The recent emergence of orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS) modulation as a novel PHY-layer mechanism is more suitable in high-mobility wireless communication scenarios than traditional orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). Although multiple studies have analyzed OTFS performance using theoretical and ideal baseband pulseshapes, a challenging and open problem is the development of effective receivers for practical OTFS systems that must rely on non-ideal pulseshapes for transmission. This work focuses on the design of practical receivers for OTFS. We consider a fractionally spaced sampling (FSS) receiver in which the sampling rate is an integer multiple of the symbol rate. For rectangular pulses used in OTFS transmission, we derive a general channel input-output relationship of OTFS in delay-Doppler domain without the common reliance on impractical assumptions such as ideal bi-orthogonal pulses and on-the-grid delay/Doppler shifts. We propose two equalization algorithms: iterative combining message passing (ICMP) and turbo message passing (TMP) for symbol detection by exploiting delay-Doppler channel sparsity and the channel diversity gain via FSS. We analyze the convergence performance of TMP receiver and propose simplified message passing (MP) receivers to further reduce complexity. Our FSS receivers demonstrate stronger performance than traditional receivers and robustness to the imperfect channel state information knowledge.

For high mobility communication scenario, the recently emerged orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS) modulation introduces a new delay-Doppler domain signal space, and can provide better communication performance than traditional orthogonal frequency division multiplexing system. This article focuses on the joint channel estimation and data detection (JCEDD) for hybrid reconfigurable intelligent surface (HRIS) aided millimeter wave (mmWave) OTFS systems. Firstly, a new transmission structure is designed. Within the pilot durations of the designed structure, partial HRIS elements are alternatively activated. The time domain channel model is then exhibited. Secondly, the received signal model for both the HRIS over time domain and the base station over delay-Doppler domain are studied. Thirdly, by utilizing channel parameters acquired at the HRIS, an HRIS beamforming design strategy is proposed. For the OTFS transmission, we propose a JCEDD scheme over delay-Doppler domain. In this scheme, message passing (MP) algorithm is designed to simultaneously obtain the equivalent channel gain and the data symbols. On the other hand, the channel parameters, i.e., the Doppler shift, the channel sparsity, and the channel variance, are updated through expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm. By iteratively executing the MP and EM algorithm, both the channel and the unknown data symbols can be accurately acquired. Finally, simulation results are provided to validate the effectiveness of our proposed JCEDD scheme.

Affine frequency division multiplexing (AFDM) is a novel modulation technique based on chirp signals that has been recently proposed as an effective solution for highly reliable communications in high-mobility scenarios. In this paper, we focus on the design of robust index modulation (IM) schemes under the multiple-antenna AFDM transmission framework. To this end, the cyclic delay diversity (CDD) technique is employed to harvest the transmit diversity gain. As a result, we propose two novel AFDM-IM schemes with transmit diversity, termed as CDD-AFDM-IM-I and CDD-AFDM-IM-II. We analyze the full diversity conditions and parameter settings of the proposed CDD-AFDM-IM schemes for both integer and fractional Doppler cases over linear time-varying (LTV) channels. Moreover, we prove that IM enables AFDM to have stronger diversity protection when the full diversity condition is not satisfied. Asymptotically tight upper bounds on the average bit error rates (BERs) of the proposed schemes with maximum-likelihood (ML) detection are derived in closed-form. Furthermore, we propose a low-complexity double-layer message passing (DLMP) algorithm for practical large-dimensional signal detection in the proposed CDD-AFDM-IM systems. Comparison with existing detections shows that the proposed DLMP algorithm achieves a better tradeoff between the BER performance and the computational complexity. Finally, BER simulation results confirm that our proposed CDD-AFDM-IM schemes with both the ML and DLMP detections outperform the benchmark schemes over the LTV channels.

We investigate a coded uplink non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) configuration in which groups of co-channel users are modulated in accordance with orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS). We take advantage of OTFS characteristics to achieve NOMA spectrum sharing in the delay-Doppler domain between stationary and mobile users. We develop an efficient iterative turbo receiver based on the principle of successive interference cancellation (SIC) to overcome the co-channel interference (CCI). We propose two turbo detector algorithms: orthogonal approximate message passing with linear minimum mean squared error (OAMP-LMMSE) and Gaussian approximate message passing with expectation propagation (GAMP-EP). The interactive OAMP-LMMSE detector and GAMP-EP detector are respectively assigned for the reception of the stationary and mobile users. We analyze the convergence performance of our proposed iterative SIC turbo receiver by utilizing a customized extrinsic information transfer (EXIT) chart and simplify the corresponding detector algorithms to further reduce receiver complexity. Our proposed iterative SIC turbo receiver demonstrates performance improvement over existing receivers and robustness against imperfect SIC process and channel state information uncertainty.

High mobility environment leads to severe Doppler effects and poses serious challenges to the conventional physical layer based on the widely popular orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). The recent emergence of orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS) modulation, along with its many related variants, presents a promising solution to overcome such channel Doppler effects. This paper aims to clearly establish the relationships among the various manifestations of OTFS. Among these related modulations, we identify their connections, common features, and distinctions. Building on existing works, this work provides a general overview of various OTFS-related detection schemes and performance comparisons. We first provide an overview of OFDM and filter bank multi-carrier (FBMC) by demonstrating OTFS as a precoded FBMC through the introduction of inverse symplectic finite Fourier transform (ISFFT). We explore the relationship between OTFS and related modulation schemes with similar characteristics. We provide an effective channel model for high-mobility channels and offer a unified detection representation. We provide numerical comparisons of power spectrum density (PSD) and bit error rate (BER) to underscore the benefit of these modulation schemes in high-mobility scenarios. We also evaluate various detection schemes, revealing insights into their efficacies. We discuss opportunities and challenges for OTFS in high mobility, setting the stage for future research and development in this field.

Integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) has become a promising technology for future communication system. In this paper, we consider a millimeter wave system over high mobility scenario, and propose a novel simultaneous transmission and reflection reconfigurable intelligent surface (STAR-RIS) aided ISAC scheme. To improve the communication service of the in-vehicle user equipment (UE) and simultaneously track and sense the vehicle with the help of nearby roadside units (RSUs), a STAR-RIS is equipped on the outside surface of the vehicle. Firstly, an efficient transmission structure for the ISAC scheme is developed, where a number of training sequences with orthogonal precoders and combiners are respectively utilized at BS and RSUs for channel parameter extraction. Then, the near-field static channel model between the STAR-RIS and in-vehicle UE as well as the far-field time-frequency selective BS-RIS-RSUs channel model are characterized. By utilizing the multidimensional orthogonal matching pursuit (MOMP) algorithm, the cascaded channel parameters (i.e., the delays, the Doppler frequency shifts, the angles of arrivals, and the angles of departure of the scattering paths) of the BS-RIS-RSUs links can be obtained at the RSUs. Thus, the vehicle localization and its velocity measurement can be acquired by jointly utilizing these extracted cascaded channel parameters of all RSUs. Note that the MOMP algorithm can be further utilized to extract the channel parameters of the BS-RIS-UE link for communication service. With the help of sensing results, the reflection and refraction phase shifts of the STAR-RIS are delicately designed, which can significantly improve the received signal strength for both the RSUs and the in-vehicle UE, and can finally enhance the sensing and communication performance. Moreover, the trade-off design for sensing and communication is proposed by optimizing the energy splitting factors of the STAR-RIS. Finally, simulation results are provided to validate the feasibility and effectiveness of our proposed STAR-RIS aided ISAC scheme.