Optimal SNR Analysis for Single-user RIS Systems

Abstract: In this paper, we present an analysis of the optimal uplink SNR of a SIMO Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS)-aided wireless link. We assume that the channel between base station and RIS is a rank-1 LOS channel while the user (UE)-RIS and UE-base station (BS) channels are correlated Rayleigh. We derive an exact closed form expression for the mean SNR and an approximation for the SNR variance leading to an accurate gamma approximation to the distribution of the UL SNR. Furthermore, we analytically characterise the effects of correlation on SNR, showing that correlation in the UE-BS channel can have negative effects on the mean SNR, while correlation in the UE-RIS channel improves system performance. For systems with a large number of RIS elements, correlation in the UE-RIS channel can cause an increase in the mean SNR of up to 27.32% relative to an uncorrelated channel.