Data-Driven Batteryless Channel Sounding for Wi-Fi 8-Inspired Downlink MU-MIMO
Abstract
Batteryless overlays couple passive throughput to Wi-Fi sounding overhead and channel state information (CSI) aging. This paper investigates channel sounding for ultra-high reliability (UHR) operation in a Wi-Fi 8/IEEE 802.11bn-inspired downlink multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) system with a batteryless passive overlay. We optimize the post-sounding transmission interval to maximize the aggregate throughput of the active Wi-Fi and passive links, while jointly accounting for sounding overhead, CSI aging, modulation and coding scheme (MCS), passive attenuation, and passive data rate. A packet-level cross-layer model evaluates the cycle-average throughput, and a data-driven search identifies the optimal interval under different operating conditions. Simulations demonstrate that passive overlay reshapes the conventional sounding tradeoff: depending on the MCS and passive-link configuration, the additional passive throughput may or may not compensate for the associated Wi-Fi reliability loss, causing the optimal interval to shift. The results provide design guidance for reliable and low-power MU-MIMO WLANs.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2607.29288,
title = {Data-Driven Batteryless Channel Sounding for Wi-Fi 8-Inspired Downlink MU-MIMO},
author = {Muhan Zhang and Chuqi Zhang and Qitong Xu and Zhaoyu Liu and Liu Cao and Lyutianyang Zhang and Ming Gan},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.29288},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
This work has been accepted to the 2026 IEEE/CIC International Conference on Communications in China (ICCC Workshops).6 pages,4 figures,conference paper