Hybrid Far-Near Field Channel Estimation for XL-RIS Assisted Communication Systems

SHAO Kai; HUA Fanyu; WANG Guangyu

doi:10.11999/JEIT250306

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SHAO Kai, HUA Fanyu, WANG Guangyu. Hybrid Far-Near Field Channel Estimation for XL-RIS Assisted Communication Systems[J]. Journal of Electronics & Information Technology. doi: 10.11999/JEIT250306

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SHAO Kai, HUA Fanyu, WANG Guangyu. Hybrid Far-Near Field Channel Estimation for XL-RIS Assisted Communication Systems[J]. Journal of Electronics & Information Technology. doi: 10.11999/JEIT250306

SHAO Kai, HUA Fanyu, WANG Guangyu. Hybrid Far-Near Field Channel Estimation for XL-RIS Assisted Communication Systems[J]. Journal of Electronics & Information Technology. doi: 10.11999/JEIT250306

Citation:

SHAO Kai, HUA Fanyu, WANG Guangyu. Hybrid Far-Near Field Channel Estimation for XL-RIS Assisted Communication Systems[J]. Journal of Electronics & Information Technology. doi: 10.11999/JEIT250306

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Hybrid Far-Near Field Channel Estimation for XL-RIS Assisted Communication Systems

doi: 10.11999/JEIT250306 cstr: 32379.14.JEIT250306

SHAO Kai^{1, 2
,
,},
HUA Fanyu¹,
WANG Guangyu¹

1.
School of Communications and Information Engineering, Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Chongqing 400065, China
2.
Chongqing Key Laboratory of Mobile Communications Technology, Chongqing 400065, China

Received Date: 2025-04-25
Rev Recd Date: 2025-08-20

Available Online: 2025-08-27

Abstract

Abstract

Objective With the rapid development of sixth-generation mobile communication, Extra-Large Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (XL-RIS) have attracted significant attention due to their potential to enhance spectral efficiency, expand coverage, and reduce energy consumption. However, conventional channel estimation methods, primarily based on Far-Field (FF) or near-field (NF) models, face limitations in addressing the hybrid far-NF environment that arises from the coexistence of NF spherical waves and FF planar waves in XL-RIS deployments. These limitations restrict the intelligent control capability of RIS technology due to inaccurate channel modeling and reduced estimation accuracy. To address these challenges, this paper constructs a hybrid-field channel model for XL-RIS and proposes a robust channel estimation method to resolve parameter estimation challenges under coupled FF and NF characteristics, thereby improving channel estimation accuracy in complex propagation scenarios. Methods For channel estimation in XL-RIS-aided communication systems, several key challenges must be addressed, including the modeling of hybrid far-NF cascaded channels, separation of FF and NF channel components, and individual parameter estimation. To capture the hybrid-field effects of XL-RIS, a hybrid-field cascaded channel model is constructed. The RIS-to-User Equipment (UE) channel is modeled as a hybrid far-NF channel, whereas the Base Station (BS)-to-RIS channel is characterized under the FF assumption. A unified representation of FF and NF models is established by introducing equivalent cascaded angles for the angle of departure and angle of arrival on the RIS side. The XL-RIS hybrid-field cascaded channel is parameterized through BS arrival angles, RIS-UE cascaded angles, and distances. To reduce the computational complexity of joint parameter estimation, a Two-Stage Hybrid-Field (TS-HF) channel estimation scheme is proposed. In the first stage, the BS arrival angle is estimated using the MUltiple SIgnal Classification (MUSIC) algorithm. In the second stage, a Hybrid-Field forward spatial smoothing Rank-reduced MUSIC (HF-RM) algorithm is proposed to estimate the parameters of the RIS-UE hybrid-field channel. The received signals are pre-processed using a forward spatial smoothing technique to mitigate multipath coherence effects. Subsequently, the Rank-reduced MUSIC (RM) algorithm is applied to separately estimate the FF and NF angle parameters, as well as the NF distance parameter. During this stage, a power spectrum comparison scheme is designed to distinguish FF and NF angles based on power spectral characteristics, thereby providing high-precision angular information to support NF distance estimation. Finally, channel attenuation is estimated using the least squares method. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed hybrid-field channel estimation scheme, comparative analyses are conducted against FF, NF, and the proposed TS-HF-RM schemes. The FF estimation approximates the hybrid-field channel using a FF channel model and estimates FF angle parameters with the MUSIC algorithm, referred to as the TS-FF-M scheme. The NF estimation applies a NF channel model to characterize the hybrid channel and estimates angle and distance parameters using the RM algorithm, referred to as the TS-NF-RM scheme. To further evaluate the estimation performance, additional benchmark schemes are considered, including the Two-Stage Near-Field Orthogonal Matching Pursuit (TS-NOMP) scheme, the Two-Stage Hybrid Orthogonal Matching Pursuit with Prior (TS-HOMP-P) scheme that requires prior knowledge of FF and NF quantities, and the Two-Stage Hybrid Orthogonal Matching Pursuit with No Prior (TS-HOMP-NP) scheme that operates without requiring such prior information. Results and Discussions Compared with the TS-FF-M and TS-NF-RM schemes, the proposed TS-HF-RM approach achieves effective separation and accurate estimation of both FF and NF components by jointly modeling the hybrid-field channel. The method consistently demonstrates superior estimation accuracy across a wide range of Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) conditions (Fig. 4). These results confirm both the necessity of hybrid-field channel modeling and the effectiveness of the proposed estimation scheme. Experimental findings show that the TS-HF-RM approach significantly improves channel estimation performance in XL-RIS-assisted communication systems. Further comparative analysis reveals that the TS-HF-RM scheme outperforms TS-NOMP and TS-HOMP-P by mitigating power leakage effects and overcoming limitations associated with unknown path numbers through distinct processing of FF and NF components. Without requiring prior knowledge of the propagation environment, the proposed method achieves lower Normalized Mean Square Error (NMSE) while demonstrating improved robustness and estimation precision (Fig. 5). Although TS-HOMP-NP also operates without prior field information, the TS-HF-RM scheme provides superior parameter resolution, attributed to its subspace decomposition principle. Additionally, both the TS-HF-RM and TS-HOMP-P schemes exhibit improved performance as the number of pilot signals increases. However, TS-HF-RM consistently outperforms TS-HOMP-P under low-SNR conditions (0 dB). At high SNR (10 dB) with a limited number of pilot signals (<280), TS-HOMP-P temporarily achieves better performance due to its higher sensitivity to SNR. Nevertheless, the proposed TS-HF-RM approach demonstrates greater stability and adaptability under low-SNR and resource-constrained conditions (Fig. 6). Conclusions This study addresses the challenge of hybrid-field channel estimation for XL-RIS by constructing a hybrid-field cascaded channel model and proposing a two-stage estimation scheme. The HF-RM algorithm is specifically designed for accurate hybrid component estimation in the second stage. Theoretical analysis and simulation results demonstrate the following: (1) The hybrid-field model reduces inaccuracies associated with traditional single-field assumptions, providing a theoretical foundation for reliable parameter estimation in complex propagation environments; (2) The proposed TS-HF-RM algorithm enables high-resolution parameter estimation with effective separation of FF and NF components, achieving lower NMSE compared to hybrid-field OMP-based methods.

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References(31)

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