Parallel Channel Estimation for RIS-Assisted Internet of Things

Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) are deemed as a potential technique for the future of the Internet of Things (IoT) due to their capability of smartly reconfiguring the wireless propagation environment using a large number of low-cost passive elements. To benefit from RIS technology, the problem of RIS-assisted channel state information (CSI) acquisition needs to be carefully considered. Existing channel estimation methods usually ignored the different channel characteristics of direct channel and reflected channels. In fact, the reflected channel can be smartly configured by adjusting the phase shifts of the RIS, which is different from the direct channel due to the different path loss exponents between the transmitter and receiver. Therefore, it is necessary to further develop a RIS-assisted channel estimation to determine the direct and reflected channels, respectively. In this paper, we study a RIS-assisted channel estimation that jointly exploits the properties of the direct and the reflected channel to provide more accurate CSI. The direct channel is estimated using weighted
$\ell_1$
norm minimization, while the reflected channel is modeled based upon the robust
$\ell_{1,\tau}$
norm minimization to sequentially estimate the channel parameters. Moreover, by combining the gradient descent and the alternating minimization method, a flexible and fast algorithm is developed to provide a feasible solution. Simulation results demonstrate that an RIS-aided MIMO system significantly reduces the active antennas/RF chains compared to other benchmark schemes.