Error Probability and Throughput Analysis of IRS-Assisted Wireless System Over Generalized κ-μ Fading Channels

Intelligent reflecting surfaces (IRS)-assisted wireless transmission has recently emerged as a potential candidate to enable a smart and reconfigurable radio environment for future wireless communication systems. This paper investigates the performance of an IRS-assisted wireless communication system, where an IRS deployed on top of the source (S) acts as an intelligent access point that can adjust the phase of an incident unmodulated carrier signal generated at S in a deliberate manner to enhance the reception quality at the destination (D). In this setup, a moment generating function (MGF) based performance evaluation is developed with regard to average and effective throughput over the generalized kappa-mu fading channels. In addition, a unified mathematical framework for the average bit error rate/symbol error rate analysis is provided, which will be helpful to study the system behavior under different modulation formats. Furthermore, a simplified asymptotic expression for the system metrics is derived under a high signal-to-noise ratio region, through which the diversity order of the system is achieved. The accuracy of the derived theoretical expressions is validated through Monte-Carlo simulation results. Interesting insights related to the channel fading parameter and the number of reflecting elements on the system performance are drawn and discussed conclusively.