Reduced-connectivity MiLAC architectures with practical component constraints

Develop reduced-connectivity microwave linear analog computer (MiLAC) architectures and incorporate practical component constraints into MiLAC-aided beamforming for MIMO over-the-air computation, addressing the hardware scalability limitations of the fully connected architecture.

Background

The paper demonstrates that a fully connected MiLAC can substantially reduce the number of access-point radio-frequency chains while approaching the mean squared error of fully digital beamforming. However, the fully connected topology requires a quadratic number of tunable admittances as the antenna and port dimensions increase, creating a hardware-scalability concern. The paper explicitly identifies reduced-connectivity MiLAC designs and the incorporation of practical component constraints as unresolved directions for future investigation.