Wireless Network Coding with Intelligent Reflecting Surfaces

TL;DR

This paper introduces a physical layer network coding scheme aided by intelligent reflecting surfaces to enhance error performance and throughput in wireless networks, especially for beyond 5G applications.

Contribution

It proposes an optimal IRS phase algorithm and derives BER expressions, demonstrating significant error rate improvements with IRS integration.

Findings

BER at relay with 32-element IRS is three orders of magnitude lower

Proposed scheme significantly improves BER performance

Analytic BER expressions validate the scheme's effectiveness

Abstract

Conventional wireless techniques are becoming inadequate for beyond fifth-generation (5G) networks due to latency and bandwidth considerations. To improve the error performance and throughput of wireless communication systems, we propose physical layer network coding (PNC) in an intelligent reflecting surface (IRS)-assisted environment. We consider an IRS-aided butterfly network, where we propose an algorithm for obtaining the optimal IRS phases. Also, analytic expressions for the bit error rate (BER) are derived. The numerical results demonstrate that the proposed scheme significantly improves the BER performance. For instance, the BER at the relay in the presence of a 32-element IRS is three orders of magnitudes less than that without an IRS.