Zhengnian Gao

Bio: Zhengnian Gao is an academic researcher from Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications. The author has contributed to research in topics: Efficient energy use & Wireless. The author has an hindex of 2, co-authored 3 publications receiving 6 citations.

RIS-Enhanced WPCNs: Joint Radio Resource Allocation and Passive Beamforming Optimization

Abstract: Wireless-powered communication and reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) can complement each other for increasing energy utilization and spectrum efficiency by reconfiguring the surrounding radio environment, however, which has not been sufficiently studied by the existing works. In this paper, we propose a joint radio resource and passive beamforming optimization scheme for a downlink RIS-assisted wireless-powered communication network with a harvest-then-transmit protocol to improve system energy efficiency (EE). In the considered model, the single-antenna wireless devices (WDs) harvest wireless energy from a multi-antenna dedicated power station (PS) through the RIS in the downlink and transmit their independent information to a single-antenna receiver in the uplink by a time-division-multiple-access mode. Our goal is to maximize the total EE of all WDs. To make full use of the beamforming gain provided by both the PS and the RIS, we jointly optimize the active beamforming of the PS and the passive beamforming of the RIS. To deal with the challenging non-convex optimization problem with multiple coupled variables, we first consider fixing the passive beamforming, and converting the remaining radio resource allocation problem into an equivalent convex problem which is solved by using Lagrange dual theory. Then, we fix the optimized resource allocation parameters and optimize the passive beamforming of the RIS by using a semidefinite programming method. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm achieves higher EE compared to the conventional schemes.

Outage-Constrained Energy Efficiency Maximization for RIS-Assisted WPCNs

Abstract: In this letter, we investigate robust resource allocation for reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted wireless-powered communication networks, where the RIS assists energy transfer from a multi-antenna power station (PS) to multiple wireless-powered users (WPUs). WPUs communicate with an information receiver by an orthogonal frequency division multiple access mode. The total energy efficiency (EE) of WPUs is maximized by jointly optimizing the active beamforming of the PS, the subcarrier allocation factor, the energy harvesting time, the transmit power of WPUs, and the passive beamforming of the RIS under the constraints on the minimum harvested energy and the minimum throughput. To deal with the probabilistic constraints, Bernstein-type inequality is adopted. The transformed non-convex problem is converted into a convex one by using the Dinkelbach’s method, matching theory, and the alternating optimization approach. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in terms of robustness and EE.

Energy-efficient Optimization for IRS-assisted Wireless-powered Communication Networks

Abstract: Wireless-powered communication is a promising technique to provide convenient and perpetual energy for energy-constrained wireless devices. However, the uplink information transmission of wireless devices in wireless-powered communication networks relies on the harvested energy from the downlink-energy-transfer power station (PS). To tackle this issue, we propose a new intelligent reflecting surface (IRS)-assisted wireless-powered network architecture, where an IRS is deployed between a PS and multiple wireless-powered users to enhance the efficiency of energy harvesting. The total energy efficiency (EE) of all wireless-powered users is maximized by jointly optimizing the energy transfer matrix of the PS, the transmission time and power of users, and the phase shifts of the IRS. The formulated problem is non-convex and challenging to solve. Accordingly, the alternating optimization approach, Dinkelbach’s method, and the variable-substitution approach are used to solve it. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

Robust Beamforming Design and Time Allocation for IRS-assisted Wireless Powered Communication Networks.

Abstract: In this paper, a novel intelligent reflecting surface (IRS)-assisted wireless powered communication network (WPCN) architecture is proposed for low-power Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices, where the IRS is exploited to improve the performance of WPCN under imperfect channel state information (CSI). We formulate a hybrid access point (HAP) transmission energy minimization problem by a joint design of time allocation, HAP energy beamforming, receiving beamforming, user transmit power allocation, IRS energy reflection coefficient and information reflection coefficient under the imperfect CSI and non-linear energy harvesting model. Due to the high coupling of optimization variables, this problem is a non-convex optimization problem, which is difficult to solve directly. In order to solve the above-mentioned challenging problems, the alternating optimization (AO) is applied to decouple the optimization variables to solve the problem. Specifically, through AO, time allocation, HAP energy beamforming, receiving beamforming, user transmit power allocation, IRS energy reflection coefficient and information reflection coefficient are divided into three sub-problems to be solved alternately. The difference-of-convex (DC) programming is applied to solve the non-convex rank-one constraint in solving the IRS energy reflection coefficient and information reflection coefficient. Numerical simulations verify the effectiveness of our proposed algorithm in reducing HAP transmission energy compared to other benchmarks.

Holographic MIMO Communications: Theoretical Foundations, Enabling Technologies, and Future Directions

Abstract: Future wireless systems are envisioned to create an endogenously holography-capable, intelligent, and programmable radio propagation environment, that will offer unprecedented capabilities for high spectral and energy efficiency, low latency, and massive connectivity. A potential and promising technology for supporting the expected extreme requirements of the sixth-generation (6G) communication systems is the concept of the holographic multiple-input multiple-output (HMIMO), which will actualize holographic radios with reasonable power consumption and fabrication cost. The HMIMO is facilitated by ultra-thin, extremely large, and nearly continuous surfaces that incorporate reconfigurable and sub-wavelength-spaced antennas and/or metamaterials. Such surfaces comprising dense electromagnetic (EM) excited elements are capable of recording and manipulating impinging fields with utmost flexibility and precision, as well as with reduced cost and power consumption, thereby shaping arbitrary-intended EM waves with high energy efficiency. The powerful EM processing capability of HMIMO opens up the possibility of wireless communications of holographic imaging level, paving the way for signal processing techniques realized in the EM-domain, possibly in conjunction with their digital-domain counterparts. However, in spite of the significant potential, the studies on HMIMO communications are still at an initial stage, its fundamental limits remain to be unveiled, and a certain number of critical technical challenges need to be addressed. In this survey, we present a comprehensive overview of the latest advances in the HMIMO communications paradigm, with a special focus on their physical aspects, their theoretical foundations, as well as the enabling technologies for HMIMO systems. We also compare the HMIMO with existing multi-antenna technologies, especially the massive MIMO, present various...

Robust Beamforming Design and Time Allocation for IRS-Assisted Wireless Powered Communication Networks

Abstract: In this paper, a novel intelligent reflecting surface (IRS)-assisted wireless powered communication network (WPCN) architecture is proposed for power-constrained Internet-of-Things (IoT) smart devices, where IRS is exploited to improve the performance of WPCN under imperfect channel state information (CSI). We formulate a hybrid access point (HAP) transmit energy minimization problem by jointly optimizing time allocation, HAP energy beamforming, receiving beamforming, user transmit power allocation, IRS energy reflection coefficient and information reflection coefficient under the imperfect CSI and non-linear energy harvesting model. On account of the high coupling of optimization variables, the formulated problem is a non-convex optimization problem that is difficult to solve directly. To address the above-mentioned challenging problem, alternating optimization (AO) technique is applied to decouple the optimization variables to solve the problem. Specifically, through AO, time allocation, HAP energy beamforming, receiving beamforming, user transmit power allocation, IRS energy reflection coefficient and information reflection coefficient are divided into three sub-problems to be solved alternately. The difference-of-convex (DC) programming is used to solve the non-convex rank-one constraint in solving IRS energy reflection coefficient and information reflection coefficient. Numerical simulations verify the superiority of the proposed optimization algorithm in decreasing HAP transmit energy compared with other benchmark schemes.

Statistical QoS Analysis of Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface-assisted D2D Communication

Abstract: This work performs the statistical QoS analysis of a Rician block-fading reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted D2D link in which the transmit node operates under delay QoS constraints. First, we perform mode selection for the D2D link, in which the D2D pair can either communicate directly by relaying data from RISs or through a base station (BS). Next, we provide closed-form expressions for the effective capacity (EC) of the RIS-assisted D2D link. When channel state information at the transmitter (CSIT) is available, the transmit D2D node communicates with the variable rate rt (n) (adjustable according to the channel conditions); otherwise, it uses a fixed rate rt . It allows us to model the RIS-assisted D2D link as a Markov system in both cases. We also extend our analysis to overlay and underlay D2D settings. To improve the throughput of the RIS-assisted D2D link when CSIT is unknown, we use the HARQ retransmission scheme and provide the EC analysis of the HARQ-enabled RIS-assisted D2D link. Finally, simulation results demonstrate that: i) the EC increases with an increase in RIS elements, ii) the EC decreases when strict QoS constraints are imposed at the transmit node, iii) the EC decreases with an increase in the variance of the path loss estimation error, iv) the EC increases with an increase in the probability of ON states, v) EC increases by using HARQ when CSIT is unknown, and it can reach up to 5x the usual EC (with no HARQ and without CSIT) by using the optimal number of retransmissions.

How Many Reflecting Elements Are Needed for Energy- and Spectral-Efficient Intelligent Reflecting Surface-Assisted Communication

Abstract: This paper investigates and analyzes the number of reflecting elements for guaranteed energy- and spectral-efficient intelligent reflecting surface (IRS)-assisted communication systems. As opposed to previous works where the energy efficiency (EE)/the spectral efficiency (SE) maximization or the EE-SE tradeoff was considered, our goal is to minimize the number of reflecting elements in the IRS-assisted system. Besides, both the EE and the SE constraints are considered in the number minimization problem, which has not been addressed in existing works. However, both the EE and the SE performance do not admit exact closed-form expressions due to the non-convexity incurred by joint beamforming and phase shift design. In order to make the optimization problem tractable, we resort to their performance bounds for problem reformulation. By decomposing the problem into two sub-problems, we are able to derive closed-form expressions for the minimum number of reflecting elements, and both the coherent phase shift (CPS)-oriented solution and the random phase shift (RPS)-oriented solution are proposed for comparison. In order to shed light on the practical design, the relationship between the derived number of reflecting elements is established for both schemes, and the upper bounds on both the EE and the SE thresholds and the placement of the IRS to achieve only one reflecting element are obtained. Simulation results confirm the validity of our analysis on the minimum number of reflecting elements and effectiveness of both schemes.