Show Me the Way: Real-Time Tracking of Wireless Mobile Users with UWB-Enabled RIS

TL;DR

This paper presents a real-time user tracking system in RIS-enabled indoor environments using UWB localization, with novel methods to improve robustness and accuracy, achieving significant performance gains in mobile scenarios.

Contribution

It introduces beam splitting and UWB estimation correction techniques to enhance real-time tracking and beam steering in RIS-assisted wireless networks.

Findings

Improved worst-case tracking performance by 17.5dB.

Effective real-time beam steering towards mobile users.

Enhanced robustness of UWB-based localization in practical settings.

Abstract

The integration of Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS) in 6G wireless networks offers unprecedented control over communication environments. However, identifying optimal configurations within practical constraints remains a significant challenge. This becomes especially pronounced, when the user is mobile and the configurations need to be deployed in real time. Leveraging Ultra-Wideband (UWB) as localization technique, we capture and analyze real-time movements of a user within the RIS-enabled indoor environment. Given this information about the system's geometry, a model-based optimization is utilized, which enables real-time beam steering of the RIS towards the user. However, practical limitations of UWB modules lead to fluctuating UWB estimates, causing the RIS beam to occasionally miss the tracked user. The methodologies proposed in this work aim to increase the compatibility between these two systems. To this end, we provide two key solutions: beam splitting for obtaining more robust RIS configurations and UWB estimation correction for reducing the variations in the UWB data. Through comprehensive theoretical and experimental evaluations in both stationary and mobile scenarios, the effectiveness of the proposed techniques is demonstrated. When combined, the proposed methods improve worst-case tracking performance by a significant 17.5dB compared to the conventional approach.