Modeling RIS from Electromagnetic Principles to Communication Systems--Part I: Synthesis and Characterization of a Scalable Anomalous Reflector

TL;DR

This paper develops a comprehensive electromagnetic and communication modeling framework for RIS, including design, experimental validation, and integration into system-level simulations for wireless networks.

Contribution

It introduces a methodology to synthesize and characterize scalable anomalous reflectors and integrates electromagnetic models into system-level RIS simulations.

Findings

Successful design and experimental validation of an anomalous reflector

Quantization effects of reactive loads analyzed

RIS-assisted wireless network scenarios validated with measurements

Abstract

This work aims to build connections between the electromagnetic and communication aspects of Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS) by proposing a methodology to combine outputs from electromagnetic RIS design into an RIS-tailored system-level simulator and a ray tracer. In this first part of the contribution, a periodic anomalous reflector is designed using an algebraic array antenna scattering synthesis technique that enables electromagnetically accurate modeling of scattering surfaces with both static and reconfigurable scattering characteristics. The multi-mode periodic structure, capable of scattering into several anomalous angles through manipulation of reactive loads, is then cropped into finite-sized arrays, and the quantization effects of the load reactances on the array scattering are analyzed. An experimental anomalous reflector is demonstrated with a comparison between simulated and measured scattering performance. In the second part, the simulated receiving and transmitting scattering patterns of the anomalous reflector are utilized to build an electromagnetically consistent path loss model of an RIS into a system-level simulator. Large-scale fading is analyzed in simple scenarios of RIS-assisted wireless networks to verify the communication model, and an indoor scenario measurement using the manufactured anomalous reflector sample to support the simulation analysis. After verifying the connections between electromagnetic and communication aspects through simulations and measurements, the proposed communication model can be used for a broad range of RIS designs to perform large-scale system-level and ray-tracing simulations in realistic scenarios.