Intelligent Beam Steering for Wireless Communication Using Programmable Metasurfaces

Nouman Ashraf, Taqwa Saeed, Hamidreza Taghvaee, Sergi Abadal, Vasos Vassiliou, Christos Liaskos, Andreas Pitsillides, Marios Lestas

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS) are well established as a promising solution to the blockage problem in millimeter-wave (mm-wave) and terahertz (THz) communications, envisioned to serve demanding networking applications, such as 6G and vehicular. HyperSurfaces (HSF) is a revolutionary enabling technology for RIS, complementing Software Defined Metasurfaces (SDM) with an embedded network of controllers to enhance intelligence and autonomous operation in wireless networks. In this work, we consider feedback-based autonomous reconfiguration of the HSF controller states to establish a reliable communication channel between a transmitter and a receiver via programmable reflection on the HSF when Line-of-sight (LoS) between them is absent. The problem is to regulate the angle of reflection on the metasurface such that the power at the receiver is maximized. Extremum Seeking Control (ESC) is employed with the control signals generated mapped into appropriate metasurface coding signals which are communicated to the controllers via the embedded controller network (CN). This information dissemination process incurs delays which can compromise the stability of the feedback system and are thus accounted for in the performance evaluation. Extensive simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method to maximize the power at the receiver within a reasonable time even when the latter is mobile. The spatiotemporal nature of the traffic for different sampling periods is also characterized.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)4848-4861
Number of pages14
JournalIEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems
Volume24
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 May 2023

Keywords

  • Beam steering
  • extremum seeking control
  • hyperSurface
  • intelligent reflecting surfaces
  • metamaterial
  • programmable wireless environments

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Automotive Engineering
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Computer Science Applications

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