Indoor and Outdoor Physical Channel Modeling and Efficient Positioning for Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces in mmWave Bands

TL;DR

This paper introduces a comprehensive, open-source mmWave RIS channel model applicable to indoor and outdoor environments, aiding in the design and deployment of 6G wireless systems with efficient RIS positioning.

Contribution

It provides a physical, accurate, open-source RIS channel model for mmWave frequencies, including deployment scenarios and insights for system design.

Findings

RIS significantly improves mmWave communication in certain scenarios

The model captures physical propagation characteristics with RIS influence

Insights on optimal RIS placement for system performance

Abstract

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted communication appears as one of the potential enablers for sixth generation (6G) wireless networks by providing a new degree of freedom in the system design to telecom operators. Particularly, RIS-empowered millimeter wave (mmWave) communication systems can be a remedy to provide broadband and ubiquitous connectivity. This paper aims to fill an important gap in the open literature by providing a physical, accurate, open-source, and widely applicable RIS channel model for mmWave frequencies. Our model is not only applicable in various indoor and outdoor environments but also includes the physical characteristics of wireless propagation in the presence of RISs by considering 5G radio channel conditions. Various deployment scenarios are presented for RISs and useful insights are provided for system designers from the perspective of potential RIS use-cases and their efficient positioning. The scenarios in which the use of an RIS makes a big difference or might not have a big impact on the communication system performance, are revealed. The open-source and comprehensive SimRIS Channel Simulator is also introduced in this paper.