Interference management for non-orthogonal multiple access of heterogeneous services via intelligent reflecting surface

Abstract

In fifth-generation (5G) and next-generation mobile communication systems, one of the main design objectives is to support different types of devices with disparate requirements such as enhanced Mobile BroadBand (eMBB), Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communications (URLLC), and massive Machine-Type Communications (mMTC). While a non-orthogonal coexistence of different services on the radio interface may potentially yield higher spectral efficiency, a significant performance bottleneck is set the mutual interference between heterogeneous devices. Interference management strategies of different complexity -- ranging from treating interference as noise to successive interference cancellation -- may be implemented at the base station to address this problem. In this context, this dissertation investigates the role that intelligent reflecting surfaces (IRS) may play in shaping the interference between heterogeneous types of devices. The main goal of the dissertation is to maximize the achievable enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) transmission rate while satisfying the strict reliability and latency requirements of ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) in a network in which variant types of devices coexist using radio resource in a non-orthogonal manner. Specifically, we investigate the joint design of power allocation and IRS reflection matrix and draw conclusions on the relative advantages of decoding strategies at the base station by accounting for the interference management capabilities of an IRS-aided uplink.