Indoor Channel Characterization with Extremely Large Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces at $300$ GHz

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel, efficient method for indoor channel characterization with extremely large reconfigurable intelligent surfaces at 300 GHz, simplifying modeling by using a three-ray approximation within ray tracing tools.

Contribution

A new approach to incorporate large RISs in indoor channel models using a three-ray approximation, reducing complexity compared to traditional ray tracing methods.

Findings

RIS behavior can be approximated by a three-ray model

Far-field approximation is valid at small distances from RIS

Efficient integration of RISs into ray tracing tools

Abstract

The technology of Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs) is lately being considered as a boosting component for various indoor wireless applications, enabling wave propagation control and coverage extension. However, the incorporation of extremely large RISs, as recently being considered for ultra-high capacity industrial environments at subTHz frequencies, imposes certain challenges for indoor channel characterization. In particular, such RISs contribute additional multipath components and their large sizes with respect to the signal wavelength lead to near-field propagation. To this end, ray tracing approaches become quite cumbersome and need to be rerun for different RIS unit cell designs. In this paper, we present a novel approach for the incorporation of RISs in indoor multipath environments towards their efficient channel characterization. An $100\times100$ RIS design with $2$-bit resolution unit cells realizing a fixed anomalous reflection at 300 GHz is presented, whose radar cross section patterns are obtained via full-wave simulations. It is showcased that the RIS behavior can be conveniently approximated by a three-ray model, which can be efficiently incorporated within available ray tracing tools, and that the far-field approximation is valid for even very small distances from the RIS.