Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) has the ability to overcome the challenges of the wireless environment like random fluctuations, shadowing, and mobility in an energy efficient way when compared to multiple input-multiple output (MIMO)-NOMA systems. The NOMA system can deliver controlled channel gains, improved coverage, increased energy efficiency, and enhanced fairness in resource allocation with the help of RIS. RIS-assisted NOMA will be one of the primary potential components of sixth-generation (6G) networks, due to its appealing advantages. The analytical outage probability expressions for smart RIS-assisted fixed NOMA (FNOMA) are derived in this paper, taking into account the instances of RIS as a smart reflector (SR) and an access point (AP). The analytical and simulation findings are found to be extremely comparable. In order to effectively maximize the sum capacity, the formulas for optimal powers to be assigned for a two-user case are also established. According to simulations, RIS-assisted FNOMA surpasses FNOMA in terms of outage and sum capacity. With the aid of RIS and the optimal power assignment, RIS-AP-FNOMA offers ≈62% improvement in sum capacity over the FNOMA system for a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 10 dB and 32 elements in RIS. A significant improvement is also brought about by the increase in reflective elements.

Fifth-generation (5G) advancements improve transmitter and receiver functionalities, but the propagation environment remains uncontrolled. By changing the phase of impinging waves, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) have the potential to regulate radio propagation environments. RIS-assisted non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) improves spectrum efficiency while enabling massive connectivity. The uplink outage probability expressions for blind-RIS-NOMA are derived in this work using RIS as a smart reflector (SR) and RIS as an access point (AP). Extensive Monte-Carlo simulations are performed to validate the derived closed-form expressions. The optimal powers to be allocated to the users are also derived in order to maximize the uplink sum capacity. In comparison to the sub-optimal power allocation, the optimal power allocation enhances the sum capacity. In terms of sum capacity for 20 dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and 32 reflecting elements, it is demonstrated that the blind-RIS-NOMA surpasses the conventional NOMA by $\approx$38%. The sum capacity and outage performances are enhanced by the addition of RIS elements.

Design and analysis of Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS) assisted new wireless communication systems have attracted much attention among the 6G technology researchers. Recently, studies were made to compare the use of RIS and Decode and Forward (DF) relaying when a weak direct path exists between the transmitter and receiver. Amalgamating the merits of both RIS and DF relay technologies, an RIS assisted DF relay-based cooperative wireless system with energy harvesting is proposed in this paper. A Lambertian model of reflectance is employed in the analysis of the reflecting nature of RIS. Further, the impact of spatial correlation which arises due to the tightly-packed planar RIS array geometry is also considered for performance analysis. By varying inter-element distances and transmit power, the performance of the proposed system is analyzed in terms of outage probability and energy harvesting capability. Numerical expressions are derived for the outage probability of the proposed system and verified using Monte-Carlo simulations. Based on the high performance, the concept of joint use of RIS and DF Relay is extended to the Index Modulation (IM) based wireless system.

In this paper, passive Intelligent Reflecting Surface (IRS) is used to enhance the performance of a Full Duplex (FD) bidirectional Machine Type Communication (MTC) system with two source nodes. Each node is equipped with two antennas to operate in FD mode. In reality, self-interference and discrete phase shifting are two major impairments in FD and IRS-assisted communication, respectively. The self-interference at source nodes operating in FD mode is mitigated by increasing the number of meta-surface elements at the IRS. Bit Error Rate (BER) and outage performances are analyzed with continuous phase shifting and discrete phase shifting in IRS. Closed-form analytical expressions are derived for the outage probability and BER performances of the IRS-assisted bidirectional FD-MTC system with a continuous phase shifter. The outage and BER performances of the IRS-assisted bidirectional MTC system in the FD mode have Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) improvement compared with the IRS-assisted bidirectional MTC system in Half Duplex (HD) mode, as the number of reflecting elements in IRS is doubled in the FD mode. The outage and BER performances are degraded by a discrete phase shifter. Hence, performance degradation of the proposed IRS-assisted bidirectional FD-MTC is examined for 1-bit shifter (0, $\pi$), 2-bit shifter (0, $\pi$/2, $\pi$, 3$\pi$/2), and for 3-bit shifter (0, $\pi$/4, $\pi$/2, 3$\pi$/4, $\pi$, 5$\pi$/4, 3$\pi$/2, 7$\pi$/4). The performance degradation when a discrete phase shifter is employed in IRS is compared with the ideal continuous phase shifter in IRS. Further, achievable rate analysis is carried out for finding the best location of the IRS in a bidirectional FD-MTC system.

Satellite Spectrum is a very scarce and costly natural resource. The rapid development in satellite communications has increased the number of users, which in turn, created a demand for more spectral resources. Also due to the ever-increasing demand for bandwidth resulted from high data rate requirements, one of the main challenges for satellite communication is to continuously improve the utilization efficiency of the limited exclusive satellite spectrum (Ku-band). However, the available spectrum is also not utilized efficiently, which leads to spectrum under-utilization. Cognitive Radio (CR) technology has proved to be a promising option to address the spectrum scarcity. In CR, when a primary user (PU) is not utilizing the spectrum, the secondary users (SUs) are allowed to access the spectrum. This paper discusses the Spectrum Sensing in a Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) network by using CR technology which is a new approach in this area. Also, this work will serve as a forerunner for future developments in this domain. VSATs are terminals that communicate with one another through satellite. Applying CR technology in VSATs, spectrum sensing can be performed to detect the spectrum holes where SUs can be accommodated. The spectrum holes are identified in the spectral domain using Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). The simulation results show the retrieved indices of spectrum holes, where SUs are to be accommodated.