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In this paper we study an intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) assisted non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) network where the direct link between the base station (BS) and one of the users is blocked and the IRS is deployed to serve the blocked user. The IRS designs under both the ideal IRS with continuous phase shifting and the non-ideal IRS with discrete phase shifting are considered. For both cases, by leveraging the isotropic random vector and the Laguerre series, we derive insightful results and closed-form expressions on the performance measures including the average required transmit power, the outage probability, and the diversity order. Our analytical results show that the transmit power scales down linearly with the BS antenna number and quadratically with the IRS element number. The diversity order equals the smaller of the BS antenna number and the IRS element number with a scaling coefficient. Our results also reveal the effect of the phase quantization resolution to the system performance when non-ideal IRS is used. Numerical results are provided to validate the accuracy of our analysis and the non-ideal IRS with four or more bits for quantization is shown to achieve nearly the same performance as the ideal IRS.

In this paper, a deep learning (DL)-based sphere decoding algorithm is proposed, where the radius of the decoding hypersphere is learned by a deep neural network (DNN). The performance achieved by the proposed algorithm is very close to the optimal maximum likelihood decoding (MLD) over a wide range of signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs), while the computational complexity, compared to existing sphere decoding variants, is significantly reduced. This improvement is attributed to the DNN’s ability of intelligently learning the radius of the hypersphere used in decoding. The expected complexity of the proposed DL-based algorithm is analytically derived and compared with existing ones. It is shown that the number of lattice points inside the decoding hypersphere drastically reduces in the DL-based algorithm in both the average and worst-case senses. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is shown through the simulation for high-dimensional multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, using high-order modulations.

This paper investigates the relay selection (RS) problem for multi-hop full-duplex relay networks where multiple source–destination (SD) pairs compete for the same pool of relays, under the attack of multiple eavesdroppers. To enhance the physical-layer security, within a given coherence time, our objective is to jointly assign the available relays at each hop to different SD pairs to maximize the minimum secrecy rate among all pairs. Two RS schemes, optimal RS and suboptimal RS (SRS), are proposed for two-hop networks based on global channel state information (CSI) and only SD pairs CSI, respectively. Since all users can communicate within the same coherence time, our joint RS schemes are important for the user-fairness and ultra-reliable low-latency communications. To evaluate the performance, the exact secrecy outage probability of the SRS scheme is derived under two residual self-interference models. The asymptotic analysis shows that the SRS scheme achieves full diversity. A relay-based jamming scheme is also proposed by using unassigned relays for user communications. Finally, the two-hop RS schemes and the analysis are extended to the general multi-hop network with multiple eavesdroppers. The numerical results reveal interesting fundamental trends where the proposed schemes can significantly enhance the secrecy performance.

This paper analyzes the outage probability for the uplink of multi-user massive multi-input-multi-output systems with a mixed analog-to-digital converter (ADC) architecture, in which the base station (BS) is equipped with ADCs of different resolution levels. Maximum-ratio combining (MRC) is used at the BS. By deriving the distribution of the user-interference power and statistical properties of other components in the signal-to-interference-plus-noise-ratio (SINR), a tight closed-form approximation for the outage probability is obtained for a general mixed ADC structure with any resolution profile. Then, two methods for the ADC resolution profile optimization are proposed considering both the outage probability and the BS energy consumption. The first method uses low-complexity incremental search to minimize the BS energy consumption for given outage probability constraint. The other method is based on multi-objective optimization and adopts a discrete-variation of the classic non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II). Numerical results are presented to validate the outage probability results. Furthermore, it is shown that the two proposed mixed-resolution ADC designs largely outperform a two-level ADC structure and provide more choices than the uniform ADC structure for resolving the tradeoff between outage probability and BS energy consumption.

This paper provides a comprehensive scaling law and performance analysis for multi-user massive multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) relay networks, where the relay is equipped with a massive antenna array and uses maximal-ratio combining/maximal-ratio transmission (MRC/MRT) for low-complexity processing. Imperfect channel state information (CSI) is considered for both source-relay and relay-destination channels. First, a sum-rate lower bound is derived, which manifests the effect of system parameters, including the numbers of relay antennas and users, the CSI quality, and the transmit powers of the sources and the relay. Via a general scaling model on the parameters with respect to the relay antenna number, the asymptotic scaling law of the signal-to-interference-plus-noise-ratio (SINR) is obtained, which shows quantitatively the tradeoff of the network parameters. In addition, a sufficient condition on the parameter scalings for the SINR to be asymptotically deterministic is given, which covers existing results on such analysis as special cases. Then, the scenario where the SINR increases linearly with the relay antenna number is studied. The sufficient and necessary condition on the parameter scaling for this scenario is proved. It is shown that in this case, the interference power is not asymptotically deterministic, and then, the average bit error rate is analyzed.

Statistical beamforming is an important technique for multi-user massive MIMO downlink, since it depends on the downlink channel covariance only. In this paper, we first derive an explicit analytical sum-rate expression for generic channel covariance-based beamforming scheme. Then, a low-complexity joint statistical beamforming and user scheduling algorithm via greedy search is proposed, where the beamforming is based on the signal-to-leakage-and-noise-ratio (SLNR) for closed-form design and tractable analysis, while the user scheduling is based on the derived sum-rate expression. Further, with the help of large-scale asymptotic simplifications and the introduction of the interference user number parameter, a simple analytical sum-rate expression of the joint algorithm is derived for channels with flat power beam spectrum. The expression explicitly exhibits the sum-rate behavior with respect to different network parameters and captures the effect of sum-rate-based user scheduling. Finally, simulation results are provided to verify our analytical results and to show the advantage of the proposed joint design compared with existing schemes.

In this paper, we adopt a novel efficiency measure, namely the received signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) per unit power, in amplify-and-forward (AF) relay networks. The measure is addressed as the power-normalized SNR (PN-SNR). For several relay network scenarios, we solve the PN-SNR maximization problems and analyze the network performance. First, for single-relay networks, we find the optimal relay power control scheme that maximizes the PN-SNR for a given transmitter power. Then, for multi-relay networks with a sum relay power constraint, we prove that the PN-SNR optimization problem has a unique maximum, thus the globally optimal solution can be found using a gradient-ascent algorithm. Finally, for multi-relay networks with an individual power constraint on each relay, we propose an algorithm to obtain the globally optimal solution and also a low complexity algorithm for a suboptimal solution. Our results show that with the same average relay transmit power, the PN-SNR maximizing scheme is superior to the fixed relay power scheme not only in PN-SNR but also in the outage probability for both single and multi-relay networks. Compared with SNR-maximizing scheme, it is significantly superior in PN-SNR with moderate degradation in outage probability. Our results show the potential of using PN-SNR as efficiency measure in network design.

In this paper, we consider a multi-user single-relay wireless network, where the relay facilitates transmissions of the users' signals to the destination. We study the relay power allocation among the users, and use bargaining theory to model the negotiation among the users on relay power allocation. By assigning a bargaining power to each user to indicate its transmission priority, we propose an asymmetric Nash bargaining solution (NBS)-based relay power allocation scheme. We also propose a distributed implementation for this solution, where each user only requires its local channel state information (CSI). We analytically investigate the impact of the bargaining powers on the relay power allocation and show that via proper selection of the bargaining powers, the proposed power allocation can achieve a balance between the network sum-rate and the user fairness. Then we generalize the NBS-based power allocation and its distributed implementation to multi-user multi-relay networks. Simulation results are shown to compare the proposed power allocation with sum-rate-optimal power allocation and even power allocation. The impact of the bargaining powers on the power allocation is also demonstrated via simulations.

This paper is on the channel training design for distributed space-time coding (DSTC) in multi-antenna relay networks. DSTC is shown to achieve full diversity in relay networks. To use DSTC, the receiver has to know both the channels between the relays and the receiver (Relay-Rx channels), and the channels between the transmitter and the relays (Tx-Relay channels). For the Relay-Rx channels, by sending pilot signals from the relays, the training problem can be solved using multi-input-multi-output (MIMO) training schemes. Given the knowledge of the Relay-Rx channels, to obtain estimations of the Tx-Relay channels at the receiver, DSTC is used. The linear minimum-mean-square-error (LMMSE) estimation at the receiver and the optimal pilot design that minimizes the estimation error are derived. We also investigate the requirement on the training time that can lead to full diversity in data transmission. An upper bound and a lower bound on the training time are provided. A novel training design whose training time length is adaptive to the quality of the Relay-Rx channels is also proposed. Simulations are exhibited to justify our analytical results and to show advantages of the proposed scheme over others.

This letter considers two-relay networks with Rician fading channels. It is assumed that the receiver has full channel information while the relays know the channel means and covariances only. To optimize network performance, we combine distributed space-time coding (DSTC) with relay power allocation. For the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regime, we analytically find the relay power allocation that minimizes an upper bound on the pairwise error probability (PEP). Simulation shows that the proposed scheme largely improves network reliability. In some cases, lack of power allocation causes diversity loss.

Distributed space-time coding (DSTC) is a cooperative scheme for wireless relay networks that achieves full diversity without channel information at the relays. In this paper, the use of maximum-ratio combining (MRC) at multiple-antenna relays in combination with DSTC is proposed. Simulation and theoretical analysis show that the new scheme outperforms the original DSTC. In some network scenarios, it can even improve the scaling of the error rate with the transmit power. Furthermore, the proposed scheme requires a shorter training interval than DSTC.

This paper is on relay selection schemes for wireless relay networks. First, we derive the diversity of many single-relay selection schemes in the literature. Then, we generalize the idea of relay selection by allowing more than one relay to cooperate. The SNR-optimal multiple relay selection scheme can be achieved by exhaustive search, whose complexity increases exponentially in the network size. To reduce the complexity, several SNR-suboptimal multiple relay selection schemes are proposed, whose complexity is linear in the number of relays. They are proved to achieve full diversity. Simulation shows that they perform much better than the corresponding single relay selection methods and very close to the SNR-optimal multiple relay selection scheme. In addition, for large networks, these multiple relay selection schemes require the same amount of feedback bits from the receiver as single relay selection schemes.

We apply the idea of space-time coding devised for multiple-antenna systems to the problem of communications over a wireless relay network with Rayleigh fading channels. We use a two-stage protocol, where in one stage the transmitter sends information and in the other, the relays encode their received signals into a “distributed” linear dispersion (LD) code, and then transmit the coded signals to the receive node. We show that for high SNR, the pairwise error probability (PEP) behaves as (log P/P)min{T,R}, with T the coherence interval, that is, the number of symbol periods during which the channels keep constant, R the number of relay nodes, and P the total transmit power. Thus, apart from the log P factor, the system has the same diversity as a multiple-antenna system with R transmit antennas, which is the same as assuming that the R relays can fully cooperate and have full knowledge of the transmitted signal. We further show that for a network with a large number of relays and a fixed total transmit power across the entire network, the optimal power allocation is for the transmitter to expend half the power and for the relays to collectively expend the other half. We also show that at low and high SNR, the coding gain is the same as that of a multiple-antenna system with R antennas. However, at intermediate SNR, it can be quite different, which has implications for the design of distributed space-time codes.