On the Sensitivity of Active RIS Systems to CSI Errors: Joint Optimization and Performance Trade-off

Abstract

In this paper, the problem of maximizing the sum-rate is addressed for a multi-user uplink scenario that is assisted by an active reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS). The maximization is achieved by optimizing the beamforming at the base station, the users' transmit power, active RIS elements phase shifts, and active gains in presence of imperfect channel state information (CSI). The non-convex maximization problem is decomposed into sub-problems and solved via iterative approaches including the Lagrangian method, the projected gradient descent, multi-variate Taylor expansion and fractional programming. Numerical results show that the active RIS is more sensitive to CSI imperfections than passive one at high error variances.