Cheng, Xiang

Associate Professor

Research Interests: data-driven wireless channel modeling and system design

Office Phone: 86-10-6276 7154

Email: xiangcheng@pku.edu.cn

Cheng, Xiang received the PhD degree from Heriot-Watt University and the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, U.K., in 2009, where he received the Postgraduate Research Thesis Prize. He is currently an Associate Professor at Peking University. His current research interests include data-driven wireless channel modeling and system design for 5G high mobility scenarios.

Dr. Cheng has published more than 160 journal and conference papers, 3 books, and 6 patents. Dr. Cheng was the recipient of the IEEE Asia Paci?c (AP) Outstanding Young Researcher Award in 2015, the co-recipient for the 2016 IEEE JSAC Best Paper Award: Leonard G. Abraham Prize, the NSFC Outstanding Young Investigator Award, the Second-Rank Award in Natural Science, Ministry of Education in China, and received the Best Paper Awards at IEEE ITST’12, ICCC’13, ITSC’14, ICC’16, and ICNC’17. He has served as Symposium Leading-Chair and Co-Chair for several international conferences. He is now an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems.

Dr. Cheng has more than ten research projects including NSFC, 973 programs, 863 project, etc. His research achievements are summarized as follows:

1) Wireless Channel Modeling: Appropriate modeling of wireless channels lays the very foundation of wireless system design and optimization. Dr. Cheng’s over a decade dedication in this area has focused on multi-input multi-output and fast time-varying channels. His novel and unique dynamic regular-shape geometry-based stochastic channel modeling approach is particularly suitable for fast time-variant channels, and at low complexity. Dr. Cheng has henceforth developed several accurate yet easy-to-use channel models..

2) Vehicular Communications & Underwater Acoustic Communications: Vehicular and underwater acoustic communications both exhibit highly dynamic channel characteristics, thus posing significant challenges for robust system design. Based on a solid understanding of such channels, Dr. Cheng proposed a novel and effective channel estimator termed as the constructed data pilot scheme. To mitigate serious inter-carrier interference (ICI) in such scenarios, he also developed a new ICI cancellation method that boasts markedly improved performance at reduced complexity.

3) Spatial Modulation & Index Modulation: Spatial modulation is a promising technology for multiplexing gain with a single RF chain. This concept has also inspired index modulation in frequency domain. On these topics, Dr. Cheng’s contributions are: 1) Innovatively devised differential spatial modulation (DSM). This is a pioneering work for a problem that has remained open since the invention of SM. 2) Creatively designed a relay system where DSM remains operational even when there are multiple relays. 3) Particularly tackled the Doppler impact on index modulation, the “mission impossible,” and devised an ICI cancellation scheme for index modulated OFDM in Doppler-prone channels. This work significantly enhances the applicability and practicality of index modulation.

4) Device-to-Device Communications: Device-to-device (D2D) communications is perceived as a promising remedy for improving the resource utilization of a cellular network. Dr. Cheng was the first to employ graph theory in formulating the interference among D2D and cellular links. He proposed an interference-aware graph based resource sharing scheme for D2D underlaying cellular networks. He was also the first to introduce the underlaying D2D concept into vehicular networks. Based on this, he has devised a novel underlaying resource sharing scheme tailored for vehicular networks.