Distributed and Scalable Uplink Processing for LIS: Algorithm, Architecture, and Design Trade-Offs

The Large Intelligent Surface (LIS) is a promising technology in the areas of wireless communication, remote sensing and positioning. It consists of a continuous radiating surface located in the proximity of the users, with the capability to communicate by transmission and reception (replacing base stations). Despite its potential, there are numerous challenges from an implementation point of view, with the interconnection data-rate, computational complexity, and storage the most relevant ones. In order to address these challenges, hierarchical architectures with distributed processing techniques are envisioned to be relevant for this task, while ensuring scalability. In this work we perform algorithm-architecture codesign to propose two distributed interference cancellation algorithms, and a tree-based interconnection topology for uplink processing. We also analyze the performance, hardware requirements, and architecture trade-offs for a discrete LIS, in order to provide concrete case studies and guidelines for efficient implementation of LIS systems.