2 research outputs found
On the Enabling of Multi-user Communications with Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces
Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS) composed of programmable actuators
is a promising technology, thanks to its capability in manipulating
Electromagnetic (EM) wavefronts. In particular, RISs have the potential to
provide significant performance improvements for wireless networks. However, to
do so, a proper configuration of the reflection coefficients of the unit cells
in the RIS is required. RISs are sophisticated platforms so the design and
fabrication complexity might be uneconomical for single-user scenarios while a
RIS that can service multi-users justifies the costs. For the first time, we
propose an efficient reconfiguration technique providing the multi-beam
radiation pattern. Thanks to the analytical model the reconfiguration profile
is at hand compared to time-consuming optimization techniques. The outcome can
pave the wave for commercial use of multi-user communication beyond 5G
networks. We analyze the performance of our proposed RIS technology for indoor
and outdoor scenarios, given the broadcast mode of operation. The aforesaid
scenarios encompass some of the most challenging scenarios that wireless
networks encounter. We show that our proposed technique provisions sufficient
gains in the observed channel capacity when the users are close to the RIS in
the indoor office environment scenario. Further, we report more than one order
of magnitude increase in the system throughput given the outdoor environment.
The results prove that RIS with the ability to communicate with multiple users
can empower wireless networks with great capacity