Joint Beamforming Design for IRS-Assisted Beyond 5G Wireless Networks

Intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) has emerged as a promising technology to enhance wireless communications by smartly shaping the radio propagation environment with reduced hardware and energy costs. In this paper, we integrate the IRS to a multiple-input single-output (MISO) fifth generation (5G) system via the joint optimization of the IRS reflecting coefficients and the transmit beamforming at the base station (BS) to maximize the spectral efficiency in an urban micro (UMi) propagation environment. Simulation results indicate that IRS successfully enhances the performance of the wireless network in terms of spectral and energy efficiencies compared with traditional transmit beamforming and relay-assisted systems.