation based on the twin delayed deep deterministic policy gradient (TD 3 ) algorithm, which achieves a higher sum rate compared to the deep deterministic policy gradient (DDPG) algorithm.”
From Emerging Technologies in Intelligent Metasurfaces: Shaping the Future of Wireless Communications (2026) · cites this paper as [93]
The paper’s Conclusion describes its proposed method as a hybrid digital-wave domain channel estimator optimized by gradient descent to minimize channel-estimation error, not a TD3 method for joint phase-shift and power-allocation optimization. Its Simulation Results compare estimation error, not sum rate against DDPG. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredYang et al. [93] found that increasing the number of metasurface layers yields diminishing returns.
“They also found that increasing the number of metasurface layers yields diminishing returns.”
From Emerging Technologies in Intelligent Metasurfaces: Shaping the Future of Wireless Communications (2026) · cites this paper as [93]
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Cites
A programmable diffractive deep neural network based on a digital-coding metasurface array
Liu, C., Ma, Q., Luo, Z. J., Hong, Q. R., Xiao, Q., Zhang, H. C., Miao, L., Yu, W. M., Cheng, Q., Li, L., et al. (2022) · Nature Electronics · doi:10.1038/s41928-022-00719-9 · Cited by 633 · see citing works
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Research works printed but not linked: 12
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Emerging Technologies in Intelligent Metasurfaces: Shaping the Future of Wireless Communications
An, J., Debbah, M., Cui, T. J., Chen, Z. N., & Yuen, C. (2026) · IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation · doi:10.1109/tap.2025.3571069 · Cited by 72 · see citing works
“In addition, Nadeem et al. [93] developed a novel hybrid-domain channel estimator.”
Self-citationEmerging Technologies in Intelligent Metasurfaces: Shaping the Future of Wireless Communications
An, J., Debbah, M., Cui, T. J., Chen, Z. N., & Yuen, C. (2024) · arXiv · Cited by 72 · see citing works
“In addition, Nadeem et al. [93] developed a novel hybrid-domain channel estimator.”
Self-citation
- Authors
- Nadeem, Q.-U.-A., An, J., & Chaaban, A.
- Affiliations
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- Singapore University of Technology and Design (SG)
- Venue
- 2024 IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC)
- Publisher
- IEEE
- Published
- 2024-04-21
- Pages
- 1-6
- ISSN
- 1525-3511 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4400276145
- Cited by
- 40
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 23 · 2024: 5
- FWCI
- 30.64
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- arxiv.org
- Locations
- IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Advanced Wireless Communication Technologies
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Aerospace Engineering › Advanced Antenna and Metasurface Technologies
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Millimeter-Wave Propagation and Modeling
- Keywords
- stacked intelligent metasurfaces, channel estimation, multi-user MISO systems, massive MIMO, limited RF chains, meta-atoms, phase shift optimization, training overhead reduction
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