Deep Reinforcement Learning for Optimization of STAR-RIS Phase and Energy Splitting Coefficients in OTFS-NOMA Framework

Abstract

This paper considers a downlink communication framework comprising a simultaneously transmitting and reflecting reconfigurable intelligent surface (STAR-RIS)-aided by orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS) and non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) technologies. Further, delay-Doppler mobility in such frameworks renders classical alternating optimization impractical for per-coherence interval reconfiguration. To mitigate such issues, the STAR-RIS phase-shift and energy-splitting design is formulated as a constrained, non-convex sum-rate maximization problem with closed-form maximum ratio transmission beamforming and fixed NOMA power allocation. To circumvent the per-interval re-optimization burden, a deep reinforcement learning (DRL) approach is adopted that maps observed channel realizations to STAR-RIS configurations through a single forward pass. Specifically, Beta-Space Soft Actor-Critic (SAC-BSE), a maximum entropy DRL agent, is proposed. Simulation results, with two NOMA-multiplexed users on each STAR-RIS branch, confirm rapid convergence, limit the sum-rate degradation to roughly 10\% across a 128-fold user-speed range, and yield consistent gains over OTFS-only, NOMA-only, STAR-RIS-only, fixed-split, and mode-switching baselines as transmit power and the number of STAR-RIS elements increase.