Joint Resource Allocation in Multi-RIS and Massive MIMO-Aided Cell-Free IoT Networks

To meet the needs of high energy efficiency (EE) and various heterogeneous services for 6G, in this article, we probe into the EE of reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) subsurface (SSF) architecture-aided cell-free Internet of Things (CF-IoT) networks. Specifically, we jointly optimize the base station (BS)-RIS-IoT device (ID) joint associations, the RIS’s phase shift matrix (PSM), and the BS’s transmit power to enhance CF-IoT’s EE. The elevated complexity (NP-hard) and nonconvexity of the formulated problem pose significant challenges, making the solution highly difficult and intricate. To handle this challenging problem, we first develop an alternating optimization framework based on block coordinate descent, which can decouple the original problem into several subproblems. We then carefully design the corresponding low-complexity algorithm for each subproblem to solve it. Moreover, the proposed joint optimization framework serves as a versatile solution applicable to a wide range of scenarios aiming to maximize EE with the assistance of RISs. Simulations confirm that deploying RISs in CF-IoT scenarios is beneficial for improving the EE of the system, and the SSF architecture can further enhance the EE of the system.