Machine Vision Aided Adaptive Beamforming Decision for IRS-Assisted Wireless Networks

This study leverages machine vision to assist communication in wireless networks, with a specific focus on intelligent reflecting surface (IRS)-assisted wireless networks. Instead of depending on traditional schemes such as alternating optimization or semidefinite relaxation to maximize signal strength in an IRS-assisted network, which are computationally expensive and impractical, we use visual data to make low-complexity beamforming decisions for users. Our approach involves employing a ceiling camera with a fish-eye view, covering a wide communication area. The user within the network is initially detected using the YOLOv2 object detection method. Subsequently, we propose closed-form analytical expressions to determine the distances between the access point (AP), user, and IRS. Accounting for the non-uniform nature of the fish-eye image, we introduce a novel method to determine non-uniform pixel weightages using trigonometric techniques. Based on the calculated distances, we make beamforming decisions depending on the user’s proximity to the AP or IRS. The proposed method significantly reduces computational complexity, making it nearly independent of the number of reflecting elements at the IRS. Simulation results indicate that the proposed approach exhibits extremely lower computational costs compared not only to conventional schemes such as alternating optimization and semidefinite relaxation-based convex solvers but also to low-complexity heuristic schemes.