Near-Field Beam Prediction Using Far-Field Codebooks in Ultra-Massive MIMO Systems (2503.14317v1)

Abstract: Ultra-massive multiple-input multiple-output (UM-MIMO) technology is a key enabler for 6G networks, offering exceptional high data rates in millimeter-wave (mmWave) and Terahertz (THz) frequency bands. The deployment of large antenna arrays at high frequencies transitions wireless communication into the radiative near-field, where precise beam alignment becomes essential for accurate channel estimation. Unlike far-field systems, which rely on angular domain only, near-field necessitates beam search across both angle and distance dimensions, leading to substantially higher training overhead. To address this challenge, we propose a discrete Fourier transform (DFT) based beam alignment to mitigate the training overhead. We highlight that the reduced path loss at shorter distances can compensate for the beamforming losses typically associated with using far-field codebooks in near-field scenarios. Additionally, far-field beamforming in the near-field exhibits angular spread, with its width determined by the user's range and angle. Leveraging this relationship, we develop a correlation interferometry (CI) algorithm, termed CI-DFT, to efficiently estimate user angle and range parameters. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme achieves performance close to exhaustive search in terms of achievable rate while significantly reducing the training overhead by 87.5%.