2022/01/19 by Antonio Albanese, Guillermo Encinas-Lago, Albanese, Antonio +9 · 1 citation
Engineering · #Advanced Wireless Communication Technologies #Antenna Design and Analysis #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Millimeter-Wave Propagation and Modeling #Networking and Internet Architecture (cs.NI)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2201.07591
openalex publication_date 2022/01/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Future generations of wireless networks will offer newfangled performance via unprecedented solutions: the metasurface innovation will drive such a revolution by posing control onto the surrounding propagation environment, always portrayed as a tamper-proof black-box. The RIS technology, envisioned as the discrete version of a metasurface, can be dynamically configured to alter the propagation properties of the impinging signals by, e.g., steering the corresponding beams towards defined directions. This will unlock new application opportunities and deliver advanced end-user services. However, this fascinating solution comes at not negligible costs: RIS require ad-hoc design, deployment and management operations to be fully exploited. In this paper, we tackle the RIS placement problem from a theoretical viewpoint, showcasing a large-scale solution on synthetic topologies to improve communication performance while solving the "dead-zone" problem. Additionally, our mathematical framework is empirically validated within a realistic indoor scenario, the Rennes railway station, showing how a complex indoor propagation environment can be fully disciplined by an advanced RIS installation.