Rate Splitting Multiple Access for Sum-Rate Maximization in IRS Aided Uplink Communications

In this paper, an intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) aided uplink (UL) rate-splitting multiple access (RSMA) system is investigated for dead-zone users where the direct link between the users and the base station (BS) is unavailable and the UL transmission is carried out only through IRS. In the considered RSMA system, a message of each user is split into several sub-messages and each part contributes to the rate of that user and depending upon split proportions BS decodes them using appropriate decoding order. The problem of sum-rate maximization is formulated to jointly design the optimal power allocation at each UL user, passive beamforming at the IRS under optimal decoding order of sub-messages. Due to non-convexity and discrete non-linear programming of the formulated problem, the original problem is intractable and hence, we decouple the problem into different sub-problems in which the problems of power allocation and passive beamforming are alternatively solved under using successive convex approximation and Riemaniann conjugate gradient algorithms, respectively. Moreover, the decoding order strategy is analytically derived which confirm that the optimal decoding order strategy depend upon decreasing order of channel gain of users and increasing order of split proportions of sub-messages. Later, the unified solution based on blockcoordinate descent (BCD) algorithm is proposed. Simulation results validate that the proposed decoding order scheme attains performance closer to the optimal solution with low computational complexity. Moreover, the proposed IRS aided RMSA system outperforms the system with non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) and orthogonal multiple access (OMA) schemes in terms of achievable sum-rate throughput.