URLLC Networks enabled by STAR-RIS, Rate Splitting, and Multiple Antennas

The challenges in dense ultra-reliable low-latency communication networks to deliver the required service to multiple devices are addressed by three main technologies: multiple antennas at the base station (MISO), rate splitting multiple access (RSMA) with private and common message encoding, and simultaneously transmitting and reflecting reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (STAR-RIS). Careful resource allocation, encompassing beamforming and RIS optimization, is required to exploit the synergy between the three. We propose an alternating optimization-based algorithm, relying on minorization-maximization. Numerical results show that the achievable second-order max-min rates of the proposed scheme outperform the baselines significantly. MISO, RSMA, and STAR-RIS all contribute to enabling ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC).

Rate Region of RIS-Aided URLLC Broadcast Channels: Diagonal versus Beyond Diagonal Globally Passive RIS

We analyze the finite-block-length rate region of wireless systems aided by reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs), employing treating interference as noise. We consider three nearly passive RIS architectures, including locally passive (LP) diagonal (D), globally passive (GP) D, and GP beyond diagonal (BD) RISs. In a GP RIS, the power constraint is applied globally to the whole surface, while some elements may amplify the incident signal locally. The considered RIS architectures provide substantial performance gains compared with systems operating without RIS. GP BD-RIS outperforms, at the price of increasing the complexity, LP and GP D-RIS as it enlarges the feasible set of allowed solutions. However, the gain provided by BD-RIS decreases with the number of RIS elements. Additionally, deploying RISs provides higher gains as the reliability/latency requirement becomes more stringent.

Energy Efficiency Comparison of RIS Architectures in MISO Broadcast Channels

In this paper, we develop energy-efficient schemes for multi-user multiple-input single-output (MISO) broadcast channels (BCs), assisted by reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs). To this end, we consider three architectures of RIS: locally passive diagonal (LP-D), globally passive diagonal (GP-D), and globally passive beyond diagonal (GP-BD). In a globally passive RIS, the power of the output signal of the RIS is not greater than its input power, but some RIS elements can amplify the signal. In a locally passive RIS, every element cannot amplify the incident signal. We show that these RIS architectures can substantially improve energy efficiency (EE) if the static power of the RIS elements is not too high. Moreover, GP-BD RIS, which has a higher complexity and static power than LP-D RIS and GP-D RIS, provides better spectral efficiency, but its EE performance highly depends on the static power consumption and may be worse than its diagonal counterparts.

Multi-Channel Factor Analysis: Identifiability and Asymptotics

Recent work by Ram\'irez et al. [2] has introduced Multi-Channel Factor Analysis (MFA) as an extension of factor analysis to multi-channel data that allows for latent factors common to all channels as well as factors specific to each channel. This paper validates the MFA covariance model and analyzes the statistical properties of the MFA estimators. In particular, a thorough investigation of model identifiability under varying latent factor structures is conducted, and sufficient conditions for generic global identifiability of MFA are obtained. The development of these identifiability conditions enables asymptotic analysis of estimators obtained by maximizing a Gaussian likelihood, which are shown to be consistent and asymptotically normal even under misspecification of the latent factor distribution.

MIMO Capacity Maximization with Beyond-Diagonal RIS

This paper addresses the problem of maximizing the capacity of a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) link assisted by a beyond-diagonal reconfigurable intelligent surface (BD-RIS). We maximize the capacity by alternately optimizing the transmit covariance matrix, and the BD-RIS scattering matrix, which, according to network theory, should be unitary and symmetric. These constraints make the optimization of BD-RIS more challenging than that of diagonal RIS. To find a stationary point of the capacity we maximize a sequence of quadratic problems in the manifold of unitary matrices. This leads to an efficient algorithm that always improves the capacity obtained by a diagonal RIS. Through simulation examples, we study the capacity improvement provided by a passive BD-RIS architecture over the conventional RIS model in which the phase shift matrix is diagonal.

Optimization of the Downlink Spectral- and Energy-Efficiency of RIS-aided Multi-user URLLC MIMO Systems

Modern wireless communication systems are expected to provide improved latency and reliability. To meet these expectations, a short packet length is needed, which makes the first-order Shannon rate an inaccurate performance metric for such communication systems. A more accurate approximation of the achievable rates of finite-block-length (FBL) coding regimes is known as the normal approximation (NA). It is therefore of substantial interest to study the optimization of the FBL rate in multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, in which each user may transmit and/or receive multiple data streams. Hence, we formulate a general optimization problem for improving the spectral and energy efficiency of multi-user MIMO-aided ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) systems, which are assisted by reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs). We show that a RIS is capable of substantially improving the performance of multi-user MIMO-aided URLLC systems. Moreover, the benefits of RIS increase as the packet length and/or the tolerable bit error rate are reduced. This reveals that RISs can be even more beneficial in URLLC systems for improving the FBL rates than in conventional systems approaching Shannon rates.

Passive detection of a random signal common to multi-sensor reference and surveillance arrays

This paper addresses the passive detection of a common rank-one subspace signal received in two multi-sensor arrays. We consider the case of a one-antenna transmitter sending a common Gaussian signal, independent Gaussian noises with arbitrary spatial covariance, and known channel subspaces. The detector derived in this paper is a generalized likelihood ratio (GLR) test. For all but one of the unknown parameters, it is possible to find closed-form maximum likelihood (ML) estimator functions. We can further compress the likelihood to only an unknown vector whose ML estimate requires maximizing a product of ratios in quadratic forms, which is carried out using a trust-region algorithm. We propose two approximations of the GLR that do not require any numerical optimization: one based on a sample-based estimator of the unknown parameter whose ML estimate cannot be obtained in closed-form, and one derived under low-SNR conditions. Notably, all the detectors are scale-invariant, and the approximations are functions of beamformed data. However, they are not GLRTs for data that has been pre-processed with a beamformer, a point that is elaborated in the paper. These detectors outperform previously published correlation detectors on simulated data, in many cases quite significantly. Moreover, performance results quantify the performance gains over detectors that assume only the dimension of the subspace to be known.

Maximizing Spectral and Energy Efficiency in Multi-user MIMO OFDM Systems with RIS and Hardware Impairment

An emerging technology to enhance the spectral efficiency (SE) and energy efficiency (EE) of wireless communication systems is reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS), which is shown to be very powerful in single-carrier systems. However, in multi-user orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems, RIS may not be as promising as in single-carrier systems since an independent optimization of RIS elements at each sub-carrier is impossible in multi-carrier systems. Thus, this paper investigates the performance of various RIS technologies like regular (reflective and passive), simultaneously transmit and reflect (STAR), and multi-sector beyond diagonal (BD) RIS in multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) OFDM broadcast channels (BC). This requires to formulate and solve a joint MIMO precoding and RIS optimization problem. The obtained solution reveals that RIS can significantly improve the system performance even when the number of RIS elements is relatively low. Moreover, we develop resource allocation schemes for STAR-RIS and multi-sector BD-RIS in MIMO OFDM BCs, and show that these RIS technologies can outperform a regular RIS, especially when the regular RIS cannot assist the communications for all the users.

Maximization of minimum rate in MIMO OFDM RIS-assisted Broadcast Channels

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) is a promising technology to enhance the spectral efficiency of wireless communication systems. By optimizing the RIS elements, the performance of the overall system can be improved. Yet, in contrast to single-carrier systems, in multi-carrier systems, it is not possible to independently optimize RIS elements at each sub-carrier, which may reduce the benefits of RIS in multi-user orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. To this end, we investigate the effectiveness of RIS in multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) OFDM broadcast channels (BC). We formulate and solve a joint precoding and RIS optimization problem. We show that RIS can significantly improve the system performance even when the number of RIS elements per sub-band is very low.

NOMA-based Improper Signaling for MIMO STAR-RIS-assisted Broadcast Channels with Hardware Impairments

This paper proposes schemes to improve the spectral efficiency of a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) broadcast channel (BC) with I/Q imbalance (IQI) at transceivers by employing a combination of improper Gaussian signaling (IGS), non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) and simultaneously transmit and reflect (STAR) reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS). When there exists IQI, the output RF signal is a widely linear transformation of the input signal, which may make the output signal improper. To compensate for IQI, we employ IGS, thus generating a transmit improper signal. We show that IGS alongside with NOMA can highly increase the minimum rate of the users. Moreover, we propose schemes for different operational modes of STAR-RIS and show that STAR-RIS can significantly improve the system performance. Additionally, we show that IQI can highly degrade the performance especially if it is overlooked in the design.