Ergodic Capacity of Intelligent Reflecting Surface-Assisted Communication Systems With Phase Errors

In this letter, we investigate the ergodic capacity of the intelligent reflecting surface (IRS)-assisted communication system with quantization phase errors, which is different from existing works assuming ideal continuous or discrete phases. The ergodic capacity, however, does not admit an exact closed-form expression if not impossible. In order to gain insight into the capacity performance, the impact of phase errors on the capacity degradation is quantified, and the minimum number of the reflectors to achieve a given rate threshold is obtained. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of the IRS-assisted system and the capacity scaling law.