U.S.-Ireland R\&D Partnership: Smart Radio Environments with Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces -- Communications Through Blockage in Millimeter-wave Systems (REFLECT-MMWAVE)

University Of Utah, Salt Lake City UT

Investigators

Abstract

The emergence of new generation of services and applications in future networks set out many challenging requirements such as high reliability of wireless links, high data rates and support for a large number of users. These challenges become more critical as we move to millimeter wave (mmWave) bands in the quest for very high data rates. While mmWave communication is a major technology for future generations of wireless systems, it suffers from severe signal blockage, attenuation, and mmWave channels easily become time-varying with small movements. These significantly limit the link reliability and communication performance of such systems. To tackle these challenges, this project develops an innovative Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS)-aided system for mm-Wave communication, termed as Smart Radio Environments with Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces -- Communications through Blockage in Millimeter wave Systems (REFLECT-MMWAVE). The proposed project develops new technologies and methodologies to build smart radio environments that utilize RIS to manipulate the propagation of incident electromagnetic waves in a programmable manner to actively alter the channel realization. This turns the wireless channel into a controllable system block that can be optimized to improve overall system performance. The novel and innovative aspects of this proposal include: (i) Implementation of a modular RIS radio hardware that can achieve the best phase control performance for unit cells of RIS at mm-Wave frequencies. (ii) Development of advanced signal processing algorithms for practical RIS-aided mmWave transceivers, (iii) Machine learning enhanced beamforming and RIS phase shift design. (iv) Optimal design of distributed multiple access control (MAC) for mmWave RIS-aided communication networks. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.