Papazafeiropoulos, AnastasiosPan, CunhuaElbir, AhmetKourtessis, PandelisChatzinotas, SymeonSenior, John M.2021-12-012021-12-0120212162-23372162-2345https://doi.org/10.1109/LWC.2021.3077991https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12684/10893This letter suggests the use of multiple distributed intelligent reflecting surfaces (IRSs) towards a smarter control of the propagation environment. Notably, we also take into account the inevitable correlated Rayleigh fading in IRS-assisted systems. In particular, in a single-input and single-output (SISO) system, we consider and compare two insightful scenarios, namely, a finite number of large IRSs and a large number of finite size IRSs to show which implementation method is more advantageous. In this direction, we derive the coverage probability in closed-form for both cases contingent on statistical channel state information (CSI) by using the deterministic equivalent (DE) analysis. Next, we obtain the optimal coverage probability. Among others, numerical results reveal that the addition of more surfaces outperforms the design scheme of adding more elements per surface. Moreover, in the case of uncorrelated Rayleigh fading, statistical CSI-based IRS systems do not allow the optimization of the coverage probability.en10.1109/LWC.2021.3077991info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessRayleigh channelsSignal to noise ratioCorrelationProbabilityManganeseOptimizationFinite element analysisIntelligent reflecting surface (IRS)coverage probabilitydeterministic equivalentsbeyond 5G networksIntelligent SurfacesArticle108172217262-s2.0-85105867380WOS:000682125800027Q1Q1