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Main Authors: Hashida, Hiroaki, Di, Boya
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.24246
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author Hashida, Hiroaki
Di, Boya
author_facet Hashida, Hiroaki
Di, Boya
contents Interference management is a central bottleneck in dense multi-antenna wireless networks. Therefore, in this study, we present a digital precoding-free hierarchical rate-splitting multiple access (HRSMA) architecture assisted by a stacked intelligent metasurface (SIM) to achieve high spectral efficiency and user fairness with reduced hardware complexity. In the proposed system, the base station performs only scalar power allocation, while a multi-layer SIM acts as a wave-domain processor that spatially separates users and mitigates interference via nonlinear wavefront reconfiguration. This design eliminates the need for digital or hybrid precoding, drastically reducing the baseband computations. A joint optimization problem is formulated to maximize the minimum user rate by jointly optimizing SIM phase shifts, power allocation, and user grouping. To efficiently solve the resulting non-convex problem, an alternating optimization algorithm is developed, combining simultaneous perturbation stochastic approximation (SPSA) for SIM configuration and power control with clustering-based grouping refinement. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed SIM-aided HRSMA achieves substantial gains in both spectral efficiency and fairness compared to hybrid beamforming and non-precoding baselines. Specifically, SIM-aided HRSMA attains comparable or superior minimum rates with significantly fewer active antennas by exploiting the additional wave-domain degrees of freedom provided by multi-layer SIMs. These findings highlight the potential of SIM-aided HRSMA as a low-cost, energy-efficient, and scalable solution for beyond-6G networks.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_24246
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Precoding-free Hierarchical Rate-Splitting Multiple Access via Stacked Intelligent Metasurface
Hashida, Hiroaki
Di, Boya
Information Theory
Interference management is a central bottleneck in dense multi-antenna wireless networks. Therefore, in this study, we present a digital precoding-free hierarchical rate-splitting multiple access (HRSMA) architecture assisted by a stacked intelligent metasurface (SIM) to achieve high spectral efficiency and user fairness with reduced hardware complexity. In the proposed system, the base station performs only scalar power allocation, while a multi-layer SIM acts as a wave-domain processor that spatially separates users and mitigates interference via nonlinear wavefront reconfiguration. This design eliminates the need for digital or hybrid precoding, drastically reducing the baseband computations. A joint optimization problem is formulated to maximize the minimum user rate by jointly optimizing SIM phase shifts, power allocation, and user grouping. To efficiently solve the resulting non-convex problem, an alternating optimization algorithm is developed, combining simultaneous perturbation stochastic approximation (SPSA) for SIM configuration and power control with clustering-based grouping refinement. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed SIM-aided HRSMA achieves substantial gains in both spectral efficiency and fairness compared to hybrid beamforming and non-precoding baselines. Specifically, SIM-aided HRSMA attains comparable or superior minimum rates with significantly fewer active antennas by exploiting the additional wave-domain degrees of freedom provided by multi-layer SIMs. These findings highlight the potential of SIM-aided HRSMA as a low-cost, energy-efficient, and scalable solution for beyond-6G networks.
title Precoding-free Hierarchical Rate-Splitting Multiple Access via Stacked Intelligent Metasurface
topic Information Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.24246