How to Deploy Intelligent Reflecting Surfaces in Wireless Network: BS-Side, User-Side, or Both Sides?

作者：Changsheng You, Beixiong Zheng, Weidong Mei, Rui Zhang · 发表于：Journal of Communications and Information Networks · 年份：2022 · DOI：10.23919/jcin.2022.9745477 · 被引用次数：106 · 研究领域：Advanced Wireless Communication Technologies、Ocular Disorders and Treatments、Optical Wireless Communication Technologies

The performance of wireless communication systems is fundamentally constrained by the random and uncontrollable wireless channel. By leveraging the recent advances in digitally-controlled metasurface, intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) has emerged as a promising solution to enhance the wireless network performance by smartly reconfiguring the radio propagation environment. Despite the substantial research on IRS-aided communications, this article addresses the important issue of how to deploy IRSs in a wireless network to achieve its optimum performance. We first compare the two conventional strategies of deploying IRS at the side of base station or users in terms of various communication performance metrics, and then propose a new hybrid IRS deployment strategy by combining their complementary advantages. Moreover, the main challenges in optimizing IRS deployment as well as their promising solutions are discussed. Numerical results are also presented to compare the performance of different IRS deployment strategies and draw useful insights for practical design.