Sum-Rate Maximization for Active RIS-Aided Downlink RSMA System

TL;DR

This paper develops an optimization framework for active RIS-assisted downlink RSMA systems, significantly improving sum-rate performance by jointly optimizing beamforming, rate allocation, and RIS precoding.

Contribution

It introduces a novel joint optimization algorithm for active RIS in RSMA, enhancing sum-rate performance over passive RIS systems.

Findings

Achieves up to 45% higher sum-rate compared to passive RIS systems.

Proposes an iterative algorithm based on FP and QCQP for joint optimization.

Demonstrates the effectiveness of active RIS in overcoming power attenuation.

Abstract

In this paper, the problem of sum-rate maximization for an active reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) assisted downlink rate-splitting multiple access (RSMA) transmission system is studied. In the considered model, the active RIS is deployed to overcome severe power attenuation, which is caused by the cumulative product of RIS incidence path loss and the reflection path loss. Since the active RIS can adjust both the phase and the amplitude of the incident signal simultaneously, the RIS control scheme requires delicate design to improve RSMA communication performance. To address this issue, a sum-rate maximization problem is formulated to jointly optimize the beamforming vectors, rate allocation vector, and RIS precoding matrix. To solve this non-convex sum-rate maximization problem, an iterative algorithm based on fractional programming (FP) and quadratic constraint quadratic programming (QCQP) is proposed. In particular, the proposed algorithm firstly decomposes the original problem into two subproblems, namely, 1) beamforming and rate allocation optimization and 2) active RIS precoding optimization. The corresponding variables of the two subproblems are optimized through sequential convex approximation (SCA) and block coordinate descent (BCD), respectively. Numerical results show that the proposed active RIS-aided RSMA system could increase the sum-rate by up to 45% over the conventional passive RIS-aided RSMA system with the same energy consumption.