arXiv subjects

Qingqing Wu

Publications and source records attributed to Qingqing Wu.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

arXiv2025

Overview of AI and Communication for 6G Network: Fundamentals, Challenges, and Future Research Opportunities

With the growing demand for seamless connectivity and intelligent communication, the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and sixth-generation (6G) communication networks has emerged as a transformative paradigm. By embedding AI capabilities across various network layers, this integration enables optimized resource allocation, improved efficiency, and enhanced system robust performance, particularly in intricate and dynamic environments. This paper presents a comprehensive overview of AI and communication for 6G networks, with a focus on emphasizing their foundational principles, inherent challenges, and future research opportunities. We first review the integration of AI and communications in the context of 6G, exploring the driving factors behind incorporating AI into wireless communications, as well as the vision for the convergence of AI and 6G. The discourse then transitions to a detailed exposition of the envisioned integration of AI within 6G networks, delineated across three progressive developmental stages. The first stage, AI for Network, focuses on employing AI to augment network performance, optimize efficiency, and enhance user service experiences. The second stage, Network for AI, highlights the role of the network in facilitating and buttressing AI operations and presents key enabling technologies, such as digital twins for AI and semantic communication. In the final stage, AI as a Service, it is anticipated that future 6G networks will innately provide AI functions as services, supporting application scenarios like immersive communication and intelligent industrial robots. In addition, we conduct an in-depth analysis of the critical challenges faced by the integration of AI and communications in 6G. Finally, we outline promising future research opportunities that are expected to drive the development and refinement of AI and 6G communications.

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arXiv2025

Elements Allocation for Joint Active and Passive IRS Aided Wireless Communications: A Rate-Maximization Perspective

Unlike previous works that focused solely on passive intelligent reflecting surface (PIRS) or active IRS (AIRS), a novel joint AIRS and PIRS architecture has been developed to flexibly utilize their combined advantages in mitigating multiplicative path loss cost-effectively. In this paper, we consider the AIRS-PIRS jointly aided wireless point-to-point communication system with two different deployment schemes in three-dimensional (3D) space. To balance the trade-off between the square-order beamforming gain of PIRS and the unique power amplification gain of AIRS, we optimize the elements allocation and beamforming design of the two IRSs under various practical constraints from a rate-maximization perspective. Moreover, we derive a series of element-related closed-form analytical expressions and compare the performance of the two schemes. Our analysis shows that in both schemes, PIRS should be allocated more elements than AIRS, and the received signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) increases asymptotically with the cube of the number of reflecting elements, when the distance between AIRS and PIRS is sufficiently large. Last, simulation results validate our analysis and indicate that both schemes can achieve superior rate performance over various benchmarks.

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arXiv2025

Enhancing Robustness and Security in ISAC Network Design: Leveraging Transmissive Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface with RSMA

In this paper, we propose a novel transmissive reconfigurable intelligent surface transceiver-enhanced robust and secure integrated sensing and communication network. A time-division sensing communication mechanism is designed for the scenario, which enables communication and sensing to share wireless resources. To address the interference management problem and hinder eavesdropping, we implement rate-splitting multiple access (RSMA), where the common stream is designed as a useful signal and an artificial noise, while taking into account the imperfect channel state information and modeling the channel for the illegal users in a fine-grained manner as well as giving an upper bound on the error. We introduce the secrecy outage probability and construct an optimization problem with secrecy sum-rate as the objective functions to optimize the common stream beamforming matrix, the private stream beamforming matrix and the timeslot duration variable. Due to the coupling of the optimization variables and the infinity of the error set, the proposed problem is a nonconvex optimization problem that cannot be solved directly. In order to address the above challenges, the block coordinate descent-based second-order cone programming algorithm is used to decouple the optimization variables and solving the problem. Specifically, the problem is decoupled into two subproblems concerning the common stream beamforming matrix, the private stream beamforming matrix, and the timeslot duration variable, which are solved by alternating optimization until convergence is reached. To solve the problem, S-procedure, Bernstein's inequality and successive convex approximation are employed to deal with the objective function and non-convex constraints. Numerical simulation results verify the superiority of the proposed scheme in improving the secrecy energy efficiency and the Cramér-Rao boundary.

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arXiv2025

Static IRS Meets Distributed MIMO: A New Architecture for Dynamic Beamforming

Intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) has been considered as a revolutionary technology to enhance the wireless communication performance. To cater for multiple mobile users, adjusting IRS beamforming patterns over time, i.e., dynamic IRS beamforming (DIBF), is generally needed for achieving satisfactory performance, which results in high controlling power consumption and overhead. To avoid such cost, we propose a new architecture based on the static regulated IRS for wireless coverage enhancement, where the principle of distributed multiple-input multiple-output (D-MIMO) is integrated into the system to exploite the diversity of spatial directions provided by multiple access points (APs). For this new D-MIMO empowered static IRS architecture, the total target area is partitioned into several subareas and each subarea is served by an assigned AP. We consider to maximize the worst-case received power over all locations in the target area by jointly optimizing a single set of IRS beamforming pattern and AP-subarea association. Then, a two-step algorithm is proposed to obtain its high-quality solution. Theoretical analysis unveils that the fundamental squared power gain can still be achieved over all locations in the target area. The performance gap relative to the DIBF scheme is also analytically quantified. Numerical results validate our theoretical findings and demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed design over benchmark schemes.

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arXiv2025

6G Communication New Paradigm: The Integration of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Intelligent Reflecting Surfaces

With the continuous development of Intelligent Reflecting Surfaces (IRSs) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), their combination has become foundational technologies to complement the terrestrial network by providing communication enhancement services for large-scale users. This article provides a comprehensive overview of IRS-assisted UAV communications for 6th-Generation (6G) networks. First, the applications supported by IRS-assisted UAV communications for 6G networks are introduced, and key issues originated from applications supported by IRSs and UAVs for 6G networks are summarized and analyzed. Then, prototypes and main technologies related to the integration of IRSs and UAVs are introduced. Driven by applications and technologies of IRS-assisted UAV communications, existing solutions in the realms of energy-constrained communications, secure communications, and enhanced communications are summarized, and corresponding empirical lessons are provided. Finally, we discuss some research challenges and open issues in IRS-assisted UAV communications, offering directions for the future development.

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arXiv2025

UAV Swarm-enabled Collaborative Post-disaster Communications in Low Altitude Economy via a Two-stage Optimization Approach

The low-altitude economy (LAE) plays an indispensable role in cargo transportation, healthcare, infrastructure inspection, and especially post-disaster communication. Specifically, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), as one of the core technologies of the LAE, can be deployed to provide communication coverage, facilitate data collection, and relay data for trapped users, thereby significantly enhancing the efficiency of post-disaster response efforts. In this paper, we design an efficient and robust UAV-swarm enabled collaborative self-organizing network to facilitate post-disaster communications. Specifically, a ground device transmits data to UAV swarms, which then use collaborative beamforming (CB) technique to form virtual antenna arrays and relay the data to a remote access point (AP) efficiently. Then, we formulate a rescue-oriented post-disaster transmission rate maximization optimization problem (RPTRMOP). Then, we propose a two-stage optimization approach to address it. In the first stage, the optimal traffic routing and the theoretical upper bound on the transmission rate of the network are derived. In the second stage, we transform the formulated RPTRMOP into a variant named V-RPTRMOP, and a diffusion model-enabled particle swarm optimization (DM-PSO) algorithm is proposed to deal with the V-RPTRMOP. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed two-stage optimization approach in improving the transmission rate of the constructed network, which demonstrates the great potential for post-disaster communications. Moreover, the robustness of the constructed network is also validated via evaluating the impact of two unexpected situations on the system transmission rate.

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arXiv2024

Throughput Maximization for UAV-enabled Integrated Periodic Sensing and Communication

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is expected to revolutionize the existing integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) system and promise a more flexible joint design. Nevertheless, the existing works on ISAC mainly focus on exploring the performance of both functionalities simultaneously during the entire considered period, which may ignore the practical asymmetric sensing and communication requirements. In particular, always forcing sensing along with communication may make it is harder to balance between these two functionalities due to shared spectrum resources and limited transmit power. To address this issue, we propose a new integrated periodic sensing and communication mechanism for the UAV-enabled ISAC system to provide a more flexible trade-off between two integrated functionalities. Specifically, the system achievable rate is maximized via jointly optimizing UAV trajectory, user association, target sensing selection, and transmit beamforming, while meeting the sensing frequency and beam pattern gain requirement for the given targets. Despite that this problem is highly non-convex and involves closely coupled integer variables, we derive the closed-form optimal beamforming vector to dramatically reduce the complexity of beamforming design, and present a tight lower bound of the achievable rate to facilitate UAV trajectory design. Based on the above results, we propose a penalty-based algorithm to efficiently solve the considered problem. The optimal achievable rate and the optimal UAV location are analyzed under a special case of infinity number of antennas. Furthermore, we prove the structural symmetry between the optimal solutions in different ISAC frames without location constraints and propose an efficient algorithm for solving the problem with location constraints.

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arXiv2024

Movable Intelligent Surface (MIS) for Wireless Communications: Architecture, Modeling, Algorithm, and Prototyping

Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces enhance wireless systems by reshaping propagation environments. However, dynamic metasurfaces (MSs) with numerous phase-shift elements incur undesired control and hardware costs. In contrast, static MSs (SMSs), configured with static phase shifts pre-designed for specific communication demands, offer a cost-effective alternative by eliminating element-wise tuning. Nevertheless, SMSs typically support a single beam pattern with limited flexibility. In this paper, we propose a novel Movable Intelligent Surface (MIS) technology that enables dynamic beamforming while maintaining static phase shifts. Specifically, we design a MIS architecture comprising two closely stacked transmissive MSs: a larger fixed-position MS 1 and a smaller movable MS 2. By differentially shifting MS 2's position relative to MS 1, the MIS synthesizes distinct beam patterns. Then, we model the interaction between MS 2 and MS 1 using binary selection matrices and padding vectors and formulate a new optimization problem that jointly designs the MIS phase shifts and selects shifting positions for worst-case signal-to-noise ratio maximization. This position selection, equal to beam pattern scheduling, offers a new degree of freedom for RIS-aided systems. To solve the intractable problem, we develop an efficient algorithm that handles unit-modulus and binary constraints and employs manifold optimization methods. Finally, extensive validation results are provided. We implement a MIS prototype and perform proof-of-concept experiments, demonstrating the MIS's ability to synthesize desired beam patterns that achieve one-dimensional beam steering. Numerical results show that by introducing MS 2 with a few elements, MIS effectively offers beamforming flexibility for significantly improved performance. We also draw insights into the optimal MIS configuration and element allocation strategy.

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arXiv2024

Low Time Complexity Near-Field Channel and Position Estimations

With the application of high-frequency communication and extremely large MIMO (XL-MIMO), the near-field effect has become increasingly apparent. The near-field channel estimation and position estimation problems both rely on the Angle of Arrival (AoA) and the Curvature of Arrival (CoA) estimation. However, in the near-field channel model, the coupling of AoA and CoA information poses a challenge to the estimation of the near-field channel. This paper proposes a Joint Autocorrelation and Cross-correlation (JAC) scheme to decouple AoA and CoA estimation. Based on the JAC scheme, we propose two specific near-field estimation algorithms, namely Inverse Sinc Function (JAC-ISF) and Gradient Descent (JAC-GD) algorithms. Finally, we analyzed the time complexity of the JAC scheme and the cramer-rao lower bound (CRLB) for near-field position estimation. The simulation experiment results show that the algorithm designed based on JAC scheme can solve the problem of coupled CoA and AoA information in near-field estimation, thereby improving the algorithm performance. The JAC-GD algorithm shows significant performance in channel estimation and position estimation at different SNRs, snapshot points, and communication distances compared to other algorithms. This indicates that the JAC-GD algorithm can achieve more accurate channel and position estimation results while saving time overhead.

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arXiv2024

Efficient Joint Precoding Design for Wideband Intelligent Reflecting Surface-Assisted Cell-Free Network

In this paper, we propose an efficient joint precoding design method to maximize the weighted sum-rate in wideband intelligent reflecting surface (IRS)-assisted cell-free networks by jointly optimizing the active beamforming of base stations and the passive beamforming of IRS. Due to employing wideband transmissions, the frequency selectivity of IRSs has to been taken into account, whose response usually follows a Lorentzian-like profile. To address the high-dimensional non-convex optimization problem, we employ a fractional programming approach to decouple the non-convex problem into subproblems for alternating optimization between active and passive beamforming. The active beamforming subproblem is addressed using the consensus alternating direction method of multipliers (CADMM) algorithm, while the passive beamforming subproblem is tackled using the accelerated projection gradient (APG) method and Flecher-Reeves conjugate gradient method (FRCG). Simulation results demonstrate that our proposed approach achieves significant improvements in weighted sum-rate under various performance metrics compared to primal-dual subgradient (PDS) with ideal reflection matrix. This study provides valuable insights for computational complexity reduction and network capacity enhancement.

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arXiv2024

Throughput Maximization for Movable Antenna Systems with Movement Delay Consideration

In this paper, we model the minimum achievable throughput within a transmission block of restricted duration and aim to maximize it in movable antenna (MA)-enabled multiuser downlink communications. Particularly, we account for the antenna moving delay caused by mechanical movement, which has not been fully considered in previous studies, and reveal the trade-off between the delay and signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio at users. To this end, we first consider a single-user setup to analyze the necessity of antenna movement. By quantizing the virtual angles of arrival, we derive the requisite region size for antenna moving, design the initial MA position, and elucidate the relationship between quantization resolution and moving region size. Furthermore, an efficient algorithm is developed to optimize MA position via successive convex approximation, which is subsequently extended to the general multiuser setup. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed algorithms outperform fixed-position antenna schemes and existing ones without consideration of movement delay. Additionally, our algorithms exhibit excellent adaptability and stability across various transmission block durations and moving region sizes, and are robust to different antenna moving speeds. This allows the hardware cost of MA-aided systems to be reduced by employing low rotational speed motors.

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arXiv2024

A Survey on Integrated Sensing and Communication with Intelligent Metasurfaces: Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities

The emergence of technologies demanding high data rates and precise sensing, such as autonomous vehicles and IoT devices, has driven the popularity of integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) in recent years. ISAC provides a framework for communication and sensing, where both functionalities are performed simultaneously or in a coordinated manner. There are two levels of integration in ISAC: radio-communications coexistence (RCC), where communication and radar systems use distinct hardware, waveforms, and signal processing but share the spectrum; and dual-function radar-communications (DFRC), where communication and sensing share the same hardware, waveform, and signal processing. At the architectural level, intelligent metasurfaces are a key enabler for the sixth-generation (6G) of wireless communication due to their ability to control the propagation environment efficiently. With the potential to enhance communication and sensing performance, numerous studies have explored the gains of metasurfaces for ISAC. Moreover, certain ISAC frameworks address limitations associated with reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) for communication. Thus, integrating ISAC with metasurfaces enhances both technologies. This survey reviews the literature on metasurface-assisted ISAC, detailing challenges and opportunities. To provide a comprehensive overview, we begin with fundamentals of ISAC and metasurfaces. The paper summarizes state-of-the-art studies on metasurface-assisted ISAC, focusing on metasurfaces as separate entities between the transmitter and receiver (known as RIS) and emphasizing RCC and DFRC. We also review work on holographic ISAC, where metasurfaces are part of the transmitter and receiver. For each category, lessons learned, challenges, opportunities, and research directions are highlighted.

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arXiv2024

Beamforming Design and Multi-User Scheduling in Transmissive RIS Enabled Distributed Cooperative ISAC Networks with RSMA

In this paper, we propose a novel transmissive reconfigurable intelligent surface (TRIS) transceiver-empowered distributed cooperative integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) network to enhance coverage as well as to enhance wireless environment understanding. Based on the network requirements, the users are categorized into cooperative users (CUEs) and destination users (DUEs), and the CUEs utilize their own resources to serve the DUEs. To realize cooperation, we implement rate-splitting multiple access (RSMA) at the base station (BS), where the common stream is decoded and reencoded at the CUEs and forwarded to the DUEs, while the private stream satisfies the CUEs' own communication requirements. We construct an optimization problem with maximum minimum radar mutual information (RMI) as the objective function to optimize the BS beamforming matrix, the CUE beamforming matrices, the common stream rate vectors, and the user scheduling vectors. Due to the coupling of the optimization variables and non-convex operation, the proposed problem is a non-convex optimization problem that cannot be solved directly. To address the above challenges, we adopt a consensus alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) framework to decouple the optimization variables and solve it. Specifically, the problem is decoupled into multiple subproblems and solved by iterative optimization independently until overall convergence is achieved. Finally, numerical results validate the superiority of the proposed scheme in terms of improving communication sum-rate and RMI, and greatly reduce the algorithm complexity.

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arXiv2024

IREE Oriented Active RIS-Assisted Green communication System with Outdated CSI

The rapid evolution of communication technologies has spurred a growing demand for energy-efficient network architectures and performance metrics. Active Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS) are emerging as a key component in green network architectures. Compared to passive RIS, active RIS are equipped with amplifiers on each reflecting element, allowing them to simultaneously reflect and amplify signals, thereby overcoming the double multiplicative fading in the phase response, and improving both system coverage and performance. Additionally, the Integrated Relative Energy Efficiency (IREE) metric, as introduced in [1], addresses the dynamic variations in traffic and capacity over time and space, enabling more energy-efficient wireless systems. Building on these advancements, this paper investigates the problem of maximizing IREE in active RIS-assisted green communication systems. However, acquiring perfect Channel State Information (CSI) in practical systems poses significant challenges and costs. To address this, we derive the average achievable rate based on outdated CSI and formulated the corresponding IREE maximization problem, which is solved by jointly optimizing beamforming at both the base station and RIS. Given the non-convex nature of the problem, we propose an Alternating Optimization Successive Approximation (AOSO) algorithm. By applying quadratic transform and relaxation techniques, we simplify the original problem and alternately optimize the beamforming matrices at the base station and RIS. Furthermore, to handle the discrete constraints of the RIS reflection coefficients, we develop a successive approximation method. Experimental results validate our theoretical analysis of the algorithm's convergence , demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm and highlighting the superiority of IREE in enhancing the performance of green communication networks.

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arXiv2024

Sum Rate Maximization for Movable Antenna-Aided Downlink RSMA Systems

Rate splitting multiple access (RSMA) is regarded as a crucial and powerful physical layer (PHY) paradigm for next-generation communication systems. Particularly, users employ successive interference cancellation (SIC) to decode part of the interference while treating the remainder as noise. However, conventional RSMA systems rely on fixed-position antenna arrays, limiting their ability to fully exploit spatial diversity. This constraint reduces beamforming gain and significantly impairs RSMA performance. To address this problem, we propose a movable antenna (MA)-aided RSMA scheme that allows the antennas at the base station (BS) to dynamically adjust their positions. Our objective is to maximize the system sum rate of common and private messages by jointly optimizing the MA positions, beamforming matrix, and common rate allocation. To tackle the formulated non-convex problem, we apply fractional programming (FP) and develop an efficient two-stage, coarse-to-fine-grained searching (CFGS) algorithm to obtain high-quality solutions. Numerical results demonstrate that, with optimized antenna adjustments, the MA-enabled system achieves substantial performance and reliability improvements in RSMA over fixed-position antenna setups.

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arXiv2024

Model Predictive Control Enabled UAV Trajectory Optimization and Secure Resource Allocation

In this paper, we investigate a secure communication architecture based on unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which enhances the security performance of the communication system through UAV trajectory optimization. We formulate a control problem of minimizing the UAV flight path and power consumption while maximizing secure communication rate over infinite horizon by jointly optimizing UAV trajectory, transmit beamforming vector, and artificial noise (AN) vector. Given the non-uniqueness of optimization objective and significant coupling of the optimization variables, the problem is a non-convex optimization problem which is difficult to solve directly. To address this complex issue, an alternating-iteration technique is employed to decouple the optimization variables. Specifically, the problem is divided into three subproblems, i.e., UAV trajectory, transmit beamforming vector, and AN vector, which are solved alternately. Additionally, considering the susceptibility of UAV trajectory to disturbances, the model predictive control (MPC) approach is applied to obtain UAV trajectory and enhance the system robustness. Numerical results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed optimization algorithm in maintaining accurate UAV trajectory and high secure communication rate compared with other benchmark schemes.

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arXiv2024

Discrete RIS Enhanced Space Shift Keying MIMO System via Reflecting Beamforming Optimization

In this paper, a discrete reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted spatial shift keying (SSK) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) scheme is investigated, in which a direct link between the transmitter and the receiver is considered. To improve the reliability of the RIS-SSK-MIMO scheme, we formulate an objective function based on minimizing the average bit error probability (ABEP). Since the reflecting phase shift of RIS is discrete, it is difficult to address this problem directly. To this end, we optimize the RIS phase shift to maximize the Euclidean distance between the minimum constellations by applying the successive convex approximation (SCA) and penaltyalternating optimization method. Simulation results verify the superiority of the proposed RIS-SSK-MIMO scheme and demonstrate the impact of the number of RIS elements, the number of phase quantization bits, and the number of receive and transmit antennas in terms of reliability.

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arXiv2024

Intelligent Reflecting Surface Aided MIMO Networks: Distributed or Centralized Architecture?

We investigate the capacity of a broadcast channel with a multi-antenna base station (BS) sending independent messages to multiple users, aided by IRSs with N elements. In particular, both the distributed and centralized IRS deployment architectures are considered. Regarding the distributed IRS, the N IRS elements form multiple IRSs and each of them is installed near a user cluster; while for the centralized IRS, all IRS elements are located in the vicinity of the BS. To draw essential insights, we first derive the maximum capacity achieved by the distributed IRS and centralized IRS, respectively, under the assumption of line-of-sight propagation and homogeneous channel setups. By capturing the fundamental tradeoff between the spatial multiplexing gain and passive beamforming gain, we rigourously prove that the capacity of the distributed IRS is higher than that of the centralized IRS provided that the total number of IRS elements is above a threshold. Motivated by the superiority of the distributed IRS, we then focus on the transmission and element allocation design under the distributed IRS. By exploiting the user channel correlation of intra-clusters and inter-clusters, an efficient hybrid multiple access scheme relying on both spatial and time domains is proposed to fully exploit both the passive beamforming gain and spatial DoF. Moreover, the IRS element allocation problem is investigated for the objectives of sum-rate maximization and minimum user rate maximization, respectively. Finally, extensive numerical results are provided to validate our theoretical finding and also to unveil the effectiveness of the distributed IRS for improving the system capacity under various system setups.

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