Journal
IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS AND TUTORIALS
Volume 22, Issue 4, Pages 2283-2314Publisher
IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC
DOI: 10.1109/COMST.2020.3004197
Keywords
Wireless networks; Optimization; Receivers; Scattering; RF signals; Communication system security; Intelligent reflecting surface; smart radio environment; passive beamforming; IRS-assisted wireless networks
Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [61972434, U1801261]
- Shenzhen Basic Research Program [JCYJ20190807154009444]
- Shenzhen Talent Peacock Plan Program [KQTD2015071715073798]
- PCL Future Greater-Bay Area Network Facilities for Largescale Experiments and Applications [LZC0019]
- National Research Foundation (NRF), Singapore, through Singapore Energy Market Authority (EMA), Energy Resilience, Singapore [NRF2017EWT-EP003-041, NRF2015-NRF-ISF001-2277]
- Singapore NRF National Satellite of Excellence, Design Science and Technology for Secure Critical Infrastructure [NSoE DeST-SCI2019-0007]
- A*STAR-NTU-SUTD Joint Research Grant on Artificial Intelligence for the Future of Manufacturing [RGANS1906]
- Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program and Nanyang Technological University (WASP/NTU) [M4082187 (4080)]
- National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) - Korean Government (MSIT) [2014R1A5A1011478]
- Key Areas of Research and Development Program of Guangdong Province, China [2018B010114001]
- 111 Project [B20064]
- [ZYGX2019Z022]
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This paper presents a literature review on recent applications and design aspects of the intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) in the future wireless networks. Conventionally, the network optimization has been limited to transmission control at two endpoints, i.e., end users and network controller. The fading wireless channel is uncontrollable and becomes one of the main limiting factors for performance improvement. The IRS is composed of a large array of scattering elements, which can be individually configured to generate additional phase shifts to the signal reflections. Hence, it can actively control the signal propagation properties in favor of signal reception, and thus realize the notion of a smart radio environment. As such, the IRS's phase control, combined with the conventional transmission control, can potentially bring performance gain compared to wireless networks without IRS. In this survey, we first introduce basic concepts of the IRS and the realizations of its reconfigurability. Then, we focus on applications of the IRS in wireless communications. We overview different performance metrics and analytical approaches to characterize the performance improvement of IRS-assisted wireless networks. To exploit the performance gain, we discuss the joint optimization of the IRS's phase control and the transceivers' transmission control in different network design problems, e.g., rate maximization and power minimization problems. Furthermore, we extend the discussion of IRS-assisted wireless networks to some emerging use cases. Finally, we highlight important practical challenges and future research directions for realizing IRS-assisted wireless networks in beyond 5G communications.
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