Successive Decode-and-Forward Relaying with Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces

The key advantage of successive relaying (SR) networks is their ability to mimic the full-duplex (FD) operation with half-duplex (HD) relays. However, the main challenge that comes with such schemes is the associated inter-relay interference (IRI). In this work, we propose a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-enhanced SR network, where one RIS is deployed near each of the two relay nodes to provide spatial suppression of IRI, and to maximize the gain of desired signals. The resultant max-min optimization problem with joint phase-shift design for both RISs is first tackled via the semidefinite programming (SDP) approach. Then, a lower-complexity solution suitable for real-time implementation is proposed based on particle swarm optimization (PSO). Numerical results demonstrate that even relatively small RISs can provide significant gains in achievable rates of SR networks, and the proposed PSO scheme can achieve a near optimal performance.