arXiv subjects

Marco Di Renzo

Publications and source records attributed to Marco Di Renzo.

At least 163 records · Page 9Linked to original sources

arXiv2023

On the Degrees of Freedom of RIS-Aided Holographic MIMO Systems

In this paper, we study surface-based communication systems based on different levels of channel state information for system optimization. We analyze the system performance in terms of rate and degrees of freedom (DoF). We show that the deployment of a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) results in increasing the number of DoF, by extending the near-field region. Over Rician fading channels, we show that an RIS can be efficiently optimized only based on the positions of the transmitting and receiving surfaces, while providing good performance if the Rician fading factor is not too small.

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arXiv2023

Spatial Multiplexing in Near Field MIMO Channels with Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces

We consider a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channel in the presence of a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS). Specifically, our focus is on analyzing the spatial multiplexing gains in line-of-sight and low-scattering MIMO channels in the near field. We prove that the channel capacity is achieved by diagonalizing the end-to-end transmitter-RIS-receiver channel, and applying the water-filling power allocation to the ordered product of the singular values of the transmitter-RIS and RIS-receiver channels. The obtained capacity-achieving solution requires an RIS with a non-diagonal matrix of reflection coefficients. Under the assumption of nearly-passive RIS, i.e., no power amplification is needed at the RIS, the water-filling power allocation is necessary only at the transmitter. We refer to this design of RIS as a linear, nearly-passive, reconfigurable electromagnetic object (EMO). In addition, we introduce a closed-form and low-complexity design for RIS, whose matrix of reflection coefficients is diagonal with unit-modulus entries. The reflection coefficients are given by the product of two focusing functions: one steering the RIS-aided signal towards the mid-point of the MIMO transmitter and one steering the RIS-aided signal towards the mid-point of the MIMO receiver. We prove that this solution is exact in line-of-sight channels under the paraxial setup. With the aid of extensive numerical simulations in line-of-sight (free-space) channels, we show that the proposed approach offers performance (rate and degrees of freedom) close to that obtained by numerically solving non-convex optimization problems at a high computational complexity. Also, we show that it provides performance close to that achieved by the EMO (non-diagonal RIS) in most of the considered case studies.

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arXiv2023

RIS-Assisted Receive Quadrature Spatial Modulation with Low-Complexity Greedy Detection

In this paper, we propose a novel reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted wireless communication scheme which uses the concept of spatial modulation, namely RIS-assisted receive quadrature spatial modulation (RIS-RQSM). In the proposed RIS-RQSM system, the information bits are conveyed via both the indices of the two selected receive antennas and the conventional in-phase/quadrature (IQ) modulation. We propose a novel methodology to adjust the phase shifts of the RIS elements in order to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and at the same time to construct two separate PAM symbols at the selected receive antennas, as the in-phase and quadrature components of the desired IQ symbol. An energy-based greedy detector (GD) is implemented at the receiver to efficiently detect the received signal with minimal channel state information (CSI) via the use of an appropriately designed one-tap pre-equalizer. We also derive a closed-form upper bound on the average bit error probability (ABEP) of the proposed RIS-RQSM system. Then, we formulate an optimization problem to minimize the ABEP in order to improve the performance of the system, which allows the GD to act as a near-optimal receiver. Extensive numerical results are provided to demonstrate the error rate performance of the system and to compare with that of a prominent benchmark scheme. The results verify the remarkable superiority of the proposed RIS-RQSM system over the benchmark scheme.

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arXiv2022

On the Maximum Achievable Sum-rate of the RIS-aided MIMO Broadcast Channel

Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) represent a new technology that can shape the radio wave propagation and thus offers a great variety of possible performance and implementation gains. Motivated by this, we investigate the achievable sum-rate optimization in a broadcast channel (BC) in the presence of RISs. We solve this problem by exploiting the well-known duality between the Gaussian multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) BC and the multiple-access channel (MAC), and we correspondingly derive three algorithms which optimize the users' covariance matrices and the RIS phase shifts in the dual MAC. The users' covariance matrices are optimized by a dual decomposition method with block coordinate maximization (BCM), or by a gradient-based method. The RIS phase shifts are either optimized sequentially by using a closed-form expression, or are computed in parallel by using a gradient-based method. We present a computational complexity analysis for the proposed algorithms. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithms tend to converge to the same achievable sum-rate overall, but may produce different sum-rate performance for some specific situations, due to the non-convexity of the considered problem. Also, the gradient-based optimization methods are generally more time efficient. In addition, we demonstrate that the proposed algorithms can provide a significant gain in the RIS-assisted BC assisted by multiple RISs and that the gain depends on the placement of the RISs.

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arXiv2022

Throughput analysis of RIS-assisted UAV wireless systems under disorientation and misalignment

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted unmanned areal vehicles (UAV) communications have been identified as a key enabler of a number of next-generation applications. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no generalized framework for the quantification of the throughput performance of RIS-assisted UAV systems. Motivated by this, in this paper, we present a comprehensive system model that accounts for the impact of multipath fading, which is modeled by means of mixture gamma, transceiver hardware imperfections, and stochastic beam disorientation and misalignment in order to examine the throughput performance of a RIS-assisted UAV wireless system. In this direction, we present a novel closed-form expression for the system's throughput for two scenarios: i) in the presence and ii) in the absence of disorientation and misalignment. Interestingly, our results reveal the importance of accurate modeling of the aforementioned phenomena as well as the existence of an optimal transmission spectral efficiency.

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arXiv2022

A Novel SCA-Based Method for Beamforming Optimization in IRS/RIS-Assisted MU-MISO Downlink

In this letter, we consider the fundamental problem of jointly designing the transmit beamformers and the phase-shifts of the intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) / reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) to minimize the transmit power, subject to quality-of-service constraints at individual users in an IRS-assisted multiuser multiple-input single-output downlink communication system. In particular, we propose a new successive convex approximation based second-order cone programming approach in which all the optimization variables are simultaneously updated in each iteration. Our proposed scheme achieves superior performance compared to state-of-the-art benchmark solutions. In addition, the complexity of the proposed scheme is $O(N_{\mathrm s}^{3.5})$, while that of state-of-the-art benchmark schemes is $O(N_{\mathrm s}^{7})$, where $N_{\mathrm s}$ denotes the number of reflecting elements at the IRS.

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arXiv2022

Codebook-Based Solutions for Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces and Their Open Challenges

Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) is a revolutionary technology to cost-effectively improve the performance of wireless networks. We first review the existing framework of channel estimation and passive beamforming (CE & PBF) in RIS-assisted communication systems. To reduce the excessive pilot signaling overhead and implementation complexity of the CE & PBF framework, we conceive a codebook-based framework to strike flexible tradeoffs between communication performance and signaling overhead. Moreover, we provide useful insights into the codebook design and learning mechanisms of the RIS reflection pattern. Finally, we analyze the scalability of the proposed framework by flexibly adapting the training overhead to the specified quality-of-service requirements and then elaborate on its appealing advantages over the existing CE & PBF approaches. It is shown that our novel codebook-based framework can be beneficially applied to all RIS-assisted scenarios and avoids the curse of model dependency faced by its existing counterparts, thus constituting a competitive solution for practical RIS-assisted communication systems.

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arXiv2022

Secure Outage Analysis of RIS-Assisted Communications with Discrete Phase Control

This correspondence investigates a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted wireless communication system with security threats. The RIS is deployed to enhance the secrecy outage probability (SOP) of the data sent to a legitimate user. By deriving the distributions of the received signal-to-noise-ratios (SNRs) at the legitimate user and the eavesdropper, we formulate, in a closed-form expression, a tight bound for the SOP under the constraint of discrete phase control at the RIS. The SOP is characterized as a function of the number of antenna elements, $N$, and the number of discrete phase choices, $2^b$. It is revealed that the performance loss in terms of SOP due to the discrete phase control is ignorable for large $N$ when $b\!\geq\!3$. In addition, we explicitly quantify this SOP loss when binary phase shifts with $b\!=\!1$ is utilized. It is identified that increasing the RIS antenna elements by $1.6$ times can achieve the same SOP with binary phase shifts as that by the RIS with ideally continuous phase shifts. Numerical simulations are conducted to verify the accuracy of these theoretical observations.

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arXiv2022

Two-Timescale Design for Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface-Aided Massive MIMO Systems with Imperfect CSI

This paper investigates the two-timescale transmission design for reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-aided massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, where the beamforming at the base station (BS) is adapted to the rapidly-changing instantaneous channel state information (CSI), while the passive beamforming at the RIS is adapted to the slowly-changing statistical CSI. Specifically, we first propose a linear minimum mean square error (LMMSE) estimator to obtain the aggregated channel from the users to the BS in each channel coherence interval. Based on the estimated channel, we apply the low-complexity maximal ratio combining (MRC) beamforming at the BS, and then derive the ergodic achievable rate in a closed form expression. To draw design insights, we perform a detailed theoretical analysis departing from the derived ergodic achievable rate. If the BS-RIS channel is Rician distributed, we prove that the transmit power can be scaled proportionally to $1/M$, as the number of BS antennas, $M$, grows to infinity while maintaining a non-zero rate. If the BS-RIS channel is Rayleigh distributed, the transmit power can be scaled either proportionally to $1/\sqrt{M}$ as $M$ grows large, or proportionally to $1/N$ as the number of reflecting elements, $N$, grows large, while still maintaining a non-zero rate. By capitalizing on the derived expression of the data rate under the statistical knowledge of the CSI, we maximize the minimum user rate by designing the passive beamforming at the RIS. Numerical results confirm that, even in the presence of imperfect CSI, the integration of an RIS in massive MIMO systems results in promising performance gains. In addition, the obtained results reveal that it is favorable to place the RIS close to the users rather than close to the BS.

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arXiv2022

Robust Transmission Design for RIS-assisted Secure Multiuser Communication Systems in the Presence of Hardware Impairments

This paper investigates reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted secure multiuser communication systems subject to hardware impairments (HIs). We jointly optimize the beamforming vectors at the base station (BS) and the phase shifts of the reflecting elements at the RIS so as to maximize the weighted minimum secrecy rate (WMSR), subject to both transmission power constraints at the BS and unit-modulus constraints at the RIS. To address the formulated optimization problem, we first decouple it into two tractable subproblems and then use the block coordinate descent (BCD) method to alternately optimize the subproblems. Two different methods are proposed to solve the two obtained subproblems. The first method transforms each subproblem into a second order cone programming (SOCP) problem, which can be directly solved using CVX. The second method leverages the Minorization- Maximization (MM) algorithm. Specifically, we first derive a concave approximation function, which is a lower bound of the original objective function, and then the two subproblems are transformed into two simple surrogate problems with closedform solutions. Simulation results verify the performance gains of the proposed robust transmission method over existing nonrobust designs. In addition, the MM algorithm is shown to have much lower complexity than the SOCP-based algorithm.

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arXiv2022

Multi-Point Integrated Sensing and Communication: Fusion Model and Functionality Selection

Integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) represents a paradigm shift, where previously competing wireless transmissions are jointly designed to operate in harmony via the shared use of the hardware platform for improving the spectral and energy efficiencies. However, due to adversarial factors such as fading and interference, ISAC may suffer from high sensing uncertainties. This paper presents a multi-point ISAC (MPISAC) system that fuses the outputs from multiple ISAC devices for achieving higher sensing performance by exploiting multi-view data redundancy. Furthermore, we propose to effectively explore the performance trade-off between sensing and communication via a functionality selection module that adaptively determines the working state (i.e., sensing or communication) of an ISAC device. The crux of our approach is to derive a fusion model that predicts the fusion accuracy via hypothesis testing and optimal voting analysis. Simulation results demonstrate the superiority of MPISAC over various benchmark schemes and show that the proposed approach can effectively span the trade-off region in ISAC systems.

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arXiv2022

Joint Activity Detection and Channel Estimation for Massive IoT Access Based on Millimeter-Wave/Terahertz Multi-Panel Massive MIMO

The multi-panel array, as a state-of-the-art antenna-in-package technology, is very suitable for millimeter-wave (mmWave)/terahertz (THz) systems, due to its low-cost deployment and scalable configuration. But in the context of nonuniform array structures it leads to intractable signal processing. Based on such an array structure at the base station, this paper investigates a joint active user detection (AUD) and channel estimation (CE) scheme based on compressive sensing (CS) for application to the massive Internet of Things (IoT). Specifically, by exploiting the structured sparsity of mmWave/THz massive IoT access channels, we firstly formulate the multi-panel massive multiple-input multiple-output (mMIMO)-based joint AUD and CE problem as a multiple measurement vector (MMV)-CS problem. Then, we harness the expectation maximization (EM) algorithm to learn the prior parameters (i.e., the noise variance and the sparsity ratio) and an orthogonal approximate message passing (OAMP)-EM-MMV algorithm is developed to solve this problem. Our simulation results verify the improved AUD and CE performance of the proposed scheme compared to conventional CS-based algorithms.

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arXiv2022

Reconfiguring Wireless Environment via Intelligent Surfaces for 6G: Reflection, Modulation, and Security

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) has been recognized as an essential enabling technique for the sixth-generation (6G) mobile communication network. Specifically, an RIS is comprised of a large number of small and low-cost reflecting elements whose parameters are dynamically adjustable with a programmable controller. Each of these elements can effectively reflect a phase-shifted version of the incident electromagnetic wave. By adjusting the wave phases in real time, the propagation environment of the reflected signals can be dynamically reconfigured to enhance communication reliability, boost transmission rate, expand cellular coverage, and strengthen communication security. In this paper, we provide an overview on RIS-assisted wireless communications. Specifically, we elaborate on the state-of-the-art enabling techniques of RISs as well as their corresponding substantial benefits from the perspectives of RIS reflection and RIS modulation. With these benefits, we envision the integration of RIS into emerging applications for 6G. In addition, communication security is of unprecedented importance in the 6G network with ubiquitous wireless services in multifarious verticals and areas. We highlight potential contributions of RIS to physical-layer security in terms of secrecy rate and secrecy outage probability, exemplified by a typical case study from both theoretical and numerical aspects. Finally, we discuss challenges and opportunities on the deployment of RISs in practice to motivate future research.

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arXiv2022

Artificial Intelligence Empowered Multiple Access for Ultra Reliable and Low Latency THz Wireless Networks

Terahertz (THz) wireless networks are expected to catalyze the beyond fifth generation (B5G) era. However, due to the directional nature and the line-of-sight demand of THz links, as well as the ultra-dense deployment of THz networks, a number of challenges that the medium access control (MAC) layer needs to face are created. In more detail, the need of rethinking user association and resource allocation strategies by incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) capable of providing "real-time" solutions in complex and frequently changing environments becomes evident. Moreover, to satisfy the ultra-reliability and low-latency demands of several B5G applications, novel mobility management approaches are required. Motivated by this, this article presents a holistic MAC layer approach that enables intelligent user association and resource allocation, as well as flexible and adaptive mobility management, while maximizing systems' reliability through blockage minimization. In more detail, a fast and centralized joint user association, radio resource allocation, and blockage avoidance by means of a novel metaheuristic-machine learning framework is documented, that maximizes the THz networks performance, while minimizing the association latency by approximately three orders of magnitude. To support, within the access point (AP) coverage area, mobility management and blockage avoidance, a deep reinforcement learning (DRL) approach for beam-selection is discussed. Finally, to support user mobility between coverage areas of neighbor APs, a proactive hand-over mechanism based on AI-assisted fast channel prediction is~reported.

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arXiv2022

Joint Localization and Information Transfer for Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface Aided Full-Duplex Systems

In this work, we investigate a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) aided integrated sensing and communication scenario, where a base station (BS) communicates with multiple devices in a full-duplex mode, and senses the positions of these devices simultaneously. An RIS is assumed to be mounted on each device to enhance the reflected echoes. Meanwhile, the information of each device is passively transferred to the BS via reflection modulation. We aim to tackle the problem of joint localization and information retrieval at the BS. A grid based parametric model is constructed and the joint estimation problem is formulated as a compressive sensing problem. We propose a novel message-passing algorithm to solve the considered problem, and a progressive approximation method to reduce the computational complexity involved in the message passing. Moreover, an expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm is applied for tuning the grid parameters to mitigate the model mismatch problem. Finally, we analyze the efficacy of the proposed algorithm through the Bayesian Cramér-Rao bound. Numerical results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed scheme and the superior performance of the proposed EM-based message-passing algorithm.

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arXiv2022

Intelligent Omni-Surfaces: Reflection-Refraction Circuit Model, Full-Dimensional Beamforming, and System Implementation

The intelligent omni-surface (IOS) is a dynamic metasurface that has recently been proposed to achieve full-dimensional communications by realizing the dual function of anomalous reflection and anomalous refraction. Existing research works provide only simplified models for the reflection and refraction responses of the IOS, which do not explicitly depend on the physical structure of the IOS and the angle of incidence of the electromagnetic (EM) wave. Therefore, the available reflection-refraction models are insufficient to characterize the performance of full-dimensional communications. In this paper, we propose a complete and detailed circuit-based reflection-refraction model for the IOS, which is formulated in terms of the physical structure and equivalent circuits of the IOS elements, as well as we validate it against full-wave EM simulations. Based on the proposed circuit-based model for the IOS, we analyze the asymmetry between the reflection and transmission coefficients. Moreover, the proposed circuit-based model is utilized for optimizing the hybrid beamforming of IOS-assisted networks and hence improving the system performance. To verify the circuit-based model, the theoretical findings, and to evaluate the performance of full-dimensional beamforming, we implement a prototype of IOS and deploy an IOS-assisted wireless communication testbed to experimentally measure the beam patterns and to quantify the achievable rate. The obtained experimental results validate the theoretical findings and the accuracy of the proposed circuit-based reflection-refraction model for IOSs.

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arXiv2022

Communication Models for Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces: From Surface Electromagnetics to Wireless Networks Optimization

A reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) is a planar structure that is engineered to dynamically control the electromagnetic waves. In wireless communications, RISs have recently emerged as a promising technology for realizing programmable and reconfigurable wireless propagation environments through nearly passive signal transformations. With the aid of RISs, a wireless environment becomes part of the network design parameters that are subject to optimization. In this tutorial paper, we focus our attention on communication models for RISs. First, we review the communication models that are most often employed in wireless communications and networks for analyzing and optimizing RISs, and elaborate on their advantages and limitations. Then, we concentrate on models for RISs that are based on inhomogeneous sheets of surface impedance, and offer a step-by-step tutorial on formulating electromagnetically-consistent analytical models for optimizing the surface impedance. The differences between local and global designs are discussed and analytically formulated in terms of surface power efficiency and reradiated power flux through the Poynting vector. Finally, with the aid of numerical results, we discuss how approximate global designs can be realized by using locally passive RISs with zero electrical resistance (i.e., inhomogeneous reactance boundaries with no local power amplification), even for large angles of reflection and at high power efficiency.

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arXiv2022

Two-Timescale Design for STAR-RIS Aided NOMA Systems

Simultaneously transmitting and reflecting reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (STAR-RISs) have emerged as a promising technology for achieving full-space coverage. Prior works on STAR-RISs mostly assumed the full and instantaneous channel state information (CSI) is available, which, however, is practically difficult to obtain due to the large number of elements. To address it, we investigate STAR-RIS aided NOMA systems, where two efficient two-timescale transmission protocols are proposed for different channel setups to maximize the average sum-rate. Specifically, 1) for line-of-sight (LoS) dominant channels, we propose the beamforming-then-estimate (BTE) Protocol, where the long-term STAR-RIS coefficients are optimized based on the statistical CSI, while the short-term power allocation at the base station (BS) is designed based on the effective channels; 2) for the rich scattering environment, we propose an alternative partition-then-estimate (PTE) Protocol, where the BS determines the long-term STAR-RIS surface-partition strategy; then the BS estimates the instantaneous subsurface channels and designs its power allocation and STAR-RIS phase-shifts accordingly. Simulation results validate the superiority of our proposed transmission protocols as compared to various benchmarks. It is shown that the BTE Protocol outperforms the PTE Protocol when the number of STAR-RIS elements is large and/or the LoS channel components are dominant, and vice versa.

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