Uplink Multiplexing of eMBB/URLLC Services Assisted by Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces

Abstract: This letter proposes a scheme assisted by a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) for efficient uplink traffic multiplexing between enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) and ultra-reliable-low-latency communication (URLLC). The scheme determines two RIS configurations based only on the eMBB channel state information (CSI) available at the base station (BS). The first optimizes eMBB quality of service, while the second reduces eMBB interference in URLLC traffic by temporarily silencing the eMBB traffic. Numerical results demonstrate that this approach, relying solely on eMBB CSI and without BS coordination, can outperform the state-of-the-art preemptive puncturing by 4.9 times in terms of URLLC outage probability.