Design of Intelligent RIS-Aided Cell-Free networks for Energy-efficient Coexistence between eMBB+ and mMTC+

In our modernized era, beyond-5G and 6G wireless systems will be key to satisfying crucial society demands.

The new challenging 6G KPI, the renewed need for sustainable and green networks, and the introduction of AI and sensing, evinces the necessity of incorporating new technologies and of designing novel solutions.

In that sense, cell-free massive MIMO, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs), and edge intelligence are anticipated to be key technologies in the 6G era.

DIRACFEC is a 24-months research project that thus concentrates on the Design of Intelligent RIS-Aided Cell-Free networks for Energy-efficient Coexistence between evolved eMBB (eMBB+) and evolved mMTC (mMTC+).

More specifically, considering user-centric architectures and distributed multiple antenna deployments, we will present a set of multiple access schemes, edge intelligence techniques, and transmission strategies that optimize the energy efficiency in a heterogeneous service environment, aiming at the coexistence of eMBB+ and mMTC+ services.

We will conceive mathematical frameworks to model dense networks where several RISs are controlled by multiple antenna access points.

Then, to boost the ultimate performance, we will design the aforementioned approaches for different types of data traffic under the assumption of imperfect channel knowledge.

These solutions will be evaluated using numerical and industry level system-level simulations in practical setups.The project will be carried out by the researcher at the University of Cassino and Lazio Meridionale (Italy), under the supervision ofProf. Stefano Buzzi.

Furthermore, Nokia Bell Labs (France) will host the researcher for a six-months secondmentaimed at validation of the developed solutions on industry level system simulators.

The applying researcher is Dr.Sergi Liesegang, a fresh PhD graduate from the Politechnic University of Barcelona (Spain).