Movable-Element Multi-Functional RIS-Assisted Hybrid RSMA-NOMA: A Constrained Hybrid Reinforcement Learning Approach

Overview & Synopsis

In this work, we propose a movable-element (ME) multi-functional reconfigurable intelligent surface (MF-RIS) architecture, termed MM-RIS, which integrates element mobility with adaptive signal reflection, transmission, amplification, and energy harvesting (EH) to enhance communication flexibility and energy self-sustainability. A hybrid rate-splitting multiple access (RSMA) and non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) transmission scheme is further designed to improve spectral efficiency. We formulate an energy efficiency (EE) maximization problem by jointly optimizing transmit beamforming, power and rate allocation, MM-RIS configurations, panel deployment, and ME positions. To address the resulting non-convex mixed continuous-discrete optimization problem, we propose constrained hybrid deep reinforcement learning with federated transformer and parametrized sharing (CRAFTS). CRAFTS integrates multi-agent proximal policy optimization (MAPPO) and multi-agent deep Q-networks (MADQN) through bi-directional parametrized sharing to handle continuous and discrete actions, respectively. Moreover, a transformer-based architecture and federated learning (FL) are incorporated to enhance state representation and distributed knowledge sharing, whilst a Lagrangian-based adaptive penalty mechanism facilitates the constraint satisfaction. Simulation results have demonstrated that the proposed MM-RIS architecture and CRAFTS framework substantially improve EE and constraint satisfaction compared to the benchmarks in the open literature. Moreover, the results validate the benefits of spatially reconfigurable MM-RIS, hybrid RSMA-NOMA transmissions, and intelligent collaborative learning, highlighting the potential of the proposed framework for energy-efficient and adaptive next-generation wireless networks.