Beamforming Design for Active RIS-Aided Over-the-Air Computation

Abstract: Over-the-air computation (AirComp) is emerging as a promising technology for wireless data aggregation. However, its performance is hampered by users with poor channel conditions. To mitigate such a performance bottleneck, this paper introduces an active reconfigurable intelligence surface (RIS) into the AirComp system. Specifically, we begin by exploring the ideal RIS model and propose a joint optimization of the transceiver design and RIS configuration to minimize the mean squared error (MSE) between the target and estimated function values. To manage the resultant tri-convex optimization problem, we employ the alternating optimization (AO) technique to decompose it into three convex subproblems, each solvable optimally. Subsequently, we investigate two specific cases and analyze their respective asymptotic performance to reveal the superiority of the active RIS in mitigating the MSE relative to its passive counterpart. Lastly, we adapt our transceiver and RIS configuration design to account for the self-interference of the active RIS. To handle the resultant highly non-convex problem, we further devise a two-layer AO framework. Simulation results demonstrate the superiority of the active RIS in enhancing AirComp performance compared to its passive counterpart.