RIS-Assisted D2D Communication over Nakagami-m Fading with RSMA

Area of Science:

• Wireless Communication Systems
• Signal Processing
• Information Theory

Background:

• Device-to-device (D2D) communication offers direct device interaction, enhancing spectral efficiency.
• Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) can intelligently control wireless propagation environments.
• Nakagami-m fading channels represent a versatile model for wireless channel conditions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the performance of RIS-assisted D2D communication systems over Nakagami-m fading channels.
• To enhance the reliability and achievable ergodic rate of RIS-assisted D2D systems.
• To apply rate-splitting multiple access (RSMA) for improved system performance.

Main Methods:

• Utilized rate-splitting multiple access (RSMA) to manage common and private symbols.
• Analyzed achievable ergodic rates for both RIS and D2D links.
• Employed maximum ratio combination (MRC) for joint symbol decoding at the destination.

Main Results:

• Derived a closed-form expression for the achievable ergodic rate.
• Investigated the impact of power allocation and the number of RIS elements.
• Demonstrated a close match between analytical and simulation results.

Conclusions:

• The proposed RIS-assisted D2D system with RSMA significantly improves achievable ergodic rates.
• System performance is sensitive to power allocation and the number of reflective elements.
• The approach shows superiority over existing communication system designs.