Channel-Knowledge Maps for Proactive Base-Station Association Across Mobility and Blockage Regimes

Authors

  • Andrew Ko Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, School of Engineering, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
  • Wei Lei Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, School of Engineering, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China

Keywords:

Channel-Knowledge Maps, Base-Station Association, Proactive Handover, Millimeter-Wave Communications, Mobility Management

Abstract

The advent of millimeter-wave and terahertz communication systems has introduced unprecedented opportunities for ultra-reliable and low-latency communications. However, these high-frequency bands are severely susceptible to environmental blockages and dynamic mobility, leading to frequent radio link failures and suboptimal base-station association. Traditional reactive handover mechanisms, which rely on instantaneous signal measurements, struggle to maintain seamless connectivity in such volatile environments. This paper proposes a comprehensive framework utilizing Channel-Knowledge Maps to enable proactive base-station association across diverse mobility and blockage regimes. By decoupling the channel state information from immediate user locations and mapping it to geographical coordinates, Channel-Knowledge Maps provide the network with predictive awareness of the radio environment. This predictive capability allows the network to anticipate blockages and execute handovers before link degradation occurs. Through extensive system-level analysis, we investigate the construction methodologies of these maps, including spatial interpolation and predictive modeling based on crowdsourced environmental data. The study evaluates the proposed proactive association strategy under varying user velocities and blockage densities. Results demonstrate that the Channel-Knowledge Map-assisted framework significantly reduces ping-pong handovers and radio link failures while maximizing the overall network throughput compared to conventional reactive approaches. This research highlights the critical role of environmental awareness in future wireless networks, paving the way for intelligent, location-aware resource management and robust mobility support in next-generation communication architectures.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

1. Pei, Z., Huang, Q., & Wang, S. (2026). When LLMs develop languages: Symbolic communication for efficient multi-agent reasoning. arXiv preprint arXiv:2606.29354.

2. Yao, Y., Shu, F., Li, Z., Cheng, X., & Wu, L. (2023). Secure transmission scheme based on joint radar and communication in mobile vehicular networks. IEEE transactions on intelligent transportation systems, 24 (9), 10027-10037.

3. Liao, Q., Chen, Y., He, S., Wang, R., Xu, W., & Chu, W. (2025). Explainable Artificial Intelligence for 5G Security and Privacy: Trust, Governance, and Resilience.

4. Li, X., Wang, P., Li, G., & Zhang, Y. (2023). Design of a novel self-test-on-chip interface ASIC for capacitive accelerometers. IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers, 70(7), 2834-2843.

5. Wang, Z., Kim, E. H., Oh, S. K., Pedrycz, W., Fu, Z., & Yoon, J. H. (2024). Reinforced fuzzy-rule-based neural networks realized through streamlined feature selection strategy and fuzzy clustering with distance variation. IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems, 32(10), 5674-5686.

6. Li, X., Chen, W., Liu, X., & Ren, M. (2015). A high-order sigma-delta accelerometer interface circuit.IEICE Electronics Express,12(2), 20141035-20141035.

7. Li, X., Wang, P., Ye, H., He, H., & Zhang, X. (2023). Study of a High-Precision Read-Out Integrated Circuit for Bridge Sensors.Micromachines,14(11), 2013.

8. Wang, F., Sun, L., & Zhang, Z. (2020, December). Hyperbolic user identity linkage across social networks. In GLOBECOM 2020-2020 IEEE Global Communications Conference (pp. 1-6). IEEE.

9. Feng, Y., Li, Q., Chen, Y., Wu, Q., & Wen, M. (2024). RIS-aided symbiotic radio: A number and phase modulation approach. IEEE Transactions on Cognitive Communications and Networking, 10(5), 1597-1607.

10. Zhu, M., He, B., Liu, J., & Zhang, L. (2019). Dark channel: The devil is in the details. ieee signal processing letters, 26(7), 981-985.

11. Zhang, Z., Gao, S., Su, S., Sun, L., & Chen, R. (2023). MINING: Multi-granularity network alignment based on contrastive learning. IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, 35(12), 12785-12798.

12. Hansen, M. C., Potapov, P. V., Moore, R., Hancher, M., Turubanova, S. A., Tyukavina, A., et al. (2013). High-resolution global maps of 21st-century forest cover change. Science, 342(6160), 850–853.

13. Yang, Z., Ji, W., Guo, Q., & Wang, Z. (2023, October). Javp: Joint-aware video processing with edge-cloud collaboration for dnn inference. In Proceedings of the 31st ACM International Conference on Multimedia (pp. 9152-9160).

14. Wang, S., Zhang, X., Wang, P., & Li, X. (2026). Design of Magnetic Sensor Array-Based PUFs for IoT Security. IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, 75, 1-9.

15. Hu, Y., Yang, Z., Zhao, C., & Ji, W. (2026, May). Adaptive guidance semantically enhanced via multimodal llm for edge-cloud object detection. In ICASSP 2026-2026 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP) (pp. 12962-12966). IEEE.

16. Zhang, Y., Pleus, A., & Althoff, M. (2026, July). Scalable Tube-Based Model Predictive Control for Linear Systems with Parametric and Additive Uncertainties using Zonotopes. In 2026 European Control Conference (ECC) (pp. 509-516). IEEE.

17. Li, X., Wang, P., Li, G., Ni, L., & Zhang, Y. (2023). Design of interface circuits and lightweight PUF for TMR sensors. IEEE Sensors Journal, 23(11), 11754-11761.

18. Yang, Z., Ji, W., & Wang, Z. (2024). Adaptive joint configuration optimization for collaborative inference in edge-cloud systems. Science China Information Sciences, 67(4), 149103.

19. Lin, Y., Yao, Y., Zhu, J., & He, C. (2025, July). Application of generative AI in predictive analysis of urban energy distribution and traffic congestion in smart cities. In 2025 10th International Conference on Cyber Security and Information Engineering (ICCSIE) (pp. 620-623). IEEE.

20. Yao, Y., Zhao, J., Li, Z., Cheng, X., & Wu, L. (2023). Jamming and eavesdropping defense scheme based on deep reinforcement learning in autonomous vehicle networks. IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, 18, 1211-1224.

21. Li, R., Wang, Y., Wang, C., Chen, J., Wu, D., Han, G., & Zeng, Y. (2026). Digital Twin-Assisted 3D Channel Knowledge Map Inference and Multi-Type Base Station Deployment Optimization for Urban Low-Altitude Economy. IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing.

22. Liu, J., Nazeri, A., Zhao, C., Abuhdima, E., Comert, G., Huang, C. T., & Pisu, P. (2022, October). Investigation of 5G and 4G V2V communication channel performance under severe weather. In 2022 IEEE International Conference on Wireless for Space and Extreme Environments (WiSEE) (pp. 12-17). IEEE.

23. Meng, X., & Lin, J. (2026). AURA-Trace: Auditable Provenance-Aware Synthetic Release of Campus IoT Time Series for Privacy-Preserving AI4Science. IEEE Internet of Things Journal.

24. Mur-Artal, R., Montiel, J. M. M., & Tardós, J. D. (2015). ORB-SLAM: A versatile and accurate monocular SLAM system. IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 31(5), 1147–1163.

25. Qiu, M., Wu, L., & Wang, S. (2026). CyberDQFormer: A Knowledge Graph-Enhanced Transformer Framework for Security-Aware Data Quality Anomaly Detection and Autonomous Repair Against Network Attacks. Fundamental Scientific Reports in Multidisciplinary Areas, 2(3), 34-52.

26. Wei, Q., Li, R., Bai, W., & Han, Z. (2025). Multi-UAV-enabled energy-efficient data delivery for low-altitude economy: Joint coded caching, user grouping, and UAV deployment. IEEE Internet of Things Journal, 12(14), 27519-27532.

27. Zhang, Q., Gao, W., Liu, C., Yao, Y., Yan, S., Shu, F., & Jin, S. (2025). Covert transmission for active RIS-aided full-duplex UAV integrated sensing, communication, and computation systems. IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications.

28. Kavraki, L. E., Švestka, P., Latombe, J.-C., & Overmars, M. H. (1996). Probabilistic roadmaps for path planning in high-dimensional configuration spaces. IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, 12(4), 566–580.

29. Lyu, S., Wang, M., Zhang, H., Zheng, J., Lin, J., & Sun, X. (2025, October). Integrating structure-aware attention and knowledge graphs in explainable recommendation systems. In 2025 3rd International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Automation Control (AIAC) (pp. 447-451). IEEE.

30. Li, Q., Feng, Y., Wen, M., Wen, J., Alexandropoulos, G. C., Basar, E., & Poor, H. V. (2024). Cooperative backscatter communications with reconfigurable intelligent surfaces: An APSK approach. IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, 23(11), 16218-16233.

Downloads

Published

2026-09-22