Abstract

Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) are emerging as a promising technology for 6G networks due to their ability to shape the radio propagation environment. This ability helps to overcome propagation challenges, such as high path loss, absorption loss, etc., that are particularly needed at millimetre wave (mmWave) bands. Thus, RIS can enhance the capacity of next-generation mmWave communication networks. However, one critical aspect in the design of RIS-aided systems is channel estimation, as it involves estimating two channels (i.e., base stationRIS and RIS-user terminal) separately based on the compound channel observed by the receiver. In this paper, we address this problem by proposing an algorithm that estimates both channels separately by leveraging the advantages of sparsity of the mmWave channel. Specifically, the proposed algorithm uses the parallel factor (PARAFAC) decomposition of the tensor, which is constructed using the received signal matrices observed under different RIS phase shift configurations. Our numerical analysis shows that the proposed algorithm provides significantly smaller normalized mean square error (NMSE) than the widely used alternating least squares (ALS) algorithm, particularly when the number of RIS phase shift configurations is smaller than the number of RIS elements.

Abstract

This paper aims to explore RIS integration in a millimeter wave (mmWave) communication system with low-complexity transceiver architecture under imperfect channel state information (CSI) assump- tion. Motivated by this, we propose a RIS-aided system with a fully analog architecture at the base station (BS). However, to overcome the drawback of single-user transmission due to the single RF chain in the analog architecture, we propose to employ NOMA to enable multi-user transmission. For such a system, we formulate two problems to obtain the joint transmit beamformer, RIS phase shift matrix, and power allocation solutions that maximize sum rate and energy efficiency such that the minimum rate for each user is satisfied. However, both problems are intractable due to 1) the fractional objective, 2) non-convex minimum rate and unit modulus RIS phase shift constraints, and 3) the coupled optimization variables. Hence, we first tackle the fractional objectives of both problems by reformulating the sum rate and energy efficiency maximization problems into equivalent quadratic forms using the quadratic transform. On the other hand, we employ successive convex approximation and the semi-definite relaxation technique to handle the non-convex minimum rate and unit modulus constraint of the RIS phase shifts, respectively. However, the problems remain non-convex due to the coupled optimization variables. Thus, we propose an alternating optimization-based algorithm that iterates over the transmit beamformer, power allocation, and RIS phase shift subproblems. Further, we also show that the quadratic reformulation is equivalent to the weighted mean square error-based reformulation for the case of sum rate maximization problem. Our numerical results show that the proposed RIS-NOMA integrated analog architecture system outperforms the optimally configured fully digital architecture in terms of sum rate at low SNR and energy efficiency for a wide range of SNR while still maintaining low hardware complexity and cost. Finally, we present the numerical performance analysis of the RIS-NOMA integrated low-complexity system for various system configuration parameters.

Abstract

This paper focuses on optimal beamforming to maximize the mean signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for a passive reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-aided multiple-input single-output (MISO) downlink system. We consider a realistic setting where both the direct and indirect (through RIS) links to the user equipment (UE) experience correlated Rician fading. Such a general fading model is particularly important to capture the impact of line-of-sight (LoS) and correlated multipath fading that may occur due to the compact placement of a large number of RIS elements. The assumption of passive RIS imposes the unit modulus constraint, which makes the beamforming problem non-convex. To tackle this issue, we apply semidefinite relaxation (SDR) to obtain the optimal phase-shift matrix and propose an iterative algorithm to obtain a statistically optimal solution for the transmit beamforming vector and RIS-phase shift matrix. Further, to measure the performance of the proposed beamforming scheme, we analyze key system performance metrics such as outage probability (OP) and ergodic capacity (EC). Similar to the existing works, the OP and EC evaluations rely on the numerical computation of the proposed iterative algorithm. However, this is not conducive to revealing the functional dependence of system performance on key parameters such as line-of-sight (LoS) components, correlated fading, number of reflecting elements, number of antennas at the base station (BS), and fading factor. To overcome this major limitation, we derive closed-form expressions for the optimal beamforming vector and phase shift matrix for various special cases of the above general fading model. These fixed-point solutions aid in deriving a closed-form solution for OP that further provides a direct evaluation of EC. These mathematical expressions are then used to gain useful insights into the system’s performance. We analytically establish the fact that correlated fading is more beneficial than the independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) case when the LoS components are blocked. Further, we also analytically demonstrate that the maximum mean SNR improves linearly/quadratically with the number of RIS elements in the absence/presence of LoS component under i.i.d. fading.

Abstract

Robust spectrum sensing is crucial for facilitating opportunistic spectrum utilization for secondary users (SU) in the absense of primary users (PU). However, propagation environment factors such as multi-path fading, shadowing, and lack of line of sight (LoS) often adversely affect detection performance. To deal with these issues, this paper focuses on utilizing reconfig- urable intelligent surfaces (RIS) to improve spectrum sensing in the scenario wherein both the multi-path fading and noise are correlated. In particular, to leverage the spatially correlated fading, we propose to use maximum eigenvalue detection (MED) for spectrum sensing. We first derive exact distributions of test statistics, i.e., the largest eigenvalue of the sample covariance matrix, observed under the null and signal present hypothesis. Next, utilizing these results, we present the exact closed-form expressions for the false alarm and detection probabilities. In addition, we also optimally configure the phase shift matrix of RIS such that the mean of the test statistics is maximized, thus improving the detection performance. Our numerical analysis demonstrates that the MED’s receiving operating characteristic (ROC) curve improves with increased RIS elements, SNR, and the utilization of statistically optimal configured RIS. Index Terms—Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces, Spectrum Sensing, Maximum Eigenvalue Detector, Correlated Fading, e

Abstract

This paper focuses on optimal beamforming to maximize the mean signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-aided MISO downlink system under correlated Rician fading. The beamforming problem becomes non-convex because of the unit modulus constraint of passive RIS elements. To tackle this, we propose a semidefinite relaxation-based iterative algorithm for obtaining statistically optimal transmit beamforming vector and RIS-phase shift matrix. Further, we analyze the outage probability (OP) and ergodic capacity (EC) to measure the performance of the proposed beamforming scheme. Just like the existing works, the OP and EC evaluations rely on the numerical computation of the iterative algorithm, which does not clearly reveal the functional dependence of system performance on key parameters. Therefore, we derive closed-form expressions for the optimal beamforming vector

Abstract

This paper considers a communication system where a source sends time-sensitive information to its destination. We assume that both arrival and service processes of the messages are memoryless and the source has a single server with no buffer. Besides, we consider that the service is interrupted by an independent random process, which we model using the OnOff process. For this setup, we study the age of information for two queueing disciplines: 1) non-preemptive, where the messages arriving while the server is occupied are discarded, and 2) preemptive, where the in-service messages are replaced with newly arriving messages in the Off states. For these disciplines, we derive closed-form expressions for the mean peak age and mean age. Index Terms—Age of information, Peak age, On-Off process, preemptive discipline, non-preemptive discipline

Abstract

In our work, we study the age of information (AoI) in a multi-source system where K sources transmit updates of their time-varying processes via a common-aggregator node to a destination node through a channel with packet delivery errors. We analyze AoI for an (α, β, 0, 1)-Gilbert-Elliot (GE) packet erasure channel with a round-robin scheduling policy. We employ maximum distance separable (MDS) scheme at aggregator for encoding the multi-source updates. We characterize the mean AoI for the MDS coded system for the case of large blocklengths. We further show that the optimal coding rate that achieves maximum coding gain over the uncoded system is n(1 − P) − O(n), where P , β α+β 0 + α α+β 1, and this maximum coding gain is (1 + P)/(1 + O(1)). In our work, we study the age of information (AoI) in a multi-source system where K sources transmit updates of their time-varying processes via a common-aggregator node to a destination node through a channel with packet delivery errors. We analyze AoI for an (α, β, 0, 1)-Gilbert-Elliot (GE) packet erasure channel with a round-robin scheduling policy. We employ maximum distance separable (MDS) scheme at aggregator for encoding the multi-source updates. We characterize the mean AoI for the MDS coded system for the case of large blocklengths. We further show that the optimal coding rate that achieves maximum coding gain over the uncoded system is n(1 − P) − O(n), where P , β α+β 0 + α α+β 1, and this maximum coding gain is (1 + P)/(1 + O(1)).

Abstract

The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) based communication is expected to play an important role in enabling a variety of applications in future cellular networks. However, because of the mobility of the UAVs, the communications links involving UAVs undergo large-scale temporal variations in the received signal quality, which may affect the quality-of-service of the underlying application. Therefore, it is crucial to characterize the time-varying process of signal quality observed by the UAVs. In this paper, we consider a scenario in which a cellular-connected UAV acts as a user equipment (UAV-UE), where the locations of base stations (BSs) follow a Poisson point process (PPP) and the UAV-UE is moving along a 3GPP-inspired straight-line trajectory. For this setting, we study the properties of the time-varying successful transmission process that is defined in terms of the time-varying signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) observed at the UAV. In particular, we show that this process is a wide sense stationary (WSS) process and derive its first- and second-order statistics. Finally, we establish an equivalence between the successful transmission processes observed by a UAV-UE served by terrestrial BSs and a terrestrial user served by UAV mounted BSs (UAV-BSs) each moving along an independent straight-line trajectory.

Abstract

This article proposes Convolutional Neural Network based Auto Encoder (CNN-AE) to predict location dependent rate and coverage probability of a network from its topology. We train the CNN utilising BS location data of India, Brazil, Germany and the USA and compare its performance with stochastic geometry (SG) based analytical models. In comparison to the best-fitted SGbased model, CNN-AE improves the coverage and rate prediction errors by a margin of as large as 40% and 25% respectively. As an application, we propose a low complexity, provably convergent algorithm that, using trained CNN-AE, can compute locations of new BSs that need to be deployed in a network in order to satisfy pre-defined spatially heterogeneous performance goals. Index Terms—Network Performance Prediction, Convolutional Neural Network, Stochastic Geometry, Network Design

Abstract

This paper considers beamforming for a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-aided multiple input single output (MISO) communication system in the presence of Rician multipath fading. Our aim is to jointly optimize the transmit beamformer and RIS phase shift matrix for maximizing the mean signal-to-noise (SNR) of the combined signal received over direct and indirect links. While numerical solutions are known for such optimization problems, this is the first paper to derive closedform expressions for the optimal beamformer and the phase shifter for a closely related problem. In particular, we maximize a carefully constructed lower bound of the mean SNR, which is more conducive to analytical treatment. Further, we show that effective channel gain under optimal beamforming follows Rice distribution. Next, we use these results to characterize a closedform expression for the outage probability under the proposed beamforming scheme, which is subsequently employed to derive an analytical expression for the ergodic capacity. Finally, we numerically demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed beamformer solution in comparison with the existing algorithmically obtained optimal solution for the exact mean SNR maximization. Index Terms—RIS, Optimal Beamforming, Rician Channel, Outage Analysis, Ergodic Capacity, and Maximum Mean SNR.