Wireless Communications With Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface: Path Loss Modeling and Experimental Measurement

Abstract

Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) comprised of tunable unit cells\nhave recently drawn significant attention due to their superior capability in\nmanipulating electromagnetic waves. In particular, RIS-assisted wireless\ncommunications have the great potential to achieve significant performance\nimprovement and coverage enhancement in a cost-effective and energy-efficient\nmanner, by properly programming the reflection coefficients of the unit cells\nof RISs. In this paper, free-space path loss models for RIS-assisted wireless\ncommunications are developed for different scenarios by studying the physics\nand electromagnetic nature of RISs. The proposed models, which are first\nvalidated through extensive simulation results, reveal the relationships\nbetween the free-space path loss of RIS-assisted wireless communications and\nthe distances from the transmitter/receiver to the RIS, the size of the RIS,\nthe near-field/far-field effects of the RIS, and the radiation patterns of\nantennas and unit cells. In addition, three fabricated RISs (metasurfaces) are\nutilized to further corroborate the theoretical findings through experimental\nmeasurements conducted in a microwave anechoic chamber. The measurement results\nmatch well with the modeling results, thus validating the proposed free-space\npath loss models for RIS, which may pave the way for further theoretical\nstudies and practical applications in this field.\n

Keywords

Affiliated Institutions

• Southeast University BD
• Laboratoire des signaux et systèmes FR

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