In cell-free multiple input multiple output (MIMO) networks, multiple base stations (BSs) collaborate to achieve high spectral efficiency. Nevertheless, high penetration loss due to large blockages in harsh propagation environments is often an issue that severely degrades communication performance. Considering that intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) is capable of constructing digitally controllable reflection links in a low-cost manner, we investigate an IRS-enhanced downlink cell-free MIMO network in this paper. We aim to maximize the weighted sum rate (WSR) of all the users by jointly optimizing the transmit beamforming at the BSs and the reflection coefficients at the IRS. To address the optimization problem, we propose a fully distributed machine learning algorithm. Different from the conventional iterative optimization algorithms that require a central processing at the central processing unit (CPU) and large amount of channel state information and signaling exchange between the BSs and the CPU, in the proposed algorithm, each BS can locally design its beamforming vectors. Meanwhile, the IRS reflection coefficients are determined by one of the BSs. Simulation results show that the deployment of IRS can significantly boost the WSR and that the proposed algorithm can achieve a high WSR with a low computational complexity.

Physical layer key generation (PLKG) is a promising technique to establish symmetric keys between resource-constrained legitimate users. However, PLKG suffers from a low key rate in harsh environments where channel randomness is limited. To address the problem, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) are introduced to reshape the channels by controlling massive reflecting elements, which can provide more channel diversity. In this paper, we design a channel probing protocol to fully extract the randomness from the cascaded channel, i.e., the channels through reflecting elements. We derive the analytical expressions of the key rate and design a water-filling algorithm based on the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) conditions to find the upper bound. To find the optimal precoding and phase shift matrices, we propose an algorithm based on the Grassmann manifold optimization methods. The system is evaluated in terms of the key rate, bit disagreement rate (BDR) and randomness. Simulation results show that our protocols significantly improve the key rate as compared to existing protocols. Compared to multiple-antennas systems without a RIS, our proposed method achieves an average 9.51 dB performance gain when the side length of an element is 1/4 wavelength and the Rician factor is 0 dB.

The tremendous popularity of internet of things (IoT) applications and wireless devices have prompted a massive increase of indoor wireless traffic. To further explore the potential of indoor IoT wireless networks, creating constructive interactions between indoor wireless transmissions and the built environments becomes necessary. The electromagnetic (EM) wave propagation indoors would be affected by the EM and physical properties of the building material, e.g., its relative permittivity and thickness. In this paper, we construct a new multipath channel model by characterising wall reflection (WR) for an indoor line-of-sight (LOS) single-user multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system and derive its ergodic capacity in closed-form. Based on the analytical results, we define the wireless friendliness of a building material based on the spatially averaged indoor capacity and propose a scheme for evaluating the wireless friendliness of building materials. Monte Carlo simulations validate our analytical results and manifest the significant impact of the relative permittivity and thickness of a building material on indoor capacity, indicating that the wireless friendliness of building materials should be considered in the planning and optimisation of indoor wireless networks. The outcomes of this paper would enable appropriate selection of wall materials during building design, thus enhancing the capacity of indoor LOS MIMO communications.

This paper proposes an intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) backscatter based uplink coordinated transmission strategy for a radio cellular network, where IRS serves as a transmitter enabling uplink transmission from each user to the associated base station (BS). To be specific, the considered network is made up of multiple cells, each of which consists of one multi-antenna BS and its served users. While one multi-antenna power beacon (PB) is deployed to radiate energy-bearing electromagnetic wave, the radio signal received by each IRS is modulated to send its connective user’s information to the associated BS. Based on such a network frame, this paper aims to maximize the weighted sum rate (WSR) under the constraints of total transmit power and reflecting phase shifts by joint optimization of active beamforming at the PB, passive beamforming at the IRSs and uplink user scheduling. To address this challenging problem, fractional programming (FP), alternative optimization and weighted bipartite matching are employed to convert the logarithm objective function into a more tractable form and to handle the optimization variables. The simulation results demonstrate the achievable WSR of the considered network.

With the dense deployment of small cells, the impact of height difference between base stations (BSs) and user equipment (UE) on the performance of heterogeneous networks (HetNets) becomes significant. The traditional two-dimensional models are no longer sufficient to capture the three-dimensional (3D) features of dense HetNets. On the other hand, deploying multiple antennas on BSs is a promising approach to improve network capacity. In this paper, we propose a 3D model for a K-tier HetNet with multi-antenna BSs, where different tiers share the same frequency band but may differ in BS height, BS density, number of antennas per BS, BS transmit power, association bias, and path loss exponent. We analytically derive the per-tier association probability under both the strongest received signal and the closest BS cell-association strategies. Based on that, we derive the expressions for the downlink ergodic rate, area spectral efficiency (ASE) and energy efficiency. The numerical results reveal that in the presence of macrocell BSs, for low to medium small-cell BS (SBS) densities, the closest BS cell-association strategy leads to low ergodic rate, ASE and energy efficiency regardless of the SBS height; while at very high SBS densities, under both cell-association strategies, SBSs should be deployed at the same height as UE to achieve high ergodic rate, ASE and energy efficiency. Moreover, we find that for a given SBS height, there exists an optimal combination of SBS density and number of antennas per SBS that maximizes the system energy efficiency.

Physical-layer key generation (PKG) based on wireless channels is a lightweight technique to establish secure keys between legitimate communication nodes. Recently, intelligent reflecting surfaces (IRSs) have been leveraged to enhance the performance of PKG in terms of secret key rate (SKR), as it can reconfigure the wireless propagation environment and introduce more channel randomness. In this paper, we investigate an IRS-assisted PKG system, taking into account the channel spatial correlation at both the base station (BS) and the IRS. Based on the considered system model, the closed-form expression of SKR is derived analytically considering correlated eavesdropping channels. Aiming to maximize the SKR, a joint design problem of the BS’s precoding matrix and the IRS’s phase shift vector is formulated. To address this high-dimensional non-convex optimization problem, we propose a novel unsupervised deep neural network (DNN)-based algorithm with a simple structure. Different from most previous works that adopt iterative optimization to solve the problem, the proposed DNN-based algorithm directly obtains the BS precoding and IRS phase shifts as the output of the DNN. Simulation results reveal that the proposed DNN-based algorithm outperforms the benchmark methods with regard to SKR.