Effects of IRS hardware imperfections on reflection design and performance

Determine the effects of intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) hardware imperfections—including frequency offset, time offset, and phase noise—on the optimal reflection-coefficient design and the achievable performance of IRS-aided wireless communication systems, by developing accurate models and corresponding robust design methods.

Background

The tutorial discusses practical IRS hardware and reflection models, noting that idealized assumptions (e.g., continuous, frequency-flat phase shifts, no coupling, perfect hardware) can be inaccurate in practice. Hardware-induced impairments such as frequency/time offsets and phase noise can distort the intended reflection behavior and degrade end-to-end performance, but their impact has not been quantified.

Understanding and modeling these imperfections is essential for robust IRS reflection design and realistic performance evaluation in IRS-aided systems, especially for large surfaces and broadband settings where such effects may be non-negligible.

References

In addition, the effects of other IRS hardware imperfections such as frequency/time offset, phase noise, etc. on its reflection design and achievable performance remain largely unknown, which call for further investigation in future work.

— Intelligent Reflecting Surface Aided Wireless Communications: A Tutorial (2007.02759 - Wu et al., 2020) in Section II-C (Other Related Work and Future Direction)