Environment-Aware Codebook for RIS-Assisted MU-MISO Communications: Implementation and Performance Analysis

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) provides a new electromagnetic response control solution, which can reshape the characteristics of wireless channels. In this paper, we propose a novel environment-aware codebook protocol for RIS-assisted multi-user multiple-input single-output (MU-MISO) systems. Specifically, we first introduce a channel training protocol which consists of off-line and on-line stages. Secondly, we propose an environment-aware codebook generation scheme, which utilizes the statistical channel state information and alternating optimization method to generate codewords offline. Then, in the on-line stage, we use these pre-designed codewords to configure the RIS, and the optimal codeword resulting in the highest sum rate is adopted for assisting in the downlink data transmission. Thirdly, we analyze the theoretical performance of the proposed protocol considering the channel estimation errors. Finally, numerical simulations are provided to verify our theoretical analysis and the performance of the proposed scheme.

Stacked Intelligent Metasurface Enabled LEO Satellite Communications Relying on Statistical CSI

Low earth orbit (LEO) satellite communication systems have gained increasing attention as a crucial supplement to terrestrial wireless networks due to their extensive coverage area. This letter presents a novel system design for LEO satellite systems by leveraging stacked intelligent metasurface (SIM) technology. Specifically, the lightweight and energy-efficient SIM is mounted on a satellite to achieve multiuser beamforming directly in the electromagnetic wave domain, which substantially reduces the processing delay and computational load of the satellite compared to the traditional digital beamforming scheme. To overcome the challenges of obtaining instantaneous channel state information (CSI) at the transmitter and maximize the system's performance, a joint power allocation and SIM phase shift optimization problem for maximizing the ergodic sum rate is formulated based on statistical CSI, and an alternating optimization (AO) algorithm is customized to solve it efficiently. Additionally, a user grouping method based on channel correlation and an antenna selection algorithm are proposed to further improve the system performance. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed SIM-based LEO satellite system design and statistical CSI-based AO algorithm.

Channel Estimation for Stacked Intelligent Metasurface-Assisted Wireless Networks

Emerging technologies, such as holographic multiple-input multiple-output (HMIMO) and stacked intelligent metasurface (SIM), are driving the development of wireless communication systems. Specifically, the SIM is physically constructed by stacking multiple layers of metasurfaces and has an architecture similar to an artificial neural network (ANN), which can flexibly manipulate the electromagnetic waves that propagate through it at the speed of light. This architecture enables the SIM to achieve HMIMO precoding and combining in the wave domain, thus significantly reducing the hardware cost and energy consumption. In this letter, we investigate the channel estimation problem in SIM-assisted multi-user HMIMO communication systems. Since the number of antennas at the base station (BS) is much smaller than the number of meta-atoms per layer of the SIM, it is challenging to acquire the channel state information (CSI) in SIM-assisted multi-user systems. To address this issue, we collect multiple copies of the uplink pilot signals that propagate through the SIM. Furthermore, we leverage the array geometry to identify the subspace that spans arbitrary spatial correlation matrices. Based on partial CSI about the channel statistics, a pair of subspace-based channel estimators are proposed. Additionally, we compute the mean square error (MSE) of the proposed channel estimators and optimize the phase shifts of the SIM to minimize the MSE. Numerical results are illustrated to analyze the effectiveness of the proposed channel estimation schemes.

DRL-Based Orchestration of Multi-User MISO Systems with Stacked Intelligent Metasurfaces

Stacked intelligent metasurfaces (SIM) represents an advanced signal processing paradigm that enables over-the-air processing of electromagnetic waves at the speed of light. Its multi-layer structure exhibits customizable increased computational capability compared to conventional single-layer reconfigurable intelligent surfaces and metasurface lenses. In this paper, we deploy SIM to improve the performance of multi-user multiple-input single-output (MISO) wireless systems with low complexity transmit radio frequency (RF) chains. In particular, an optimization formulation for the joint design of the SIM phase shifts and the transmit power allocation is presented, which is efficiently solved via a customized deep reinforcement learning (DRL) approach that continuously observes pre-designed states of the SIM-parametrized smart wireless environment. The presented performance evaluation results showcase the proposed method's capability to effectively learn from the wireless environment while outperforming conventional precoding schemes under low transmit power conditions. Finally, a whitening process is presented to further augment the robustness of the proposed scheme.

Two-Dimensional Direction-of-Arrival Estimation Using Stacked Intelligent Metasurfaces

Stacked intelligent metasurfaces (SIM) are capable of emulating reconfigurable physical neural networks by relying on electromagnetic (EM) waves as carriers. They can also perform various complex computational and signal processing tasks. A SIM is fabricated by densely integrating multiple metasurface layers, each consisting of a large number of small meta-atoms that can control the EM waves passing through it. In this paper, we harness a SIM for two-dimensional (2D) direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation. In contrast to the conventional designs, an advanced SIM in front of the receiver array automatically carries out the 2D discrete Fourier transform (DFT) as the incident waves propagate through it. As a result, the receiver array directly observes the angular spectrum of the incoming signal. In this context, the DOA estimates can be readily obtained by using probes to detect the energy distribution on the receiver array. This avoids the need for power-thirsty radio frequency (RF) chains. To enable SIM to perform the 2D DFT, we formulate the optimization problem of minimizing the fitting error between the SIM's EM response and the 2D DFT matrix. Furthermore, a gradient descent algorithm is customized for iteratively updating the phase shift of each meta-atom in SIM. To further improve the DOA estimation accuracy, we configure the phase shift pattern in the zeroth layer of the SIM to generate a set of 2D DFT matrices associated with orthogonal spatial frequency bins. Additionally, we analytically evaluate the performance of the proposed SIM-based DOA estimator by deriving a tight upper bound for the mean square error (MSE). Our numerical simulations verify the capability of a well-trained SIM to perform DOA estimation and corroborate our theoretical analysis. It is demonstrated that a SIM having an optical computational speed achieves an MSE of $10^{-4}$ for DOA estimation.

Stacked Intelligent Metasurface-Aided MIMO Transceiver Design

Next-generation wireless networks are expected to utilize the limited radio frequency (RF) resources more efficiently with the aid of intelligent transceivers. To this end, we propose a promising transceiver architecture relying on stacked intelligent metasurfaces (SIM). An SIM is constructed by stacking an array of programmable metasurface layers, where each layer consists of a massive number of low-cost passive meta-atoms that individually manipulate the electromagnetic (EM) waves. By appropriately configuring the passive meta-atoms, an SIM is capable of accomplishing advanced computation and signal processing tasks, such as multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) precoding/combining, multi-user interference mitigation, and radar sensing, as the EM wave propagates through the multiple layers of the metasurface, which effectively reduces both the RF-related energy consumption and processing delay. Inspired by this, we provide an overview of the SIM-aided MIMO transceiver design, which encompasses its hardware architecture and its potential benefits over state-of-the-art solutions. Furthermore, we discuss promising application scenarios and identify the open research challenges associated with the design of advanced SIM architectures for next-generation wireless networks. Finally, numerical results are provided for quantifying the benefits of wave-based signal processing in wireless systems.

Stacked Intelligent Metasurface Performs a 2D DFT in the Wave Domain for DOA Estimation

Staked intelligent metasurface (SIM) based techniques are developed to perform two-dimensional (2D) direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation. In contrast to the conventional designs, an advanced SIM in front of the receiving array automatically performs the 2D discrete Fourier transform (DFT) as the incident waves propagate through it. To arrange for the SIM to carry out this task, we design a gradient descent algorithm for iteratively updating the phase shift of each meta-atom in the SIM to minimize the fitting error between the SIM's response and the 2D DFT matrix. To further improve the DOA estimation accuracy, we configure the phase shifts in the input layer of SIM to generate a set of 2D DFT matrices having orthogonal spatial frequency bins. Extensive numerical simulations verify the capability of a well-trained SIM to perform 2D DFT. Specifically, it is demonstrated that the SIM having an optical computational speed achieves an MSE of $10^{-4}$ in 2D DOA estimation.

Hybrid Digital-Wave Domain Channel Estimator for Stacked Intelligent Metasurface Enabled Multi-User MISO Systems

Stacked intelligent metasurface (SIM) is an emerging programmable metasurface architecture that can implement signal processing directly in the electromagnetic wave domain, thereby enabling efficient implementation of ultra-massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transceivers with a limited number of radio frequency (RF) chains. Channel estimation (CE) is challenging for SIM-enabled communication systems due to the multi-layer architecture of SIM, and because we need to estimate large dimensional channels between the SIM and users with a limited number of RF chains. To efficiently solve this problem, we develop a novel hybrid digital-wave domain channel estimator, in which the received training symbols are first processed in the wave domain within the SIM layers, and then processed in the digital domain. The wave domain channel estimator, parametrized by the phase shifts applied by the meta-atoms in all layers, is optimized to minimize the mean squared error (MSE) using a gradient descent algorithm, within which the digital part is optimally updated. For an SIM-enabled multi-user system equipped with 4 RF chains and a 6-layer SIM with 64 meta-atoms each, the proposed estimator yields an MSE that is very close to that achieved by fully digital CE in a massive MIMO system employing 64 RF chains. This high CE accuracy is achieved at the cost of a training overhead that can be reduced by exploiting the potential low rank of channel correlation matrices.

Toward Beamfocusing-Aided Near-Field Communications: Research Advances, Potential, and Challenges

Next-generation mobile networks promise to support high throughput, massive connectivity, and improved energy efficiency. To achieve these ambitious goals, extremely large-scale antenna arrays (ELAAs) and terahertz communications constitute a pair of promising technologies. This will result in future wireless communications occurring in the near-field regions. To accurately portray the channel characteristics of near-field wireless propagation, spherical wavefront-based models are required and present both opportunities as well as challenges. Following the basics of near-field communications (NFC), we contrast it to conventional far-field communications. Moreover, we cover the key challenges of NFC, including its channel modeling and estimation, near-field beamfocusing, as well as hardware design. Our numerical results demonstrate the potential of NFC in improving the spatial multiplexing gain and positioning accuracy. Finally, a suite of open issues are identified for motivating future research.

Stacked Intelligent Metasurfaces for Multiuser Downlink Beamforming in the Wave Domain

Intelligent metasurface has recently emerged as a promising technology that enables the customization of wireless environments by harnessing large numbers of inexpensive configurable scattering elements. However, prior studies have predominantly focused on single-layer metasurfaces, which have limitations in terms of the number of beam patterns they can steer accurately due to practical hardware restrictions. In contrast, this paper introduces a novel stacked intelligent metasurface (SIM) design. Specifically, we investigate the integration of SIM into the downlink of a multiuser multiple-input single-output (MISO) communication system, where a SIM, consisting of a multilayer metasurface structure, is deployed at the base station (BS) to facilitate transmit beamforming in the electromagnetic wave domain. This eliminates the need for conventional digital beamforming and high-resolution digital-to-analog converters at the BS. To this end, we formulate an optimization problem that aims to maximize the sum rate of all user equipments by jointly optimizing the transmit power allocation at the BS and the wave-based beamforming at the SIM, subject to both the transmit power budget and discrete phase shift constraints. Furthermore, we propose a computationally efficient algorithm for solving this joint optimization problem and elaborate on the potential benefits of employing SIM in wireless networks. Finally, the numerical results corroborate the effectiveness of the proposed SIM-enabled wave-based beamforming design and evaluate the performance improvement achieved by the proposed algorithm compared to various benchmark schemes. It is demonstrated that considering the same number of transmit antennas, the proposed SIM-based system achieves about 200\% improvement in terms of sum rate compared to conventional MISO systems.