Impact of I/Q Imbalance on the Error Performance of RIS-Assisted Space Shift Keying

Abstract

The reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) aided systems become widespread nowadays as a solution for future wireless communication systems subject to high data traffic. However, undesirable destructive effects stemming from hardware imperfections can occur on the signals, especially on the next generation communication systems based on the usage of high frequency spectrum. In this study, RIS-assisted space shift keying (SSK) systems are discussed by considering one of the distorting hardware impairments, namely in-phase/quadrature phase imbalance (IQI). Specifically, optimal and non-optimal maximum likelihood (ML) detectors are designed and the error performance is compared to a reference scheme. RIS-assisted SSK system behavior under the effect of IQI is presented via computer simulation results. The obtained results show the importance of taking the IQI into account during the design of the RIS-SSK systems. © 2023 IEEE.