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：智能反射表面（IRS）被视为一种革命性技术，可提升无线通信性能。为服务多个移动用户，通常需随时间调整IRS波束成形模式（即动态IRS波束成形，DIBF）以实现满意性能，但这会导致高控制功耗与开销。为避免此类代价，我们提出一种基于静态调控IRS的新型架构用于无线覆盖增强，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，将目标区域划分为若干子区域，每个子区域由指定AP服务。我们考虑通过联合优化单一IRS波束成形模式与AP-子区域关联，最大化目标区域内所有位置的最差接收功率。随后提出一种两步算法以获取高质量解。理论分析揭示，目标区域内所有位置仍能实现基本平方功率增益。同时量化了相对于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。