Efficient Channel Prediction for Beyond Diagonal RIS-Assisted MIMO Systems with Channel Aging

Novel reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) architectures, known as beyond diagonal RISs (BD-RISs), have been proposed to enhance reflection efficiency and expand RIS capabilities. However, their passive nature, non-diagonal reflection matrix, and the large number of coupled reflecting elements complicate the channel state information (CSI) estimation process. The challenge further escalates in scenarios with fast-varying channels. In this paper, we address this challenge by proposing novel joint channel estimation and prediction strategies with low overhead and high accuracy for two different RIS architectures in a BD-RIS-assisted multiple-input multiple-output system under correlated fast-fading environments with channel aging. The channel estimation procedure utilizes the Tucker2 decomposition with bilinear alternative least squares, which is exploited to decompose the cascade channels of the BD-RIS-assisted system into effective channels of reduced dimension. The channel prediction framework is based on a convolutional neural network combined with an autoregressive predictor. The estimated/predicted CSI is then utilized to optimize the RIS phase shifts aiming at the maximization of the downlink sum rate. Insightful simulation results demonstrate that our proposed approach is robust to channel aging, and exhibits a high estimation accuracy. Moreover, our scheme can deliver a high average downlink sum rate, outperforming other state-of-the-art channel estimation methods. The results also reveal a remarkable reduction in pilot overhead of up to 98% compared to baseline schemes, all imposing low computational complexity.