In this paper, to further improve the coverage and performance of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communication systems, we propose a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted UAV scheme where an RIS installed on a building is used to reflect the signals transmitted from the ground source to an UAV, and the UAV is deployed as a relay to forward the decoded signals to the destination. To model the statistical distribution of the RIS-assisted ground-to-air (G2A) links, we develop a tight approximation for the probability density function (PDF) of the instantaneous signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). By using the obtained distribution, analytical expressions for the outage probability, average bit error rate (BER), and average capacity are derived. Results show that the use of RISs can effectively improve the coverage and reliability of UAV communication systems.

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On the Performance of RIS-Assisted Dual-Hop UAV Communication Systems

In this work, we study the secrecy performance of a reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS)-aided wireless communication system in the presence of an eavesdropping user. Specifically, we assume that the RIS is placed between the source and the legitimate user and is used to improve the link security. In particular, analytical results for the secrecy outage probability (SOP) are derived. We also provide an asymptotic analysis to investigate the effect of the main parameters on the secrecy performance of our proposed system, such as the number of tunable elements of the RIS and the average signal-to-noise ratios. Finally, we verify our analytical results via simulations. Results show the positive effect of utilizing RISs for enhancing the secrecy performance in wireless systems.

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Secrecy Performance Analysis of RIS-Aided Wireless Communication Systems

Intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) has emerged as an enabling technology to achieve smart and reconfigurable wireless communication environment cost-effectively. Prior works on IRS mainly consider its passive beamforming design and performance optimization without the inter-IRS signal reflection, which thus do not unveil the full potential of multi-IRS assisted wireless networks. In this paper, we study a double-IRS assisted multi-user communication system with the cooperative passive beamforming design that captures the multiplicative beamforming gain from the inter-IRS channel. Under the general channel setup with the co-existence of both double- and single-reflection links, we jointly optimize the (active) receive beamforming at the base station (BS) and the cooperative (passive) reflect beamforming at the two distributed IRSs (deployed near the BS and users, respectively) to maximize the minimum signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) of all users. Moreover, for the single-user and multi-user setups, we analytically show the superior performance of the double-IRS cooperative system over the conventional single-IRS system in terms of the maximum signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and multi-user effective channel rank, respectively. Simulation results validate our analytical results and show the practical advantages of the proposed double-IRS system with cooperative passive beamforming designs.

Double-IRS Assisted Multi-User MIMO: Cooperative Passive Beamforming Design

To achieve the more significant passive beamforming gain in the double-intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) aided system over the conventional single-IRS counterpart, channel state information (CSI) is indispensable in practice but also more challenging to acquire, due to the presence of not only the single- but also double-reflection links that are intricately coupled and also entail more channel coefficients for estimation. In this paper, we propose a new and efficient channel estimation scheme for the double-IRS aided multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication system to resolve the cascaded CSI of both its single- and double-reflection links. First, for the single-user case, the single- and double-reflection channels are efficiently estimated at the multi-antenna base station (BS) with both the IRSs turned ON (for maximal signal reflection), by exploiting the fact that their cascaded channel coefficients are scaled versions of their superimposed lower-dimensional CSI. Then, the proposed channel estimation scheme is extended to the multi-user case, where given an arbitrary user’s cascaded channel (estimated as in the single-user case), the other users’ cascaded channels can also be expressed as lower-dimensional scaled versions of it and thus efficiently estimated at the BS. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed channel estimation scheme and joint training reflection design for double IRSs, as compared to various benchmark schemes.

Efficient Channel Estimation for Double-IRS Aided Multi-User MIMO System

Recently, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) have attracted a lot of attention due to their capability of extending cell coverage by reflecting signals toward the receiver. In this letter, we analyze the coverage of a downlink RIS-assisted network with one base station (BS) and one user equipment (UE). Since the RIS orientation and the horizontal distance between the RIS and the BS have a significant influence on the cell coverage, we formulate an RIS placement optimization problem to maximize the cell coverage by optimizing the RIS orientation and horizontal distance. To solve the formulated problem, a coverage maximization algorithm (CMA) is proposed, where a closed-form optimal RIS orientation is obtained. Numerical results verify our analysis.

Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS) Assisted Wireless Coverage Extension: RIS Orientation and Location Optimization

Recent studies have shown that reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) can help in extending the wireless coverage. However, no work has quantitatively analyzed the coverage. In this letter, we present the coverage analysis for an RIS-aided communication system. For comparison, the coverage analysis for relaying systems and direct-link transmission systems are also derived. Furthermore, we provide the analysis for the probability of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) gain of the RIS over the direct link transmission. Finally, we analyze the delay outage rate of the RIS in achieving ultra-reliable low-latency transmissions. The results show that using the RIS can expand the coverage, increase the SNR gain, and reduce latency of the links.

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Coverage, Probability of SNR Gain, and DOR Analysis of RIS-Aided Communication Systems

In this letter, we consider a network assisted by multiple reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs). Assuming that the RIS with the highest instantaneous end-to-end signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is selected to aid the communication, the outage probability (OP) and average sum-rate are investigated. Specifically, an exact analysis for the OP is developed. In addition, relying on the extreme value theory, a closed-form expression for the asymptotic sum-rate is derived, based on which the capacity scaling law is established. Our results are corroborated through simulations and insightful discussions are provided. In particular, our analysis shows that the number of RISs as well as the number of reflecting elements play a crucial role in the capacity scaling law of multiple RIS-aided networks. Also, comparisons with relay-aided systems are carried out to demonstrate that the proposed system setup outperforms relaying schemes both in terms of the OP and average sum-rate.

Outage Probability and Capacity Scaling Law of Multiple RIS-Aided Networks

In this letter, we consider a dual-hop cooperative network assisted by multiple reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs). Assuming that the RIS with the highest instantaneous end-to-end signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is selected to aid the communication, the outage probability (OP) and average sum-rate are investigated. Specifically, an exact analysis for the OP is developed. In addition, relying on the extreme value theory, closed-form expressions for the asymptotic OP and asymptotic sum-rate are derived, based on which the capacity scaling law is established. Our results are corroborated through simulations and insightful discussions are provided. In particular, our analysis shows that the number of RISs as well as the number of reflecting elements play a crucial role in the capacity scaling law of multiple RIS-aided cooperative networks. Also, comparisons with relay-aided systems are carried out to demonstrate that the proposed system setup outperforms relaying schemes both in terms of the OP and average sum-rate.

Outage Probability and Capacity Scaling Law of Multiple RIS-Aided Cooperative Networks.

In this work, the performance of reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-aided communication systems corrupted by the co-channel interference (CCI) at the destination is investigated. Assuming Rayleigh fading and equal-power CCI, we present the analysis for the outage probability (OP), average bit error rate (BER), and ergodic capacity. In addition, an asymptotic outage analysis is carried in order to obtain further insights. Our analysis shows that the number of reflecting elements as well as the number of interferers have a great impact on the overall system performance.

Yin Yang

Papers

Coverage, Probability of SNR Gain, and DOR Analysis of RIS-Aided Communication Systems

Outage Probability and Capacity Scaling Law of Multiple RIS-Aided Networks

Outage Probability and Capacity Scaling Law of Multiple RIS-Aided Cooperative Networks.

Performance Analysis of an Interference-Limited RIS-Aided Network.