Co-Design for Mimo Radar and Mimo Communication Aided by Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface

This letter investigates symbol-level security design for a discrete reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) enhanced dual-functional radar-communication (DFRC) system. To improve the radar sensing performance, we formulate an optimization problem that jointly addresses the design of space-time transmission waveforms, receiving filters, and discrete reflecting coefficients. The goal is to maximize the minimum radar signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) while ensuring security against eavesdropping. The formulated problem turns out to be intractable due to the practical waveform design restrictions, the discrete RIS coefficient constraints, and the coupling of the optimization variables. To address these issues, we apply the block coordinate descent (BCD) method, incorporating the successive convex approximation (SCA), penalty technique, and the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) algorithm. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme and show that 2-bit resolution RIS can achieve both satisfactory communication and radar performance close to that achieved with higher resolutions.

Non-orthogonal multiple access based cooperative spectrum sharing between MIMO radar and MIMO communication systems

In reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) aided millimeter wave communication systems, accurate channel state information (CSI) is particularly crucial to achieve high passive beamforming gain. However, the complexity of channel estimation increases significantly due to the high-dimensional channel matrix and the additional RISs' assisted channels. To tackle this challenge, an alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) based channel estimation method is proposed to improve the CSI estimation accuracy and reduce the training overhead. By converting the cascaded channel matrix into a sparse matrix recovery problem, both low rank and sparsity properties are exploited by the ADMM algorithm to solve the sparse matrix recovery problem. The simulation results verify that the proposed ADMM algorithm can significantly increase the accuracy of channel estimation and reduce the training overhead, compared with the well-known competing channel estimation algorithms.

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) is thought to be a potential key technique for future wireless communications due to its ability for manipulating the electromagnetic environment smartly. This paper focuses on the rank and capacity analysis when a RIS is introduced into a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system. By establishing a system model for this communication system, various simulations are conducted for identifying the characteristics of the channel. The simulations of different distance between the access point (AP) and user equipment (UE) show that the condition number of the channel is worsen when the distance increases and the role of the RIS in rank improvement is weaken. The spatial distributions of the reciprocal condition number of the channel which corresponds to the RIS locations are obtained and rank-deficient zones are found in different AP, UE and RIS configurations, which depicts the spatial characteristics of the RIS-assisted MIMO channel. The simulations also indicate that the condition number of the channel not only varies with the RIS location, but is also affected by the antenna array size and orientation of AP and UE. In addition, when the AP has a larger amount of antennas than UE, it is advantageous to place the RIS near the UE rather than the AP to achieve better channel condition. Modulation and coding schemes are applied in the simulations for comparison and capacity improvement is witnessed. Beneficial suggestions for RIS deployment in the MIMO system are concluded according to the simulation results.

In this paper, we investigate the problem of robust beamforming for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) dual-function radar-communication (DFRC) system, when there exist radar look direction mismatch and communication channel state information (CSI) error. To address these system imperfections, a region-of-interest (ROI) rather than a specific angle is considered for radar sensing, and the communication CSI is assumed to be available with a bounded unknown error. With these considerations, we design a robust dual-function beamformer through optimizing the radar sensing performance in terms of the energy radiated towards the ROI, while guaranteeing the communication quality-of-service (QoS) measured by the per-user signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) as required. For this robust design, a max-min optimization problem is formulated and a semidefinite programming (SDP) reformulation based on the S-procedure is presented. The popular semidefinite relaxation (SDR) technique is employed to solve the resulting non-convex problem, and the tightness of SDR is discussed. Further, we propose to incorporate an extra constraint of main beam control into the problem to achieve a flat magnitude response of the beampattern over the ROI. In addition, it is shown that the proposed approach is straightforwardly applicable to the scenario of multiple targets. Numerical examples are carried out to show the tightness, and demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed MIMO-DFRC beamforming approach.

Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS) is an emerging technology that can improve the spectrum and energy efficiency of next-generation wireless networks. However, attaining accurate channel state information (CSI) for the cascaded RIS channel is particularly challenging. Imperfect CSI is a major bottleneck to achieving the spectral efficiency benefit of RIS-assisted networks. Rate splitting (RS), a promising multiple access technology, has been shown to be able to achieve an improved spectrum efficiency and be robust to channel uncertainties. This paper investigates the interplay between RIS and RS by considering a RIS-assisted RS beamforming problem. Active beamforming at the base station (BS) and passive beamforming at the RIS are jointly considered to maximize the minimum user rate under both the perfect CSI case and the imperfect CSI case. A block coordinate descent (BCD) algorithm is developed to solve this non-convex problem. Compared with the conventional semi-definite relaxation (SDR) approach, the proposed method does not require that the covariance matrix of the common beamforming vector be rank-one. Moreover, we present theoretical results to help reveal the impact of the system parameters and explain the performance gain resulting from the integration of RIS and RS. Extensive simulation results are also provided to show that RIS-assisted RS can improve the max-min rate performance significantly compared with conventional multiple access technologies, such as non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) and space division multiple access (SDMA) with/without RIS, especially in overloaded systems. With the proposed method, RS shows great potential in combating realistic CSI errors in RIS-assisted networks.

Hybrid energy supply composed of batteries and radio frequency (RF) signals has been anticipated to be a prominent solution for balancing the reliability and self-sustainability of future IoT networks. The newly emerging reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) is also capable of greatly enhancing spectral and energy efficiencies. In this paper, by considering an asynchronous transmission protocol among all energy receivers (ERs) and assuming the perfect self-interference cancellation (SIC) at the hybrid access point (HAP), we aim to maximize sum throughput in the RIS-aided hybrid powered communication networks (HPCNs) by jointly optimizing the transmit covariance matrices of the HAP and all ERs, the RIS reflection matrix and the downlink/uplink (DL/UL) time allocation. Generally, this optimization problem is intractable to solve due to strongly coupled variables and nonconvex unit-modulus constraints. To draw more insights into this joint design, we firstly carry out feasibility analysis on this problem, and then develop a 2-block alternating optimization algorithm, which consists of the semi-closed-form solution based iterative algorithm for deriving the optimal MIMO transceivers together with the DL/UL time allocation and the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) based algorithm for the RIS design. To avoid the potential high complexity of alternating optimization, we also propose a two-stage scheme, where the RIS design is independent of the others and aims to create favorable DL/UL channels. The extension of our proposed algorithms to the practical imperfect SIC case is then discussed. Numerical results illustrate the superior performance of our proposed algorithms over the baselines in terms of the achievable sum throughput, and their time effectiveness in solving large-scale problems.

We consider a dynamic time division duplexing wireless network and propose a distributed coordinated beamforming algorithm based on Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM) technique assuming the availability of perfect channel state information. Our design objective is to minimize the sum transmit power at the base stations subject to minimum signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) constraints for downlink mobile stations and a maximum interference power threshold for uplink mobile stations. First, we propose a centralized algorithm based on the relaxed Semidefinite Programming (SDP) technique. To obtain the beamforming solution in a distributed way, we further propose a distributed coordinated beamforming algorithm using the ADMM technique. Detailed simulation results are presented to examine the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms. It is shown that the proposed algorithm achieves better performance in terms of the design objective and converges faster than the reference algorithm based on primal decomposition.

Recently, reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) has drawn much attention due to its capability of improving coverage and communication performance. The development of RIS-assisted communication technology relies on deep understanding of RIS channel characteristics. However, most of the existing investigations focus on the impact of RIS, ignoring the existence of local scatterers in the real propagation environment. The ideal propagation condition limits the accuracy and application of the developed channel model. In this paper, we aim to analyze the channel characteristics of RIS-assisted near-filed communication by considering different conditions of local scatterers. Specifically, we propose a three-dimensional (3D) RIS-assisted multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channel model based on a three-dimensional cylinder model, which considers line-of-sight, single-bounced at RIS (SBR) and double-bounced (DB) modes where radio waves reflect from RIS and scatterers near receiver. Based on the proposed channel model, we investigate some key statistical properties for SBR and DB propagation, including the time-frequency-space correlation function and Doppler power spectrum. From the simulation results, it is found that RIS element number, RIS horizontal and vertical locations, distribution of surrounding scatterers, and movement of Rx have significant impacts on channel characteristics. Finally, channel capacities of SBR and DB modes are calculated, where the large size and appropriate locations of RIS significantly improve the channel capacity of RIS-assisted communication. These numerical results and observations can be used for design of RIS-assisted near-field communication systems.

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) is capable of improving the wireless system performance by steering the reflected signal in the desired direction. One of the major challenges is that both the transceiver and RIS have to be jointly optimized, where the optimization problems have to be reformulated for different system models and scenarios. To circumvent this challenge, new low-complexity antenna selection (AS) algorithms for transceiver-agnostic RIS configuration are proposed. Given a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channel, the proposed RIS-AS opts for accurately aligning the RIS both with the transmit antenna (TA) and receive antenna (RA) for the sake of maximizing the MIMO channel’s overall output power. The proposed RIS-AS only has to configure the RIS alone, i.e. without iterations with the transceiver optimization. As a result, the proposed RIS-AS has the compelling benefit that they are generically applicable, regardless of the specific transceiver architecture. Our simulation results confirm that the proposed RIS-AS is capable of supporting any MIMO configuration, regardless of their closed/open-loop, single-/ full-RF and multiplexing-/diversity-oriented setups.

In this paper, we consider a beampattern design problem for a dual-functional radar-communication (DFRC) system with the aid of the reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS). The goal of the design is to meet the communication requirements of the users while the beampattern can match the ideal beampattern. We formulate the beampattern design as a non- convex optimization problem by jointly optimizing the transmit and passive beamformers. To solve the problem, three methods, namely the semidefinite relaxation (SDR)-based method, penalty- based method, and Riemannian conjugate gradient (RCG)-based method are proposed. The simulation results illustrate that: i) the radar performance can be significantly enhanced with the aid of RIS; ii) a tradeoff should be made between the communication performance and radar performance; iii) 4 control bits are sufficient to make the performance close to that of continuous phase shift.

As a promising technology, reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) can customize the wireless channel through the adjustment of its phase, and strengthen the localization performance and anti-jamming capability of multiple input multiple output (MIMO) radar. Thus, it is imperative to investigate a jamming strategy against the RIS-aided MIMO radar localization system. In this paper, we consider a jamming power allocation problem for RIS-aided MIMO radar based on cramér-rao bound (CRB) criteria. To this end, we first derive the CRB regarding target location estimation of RIS-aided MIMO radar in the presence of jammers. Subsequently, we formulate the jamming power allocation problem to maximize the minimum of the average CRB of RIS-aided MIMO radar via jointly optimizing the jamming power and RIS phase under the power budget and peak power constraints. Due to the variable coupling and high non-convexity of CRB, the optimization problem is extremely challenging to tackle. To solve the non-convex problem, we develop an alternating iterative algorithm with respect to the jamming power allocation and RIS phase design optimization subproblems. Specifically, we first transform the jamming power allocation subproblem into the form of linear programming for solution. Then, the RIS phase design subproblem is relaxed by the arithmetic-harmonic mean inequality to circumvent the complex matrix inversion, and converted into a fractional programming problem that can be solved through quadratic transformation approach. Owing to a degeneration of the solution induced by the inequality relaxation, we further propose a tightening-relaxation strategy to improve the solution quality, and re-optimize the RIS phase based on the previously derived solution. The ultimate solution can be achieved by alternately optimizing the jamming power and the re-optimized RIS phase. Simulation results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

In this letter, we study the robust beamforming design for the reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted communication systems from a multi-antenna access point (AP) to a single-antenna user under imperfect channel state information (CSI), where the RIS has only a finite number of phase shifts at each element. In particular, considering the cascaded AP-RIS-user channel estimation error, we aim to jointly optimize the transmit beamforming at the AP and discrete phase shifts of RIS to minimize the transmission power of AP, subject to a signal-to-noise ratio constraint at the user. To tackle the non-convex optimization problem, we decouple it into two subproblems and propose a novel alternative optimization framework. More specifically, the robust beamforming of AP is first obtained through S-Procedure and semidefinite relaxation. Then we recast the discrete phase shift constraint at RIS into an equivalent convex one, and propose an efficient algorithm to obtain a near optimal solution. Finally, the two subproblems are iteratively optimized to obtain joint robust beamforming. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme can approach the performance of the perfect CSI counterpart and substantially outperform traditional non-robust methods.

The optimal energy-efficient design of user-specific RIS-aided uplink communication system

The widespread deployment of the Internet of Things (IoT) is promoting interest in simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT), the performance of which can be further improved by employing a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS). In this article, we propose a novel RIS-enhanced SWIPT system built on an electromagnetic-compliant framework. The mutual-coupling effects in the whole system are presented explicitly. Moreover, the reconfigurability of RIS is no longer expressed by the reflection-coefficient matrix but by the impedances of the tunable circuit. For comparison, both the no-coupling and the coupling-awareness cases are discussed. In particular, the energy efficiency (EE) is maximized by cooperatively optimizing the impedance parameters of the RIS elements as well as the active beamforming vectors at the base station (BS). For the coupling-awareness case, the considered problem is split into several subproblems and solved alternatively due to its nonconvexity. First, it is transformed into a more solvable form by applying the Neuman series approximation, which can be resolved iteratively. Then, an alternative optimization (AO) framework and semidefinite relaxation (SDR), successive convex approximation (SCA), and Dinkelbach's algorithm are applied to solve each subproblem decomposed from it. Owning to the similarity between the two cases, the no-coupling one can be viewed as a reduced form of the coupling case and, thus, solved through a similar approach. Numerical results reveal the influence of mutual-coupling effects on the EE, especially in the RIS with closely spaced elements. In addition, physical beam designs are presented to demonstrate how the RIS assists SWIPT through various reflecting states in different conditions.