Intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) has been considered as a revolutionary technology to enhance the wireless communication performance. To cater for multiple mobile users, adjusting IRS beamforming patterns over time, i.e., dynamic IRS beamforming (DIBF), is generally needed for achieving satisfactory performance, which results in high controlling power consumption and overhead. To avoid such cost, we propose a new architecture based on the static regulated IRS for wireless coverage enhancement, where the principle of distributed multiple-input multiple-output (D-MIMO) is integrated into the system to exploite the diversity of spatial directions provided by multiple access points (APs). For this new D-MIMO empowered static IRS architecture, the total target area is partitioned into several subareas and each subarea is served by an assigned AP. We consider to maximize the worst-case received power over all locations in the target area by jointly optimizing a single set of IRS beamforming pattern and AP-subarea association. Then, a two-step algorithm is proposed to obtain its high-quality solution. Theoretical analysis unveils that the fundamental squared power gain can still be achieved over all locations in the target area. The performance gap relative to the DIBF scheme is also analytically quantified. Numerical results validate our theoretical findings and demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed design over benchmark schemes.

翻译：智能反射面（IRS）被视为提升无线通信性能的革命性技术。为服务多个移动用户，通常需要随时间调整IRS波束成形模式（即动态IRS波束成形（DIBF））以获得满意性能，但这会导致高昂的控制功耗与开销。为规避此类成本，本文提出一种基于静态调控型IRS的新型架构以增强无线覆盖，该架构融合分布式多输入多输出（D-MIMO）原理，利用多个接入点（AP）提供的空间方向分集。针对这种新型D-MIMO赋能的静态IRS架构，我们将目标区域划分为若干子区域，每个子区域由指定AP服务。通过联合优化单套IRS波束成形模式与AP-子区域关联方案，旨在最大化目标区域所有位置的最差接收功率。进而提出一种两步算法获取高质量解。理论分析揭示：目标区域内所有位置理论上仍能实现基础平方功率增益。同时定量表征了与DIBF方案的性能差距。数值结果验证了理论发现，并证明了所提设计相较于基准方案的有效性。