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A signal processing perspective with wireless applications
A
ntenna array technology enables the directional transmis- networks shift toward using higher-frequency bands, more
sion and reception of wireless signals for communi- antennas fit into a given aperture. For communication purpos-
cation, localization, and sensing purposes. The signal es, the arrays are harnessed to form beams in desired direc-
processing algorithms that underpin it began to be tions to improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and multiplex
developed several decades ago [1], but it was with the deploy- data signals in the spatial domain (to one or multiple devices)
ment of 5G wireless mobile networks that the technology and to suppress interference by spatial filtering [2]. For local-
became mainstream [2]. The number of antenna elements in ization purposes, these arrays are employed to maintain the
the arrays of 5G base stations (BSs) and user devices can be SNR when operating across wider bandwidths, for angle-of-
measured on the order of hundreds and tens, respectively. As arrival estimation, and to separate multiple sources and scatter-
ers [3]. The practical use of these features requires that each
antenna array is equipped with well-designed signal process-
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MSP.2021.3130549
Date of current version: 24 February 2022 ing algorithms.
1053-5888/22©2022IEEE
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Frequency Frequency
Time Time
(a)
π 0
Amplitude Response (dB)
Phase Response (rad)
–0.5
π/2
–1
0 –1.5 Frequency-Domain
Representation of ϑn,pb;θn(t)
–2
–π/2
–2.5
–π –3
2 2.5 3 3.5 4 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
Frequency ( f ) [GHz] Frequency ( f ) [GHz]
Element n
Switch
RIS With
Frequency N Elements Frequency
Controller
Time Time
=
1,
N
Transmitter
ypb(t) = Σ (h
n=1
pb;θn ∗ xpb)(t) + (hd,pb ∗ xpb)(t)
(b)
FIGURE 1. The propagation channel in current wireless systems is uncontrollable. When an RIS with N elements is added to the system, N controllable
paths are added to the end-to-end channel. The amplitude and phase of each element can be tuned to improve the signal quality at the receiver. (a) A con-
ventional wireless system where the channel propagation is uncontrollable. (b) An RIS-aided communication system with controllable propagation paths.
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06:23:49 137
End-to-end system modeling When analyzing passband systems in communication and
The uncontrollable propagation channel in Figure 1(a) is a sys- localization, it is convenient to abstract away the carrier frequen-
tem that can be analyzed using classical signal processing cy and consider only the baseband signal x(t), which, by defini-
methods. However, the controllable paths in Figure 1(b) have tion, has the same power as x pb (t) . We then need to find the
unusual properties that we will shed light on by providing the baseband counterpart to the input–output relation in (1). Many
connection between the continuous-time representations of textbooks derive such a relation for the special case of h pb (t)
channels and hardware and the corresponding discrete-time being a band-limited passband filter, but we cannot make that
models needed for digital signal processing. assumption since our system describes a wireless propa-
Consider a single-antenna transmitter that sends a wire- gation environment that can handle input signals with arbi-
less passband signal x pb (t), with time variable t ! R, to a trary frequency content. Hence, we will briefly present the
receiver via an RIS consisting of N scattering elements. We so-called complex pseudobaseband representation, where the
begin by considering the entire system as uncontrollable; received signal y(t) is defined via y pb (t) = R ( 2 y (t) e j2rfc t) .
more precisely, it is modeled as linear and time invariant By taking the Fourier transform of both sides of (1) and utiliz-
(LTI) with the real-valued impulse response h pb (t) . It then ing (3), we obtain
follows from standard signal processing theory that the out-
put signal y pb (t) is the convolution between the input and X (f - fc) + X * (- f - fc)
Ypb ( f ) = H pb( f )
impulse response: 2
47444448
Y (f - fc) Y * (- f - fc)
644474448 64444 *
H pb (f ) X (f - fc) + H pb (- f ) X * (- f - fc)
y pb (t) = (h pb ) x pb) (t) = #-33 h pb (u) x pb (t - u) du.(1) = , (4)
2
The characterizing feature of an RIS is that its proper- where we use the notation Ypb ( f ) = Fc {y pb (t)} = (Y ( f - fc) +
ties can change with time. Hence, this LTI model can be uti- Y * (- f - fc)) / 2 and Y ( f ) = Fc {y (t)} . The final equality uti-
lized only for the duration of one configuration with a fixed lizes the property H pb ( f ) = H *pb (- f ) for real-valued systems.
impulse response h pb (t) . We can distinguish between two From (4), we can identify the Fourier transform of the
RIS regimes: 1) piecewise constant, in which h pb (t) does not received baseband signal as
change while the signal of interest is nonzero and 2) continu-
ously varying, for which the LTI model in (1) is not valid. Y ( f - fc) = H pb ( f ) X ( f - fc) & Y ( f ) = H pb (f + fc) X (f) . (5)
This tutorial focuses on the former category, where the LTI
model can be used for the duration of one configuration, but Taking the inverse Fourier transform of (5) yields
we will briefly describe the second class when discussing
mobility effects. y (t) = (h ) x) (t) = #-33 h (u) x (t - u) du, (6)
Suppose the transmitted signal is generated from a com-
plex-valued baseband signal x(t) with bandwidth B/2 that where the impulse response h (t) = h pb (t) e - j2rfc t is the com-
is modulated to the carrier frequency fc, which satisfies plex pseudobaseband representation of the system. The adjec-
B # 2fc and usually B % fc . For example, a typical scenario tive pseudo indicates that the downshifted h(t) is not a
in 5G is fc = 3 GHz and B = 100 MHz. The transmitted baseband filter, but the output signal y(t) is baseband anyway
passband signal will then have bandwidth B and can be since we input the baseband signal x(t). The key benefits of
expressed as the pseudobaseband representation are that we can vary the
bandwidth B of x pb (t) without changing the impulse response
x (t) e j2rfc t + x ) (t) e -j2rfc t
x pb (t) = R ^ 2 x (t) e j2rfc t h =
and that h(t) represents the true physical system instead of a
, (2)
2 baseband-filtered version of it.
where R ( $ ) outputs the real part of its argument, j = - 1 is Continuous-time system model with RIS elements
the imaginary unit, and 2 keeps the power constant. If we as reconfigurable filters
let Fc {$} denote the continuous Fourier transform, the relation The signal x pb (t) is the transmitted electromagnetic signal in
in (2) is equivalent to Figure 1(b), and y pb (t) is the filtered version that reaches the
receiver. We now describe how the impulse responses of the
X ( f - fc) + X ) (- f - fc) RIS paths in Figure 1(b) can be modeled in the pseudobase-
X pb ( f ) = , (3)
2 band. For brevity, we consider only the controllable channel
via the RIS in this section. We will later enrich the model by
where X pb ( f ) = Fc {x pb (t)} and X ( f ) = Fc {x (t)} are the fre- including the uncontrollable part, which can describe a line-
quency-domain representations of the passband and baseband sig- of-sight (LOS) path and scattered paths not involving the RIS.
nals, respectively. The frequency response H pb ( f ) = Fc {h pb (t)} We characterize the impulse response h pb; i (t) of the end-to-
describes how the system filters different signal frequencies, end channel filter, and we add the subscript i = [i 1, f, i N ] T
generally changing the amplitude and delay differently. to indicate that the impulse response is configured by a set of
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z (t) = (h i ) x) (t) + w (t) = / x [m] (h i ) p) ` t - m j + w (t),
3
ted signal x [k] but also intersymbol interference from
m =-3
B x [k - 1], f, x [k - M + 1] . A common way to untangle the
(10)
interference is to design the transmitted symbols by using
orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM), trans-
where the equality follows from (9). forming the channel into a collection of separate frequency
Since the desired signal is band limited to ; f ; # B/2, subcarriers. We provide the corresponding reformulated
while the noise is not, we filter z(t) using an ideal low- system model, which will be utilized for communication
pass filter with impulse response p(t), the same as in (9), and localization.
to remove the out-of-band noise. We then take samples at Suppose we want to transmit a block of K symbols,
the symbol rate at time instants t = k/B + h, where k is the | [0], f, | [K - 1], and append a so-called cyclic prefix to
integer sample index and h is the sampling delay at the obtain the following sequence of length K + M - 1 that can be
receiver, to obtain transmitted over the input-output system defined in (14):
x [k] = '
3 | [k] k = 0, f, K - 1
z [k] = (p ) z) (t) t = k/B + h = / x [m] h i [k - m] + w [k], (11)
| [k + K] k = - M + 1, f, - 1.
(15)
m =-3
where the discrete-time impulse response is defined as Since we added the final M - 1 symbols as a prefix, we can
interpret (14) as a cyclic convolution between {| [k] : k = 0, f,
h i [k] = ( p ) h i ) p) ^ t h t = k/B + h K - 1} and {h i [k] : k = 0, f, M - 1}, plus noise if K > M.
N Let us define the K-point discrete Fourier transform (DFT) of
= / ( p ) b n ) j n; in ) a n ) p) (t) (12)
an arbitrary sequence s [k] as Fd {s [k]} = ` 1 K j
n=1 t = k/B + h
R Kk =-01 s [k] e -j2rko/K , where the scaling factor keeps the energy
by inserting the RIS system model from (8). Note that the constant. Taking the DFT of (14) and given the fact that cyclic
discrete-time impulse response is created by low-pass fil- convolution becomes the product of the corresponding Fourier
tering the end-to-end continuous-time impulse response transforms, we obtain the K orthogonal subcarriers
h i (t) and then taking samples of it. The discrete-time
noise w [k] in (11) is circularly symmetric complex zr [o] = hr i [o] xr [o] + wr [o], o = 0, f, K - 1, (16)
Gaussian distributed since w(t) is Gaussian and indepen-
dent for different k since (p ) w) (t) has sinc (B (t 1 - t 2)) where zr [o] = Fd {z [k]} and xr [o] = Fd {x [k]} describe the
as autocorrelation: received and transmitted signals, respectively, in the frequen-
cy domain.
w [k] = (p ) w) ^ t h t = k/B + h ~N C (0, N 0) . (13) At subcarrier o, the frequency response of the end-to-end
channel is
The discrete-time model in (11) applies to any system but
M-1
can be simplified by considering the specific properties that
wireless channels and practical signals and systems possess:
hr i [o] = / h i [k] e -j2rko/K , (17)
k=0
1) the channels are causal and incur a finite maximum delay,
2) the ideal sinc pulse p(t) is approximated by a time-limited and the transformed noise wr [o] = Fd {w [k]} ~N C (0, N 0) is
Nyquist pulse (i.e., requiring a bandwidth slightly larger than independent for o = 0, f, K - 1. Notice that (16) has a more
B, where B is the symbol rate), 3) the sampling delay h is convenient structure than (14) since there is no intersym-
selected to obtain a causal discrete-time system. This implies bol interference. It is known as a discrete memoryless chan-
that the channel is a finite-impulse response (FIR) filter with nel with additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). OFDM
M $ 1 terms: exploits this feature by treating xr [o] as the transmitted signal
and zr [o] as the received signal. In an OFDM implementa-
k
z [k] = / x [m] h i [k - m] + w [k] tion, the transmitted time domain x [k] is generated from
m = k-M+1 xr [o] by an inverse Fourier transform, while the receiver
M-1
computes the Fourier transform of its received signal z [k] to
= / h i [,] x [k - ,] + w [k], (14)
obtain zr [o] .
,=0
b n, pb (t) = / ,
bn d (t -
,
x n, b)
,=1 The propagation channels determine v k ! C N , while the RIS
Lb
determines ~ i ! C N and is the same for all k. Hence, v k is
& b n (t) = / bn e
, -j2rfc t ,
d (t - x n, b), (19)
given by nature, while ~ i is controllable. We can compute
,=1
the frequency response as
where b ,n ! [0, 1] is the propagation loss and x ,n, b $ 0 is the
delay of the , th path. We assume that the signal bandwidth is hr i [0] h i [0]
sufficiently small to make the frequency response of the RIS > h H = F > h H = FV T ~ i, (23)
element constant in amplitude and time delay (i.e., linear hr i [K - 1] h i [M - 1]
144 4244 43 144 4244 43
phase); that is, the RIS is narrowband while the wireless chan- hi h
nels might be wideband. For a given configuration i n ! X
selected from some set X of feasible configurations, element where V = [v 0, f, v M - 1] is an N # M matrix and F is a K # M
n is reradiating a fraction c in ! [0, 1] of the incident signal DFT matrix with the (o, k) th element being e -j2rko/K . We
power and incurs a delay of x in $ 0 so that make use of this notation when considering wideband systems.
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found in [21]. Using the steering vector, we can write R nN= 1 ture. There are two principal types of channels for sending this
- j2rfc (x n,a + x n,b + x )
a n b n c in e in
= ab e j} RIS (a (z a) 9 a (z b)) T ~ i, information: out-of-band and in-band. An out-of-band control
where a = a n , b = b n for all n, } RIS is a common phase shift, channel does not consume part of the useful bandwidth B and
z a is the angle to the transmitter, and z b is the angle to the is implemented as a wired link or wireless channel that uses
receiver. We use this geometric modeling for simulations different frequency spectrum. The RIS-controlled channel in
and localization. (26) implicitly assumes that the control information has been
exchanged through an out-of-band channel before the actual
RIS-aided communication communication starts.
The central element when characterizing the performance of a In contrast, an in-band control channel consumes part of
communication channel is the probabilistic relation between the useful bandwidth to configure the RIS, and this should be
the discrete-time input x and output z, specified by the condi- factored in when computing the overall capacity of the wire-
tional probability density function p (z | x) . For example, the less channel. The in-band control information can be sent
narrowband system in (25) has the complex symbols x and z before the actual communication. However, it is also possible
as inputs and outputs, respectively. The received signal for the to have an in-band control channel in which the RIS control
kth transmitted symbol is information is simultaneously sent with the payload data.
In this case, the RIS should be able to decode the control
z [k] = h i x [k] + w [k], k = 0, 1, f, (26) information embedded in x [k] and, based on that, causally
change the value of h i (i.e., change i) for symbols with indi-
where a discrete sequence {x [k]} of code word symbols ces j > k. It is immediately clear that the end-to-end channel
describing the payload data is transmitted and each one is cannot be an AWGN channel anymore. In an information-
attenuated by a factor h i ! C and corrupted by the indepen- theoretic sense, this situation corresponds to a relay channel
dent noise w [k] ~N C (0, N 0). in which the source broadcasts two types of data: payload
To arrive at the well-known communication model of an (intended for the receiver) and control (intended for the RIS
AWGN channel, we need some further assumptions. First, h i that becomes a relay node). Based on the received data, the
is fixed for all symbols in a given code word, and its value is RIS changes the configuration of the end-to-end channel.
known to the transmitter and receiver. Second, we assume that The authors of [5], [22], and [23] compare RIS-aided and
the power limit of the sender is P Watt. Since there are B symbols traditional relay-aided systems. Here, we provide a different
per second, each symbol should satisfy the power constraint perspective by using the layering framework, as depicted
E {; x [k]; 2} # P/B. Finally, the transmitter must know the SNR in Figure 2. We consider a wireless connection between
of the channel, which is given by SNR = P ; h i ; 2 / (BN 0). The node 1 and node 2, aided by a cascade of RISs and relays.
capacity of this AWGN channel is Nodes 1 and 2 implement all protocol layers (not depicted).
Suppose node 1 transmits to node 2. The wireless signal
C = B log 2 ^1 + SNR h = B log 2 c 1 + m bit/s. (27)
P ; h i ;2
is reflected by RIS 1, which is configured using an out-
BN 0
of-band control channel. The payload data (the blue line)
If any of the preceding assumptions are violated (e.g., h i is stay at layer 0 (the wireless medium), meaning that the RIS
not known by the receiver or the SNR is not known by the affects only the propagation environment, without process-
transmitter), the channel is not AWGN, and the capacity for- ing the communication flow. The control information (the
mula (27) is not valid. For a deeper discussion of how red line) shows that there needs to be an out-of-band com-
assumptions affect the definition of a communication channel, munication between node 1, node 2, and RIS 1 to select a
see [10, Ch. 6]. suitable configuration i.
This discussion can be extrapolated to the OFDM channel Next, the signal reaches RIS 2, which uses an in-band
in (16), obtained as a superposition of K parallel memory- control channel. The payload data stay at layer 0, while the
less AWGN channels. In this case, we need to consider a set RIS controller decodes the control information and adapts
of K channel values {hr i [o]}, each associated with one of its configuration. Then, the signal reaches a nonregenera-
the narrowband subcarrier channels. Given the transmitter, tive amplify-and-forward relay. The payload data go through
the receiver, and a narrowband channel, an obvious objec- layer 1 (physical), where the signal is amplified and the active
tive of an RIS would be to select the configuration i to circuitry introduces additional noise. The depicted control
create a channel h i that maximizes the capacity (27). More channel is out-of-band, but, similar to the RIS 1 case, it can
generally, in case of OFDM, the objective is to create a set be implemented in-band, using a dedicated communication
of K channels {hr i [o]} that maximizes the sum of the capac- protocol that is not employed by the payload data. Finally, the
ity of the constituent subcarrier channels. In this case, the decode-and-forward relay decodes the payload and control
values of the channels hr i [0], f, hr i [K - 1] may not be inde- data and is capable of interpreting the control information.
pendently optimized, as they are determined by the same
RIS configuration. RIS design for narrowband capacity maximization
To have the RIS configured, it is necessary that it is capa- To explain how an RIS can be used to maximize capacity,
ble of receiving control information from the radio infrastruc- we begin by considering a simple setup: a single-antenna
> H > H
i1
a1 b1 c a1 b1 c
P ab, which is the product of two propagation losses that can be
= h h , very small numbers.
BN 0 4 aN bN c e - j2rfc (x N,a + x N,b + x iN )4
aN bN c
A geometrical interpretation of the optimal RIS con-
(28) figuration is provided in Figure 3, where a plane wave is
2
N
incident on a large, flat surface. If it is a homogeneous
# P / a n b n c , (29)
BN 0 n=1 metal surface, as in Figure 3(a), the plane wave changes
direction according to Snell’s law but otherwise is unaf-
where the final step follows from the Cauchy–Schwartz fected (e.g., the two rays remain parallel). Each point on
inequality. the surface reradiates the incident signal without causing
The upper bound in that inequality is achieved if and only any extra delays. In the illustrated scenario, the reflect-
if the two vectors in (28) are parallel, which occurs when ed signal does not reach the receiver. If the surface is
e - j2rfc (x n,a + x n,b + x ) is the same for all n [24]. Hence, each RIS
in
replaced by an RIS, as in Figure 3(b), the optimized con-
element should phase shift its reradiated signal so that it reach- figuration focuses the reradiated signal at the receiver.
es the receiver synchronously in phase with the signals from The configuration in (30) adds extra delays in the center
all the other RIS elements. There are multiple solutions due to of the surface to make the propagation time to the receiver
the phase periodicity, but the one causing the minimum overall equal for all parallel rays that are reflected. As illustrated
time delay is [25] by the dashed line, the RIS is synthesizing how signals
would have been reflected by a parabolic surface, where
the length of each path via the surface is equal. This con-
x i n = ^ max x i, a + x i, b h - x n, a - x n, b, (30)
i = 1, f, N figuration will change the shape and main direction of the
waveform (e.g., the two parallel incident rays have differ-
where x in = 0 for the element experiencing the largest propa- ent directions when reradiated). The same effect could
gation delay while all other elements add positive delays have been mechanically achieved by rotating and bending
x i n 2 0 to match the largest propagation delay. the flat metal surface, but doing so electronically using an
DF Relay
Layer 1 Layer 1
Layer 0
FIGURE 2. A layered perspective of the RIS and relay functionality. The wireless connection between node 1 and node 2 is supported by a cascade of
RIS 1 with out-of-band control, RIS 2 with in-band control, amplify-and-forward (AF) relay, and decode-and-forward (DF) relay.
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RIS adds great flexibility since different surface shapes can that x in $ 0; that is, k n $ ^ fc ^x n, a + x n, b - x d hh, where ^ · h is
be synthesized at various times. the ceiling function. Then, the delay spread Td is
SNR =
BN 0
te
- j2rfc x d
+ / an bn c e
- j2rfc (x n,a + x n,b + x i n)
e -j2rfc x d as possible. This leads to a partially coherent addition
n= 1
N 2 of the N + 1 components of the channel h i . One can prove
# P te
- j2rfc x d
+ / an bn c e
- j2rfc x d
that the SNR loss is around only 8/r 2 = - 0.9 dB when hav-
BN 0 n= 1
ing these four configurations [27], which implies that a small
N 2
= P t+ / an bn c . (31) number of configurations per element is sufficient when imple-
BN 0 n= 1 menting an RIS.
Figure 4 shows the capacities that can be achieved in a nar-
The upper bound is once again obtained by the Cauchy– rowband setup with B = 1 MHz and a varying number of RIS
Schwartz inequality, with the key difference that we cannot elements with c = 1. The propagation losses via the RIS are
control the phase of the uncontrollable channel component. a n = - 80 dB and b n = - 60 dB, while P/ (BN 0) = 100 dB.
Hence, we need to select the delays of the RIS elements so that We consider two cases for the uncontrollable channel: –80 dB
the N reradiated signals reach the receiver in phase with the (strong) and –110 dB (weak). We notice that the RIS can
signal received across the uncontrollable channel. Note that increase the capacity by orders of magnitude when the uncon-
e - j2rfc x d = e - j2rfc (x n,a + x n,b + x ) holds if x in = x d - x n, a - x n, b
in
trollable channel is weak. The RIS-controlled path is 30 dB
for n = 1, f, N, but this results in a negative delay if the weaker than the uncontrollable path when N = 1, but since its
uncontrollable channel path is shorter than the paths via the contribution to the SNR grows as N 2, it surpasses the uncon-
RIS, which is usually the case. Therefore, to achieve a caus- trollable channel in strength when having N = 32 elements,
al system implementation, we need to select the delays as and beyond that, the SNR grows as N 2 . When the uncontrol-
x i n = (x d - x n, a - x n, b) + (k n /fc), where k n is an integer such lable channel is strong, the capacity is already high, and the
Conventional
Homogeneous RIS
Surface
Receiver Receiver
(a) (b)
FIGURE 3. (a) A large, homogeneous, flat surface will reflect an incident plane wave in another direction, determined by Snell’s law. Parallel incident rays
remain parallel after reflection. (b) In contrast, an RIS of the same physical dimensions can be configured to synthesize the shape of a different object
(here, a parabolic reflector), thereby controlling the direction and shape of the reflected waveform.
Capacity (Mb/s)
formance difference is small.
ρ = –80 dB (Four Configuration)
4 ρ = –110 dB (Ideal Configuration)
Reconfiguration under mobility
ρ = –110 dB (Four Configuration)
Most wireless channels are time variant due to user mobility.
Yet, many properties of communication systems can be stud- 2
ied using LTI system theory by assuming (approximately)
piecewise time-invariant channels, as done so far in this arti- 0
cle. However, the study of Doppler effects due to mobility 0 50 100 150 200
requires dropping the time invariance assumption and employ- Number of RIS Elements (N )
ing linear time-variant (LTV) system theory.
The nonlinear Doppler effect widens the signal bandwidth FIGURE 4. The capacity of a narrowband channel grows with the number
and can result in intersymbol interference, but we show that of RIS elements. The benefit of controlling the channel using an RIS is
particularly significant when the uncontrollable “direct” channel is weak.
the RIS can mitigate some of these effects by varying its con-
figuration to electronically synthesize movement, as illustrat-
ed in Figure 5. To show how to do that, we start by revisiting y pb (t) = #-33 H pb (f, t) X pb (f) e j2 ft df, (34)
r
Uncontrollable Path
RIS and Time-Varying RIS
Synthesized Time
Received Signals:
RIS Motion
Static RIS
User Motion
End-to-End Propagation Via the nth RIS Element
FIGURE 5. User motion creates a time-variant system, resulting in Doppler shifts. The shifts are generally different for the uncontrollable channel and the
controllable channels via the RIS. However, the controllable channel can be configured to achieve zero Doppler spread by synthesizing RIS movement
along a matching trajectory.
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time-varying impulse response j n, pb; in (x, t) and transfer func- that achieves this with minimum delay was determined in (30)
tion H n, pb; in ( f, t) = c i n (t) e - j2rfx (t), which is analogous to
in
as _ n (t) = max i = 1, f, N {x i, a + x i, b (t)} for all n. When this solu-
(20) except that c in and x in are now functions of the time t. tion is applied under mobility, the pointwise maximum opera-
The resulting end-to-end propagation path across the nth tion will occasionally lead to discontinuities with sudden phase
RIS element is presented as a cascade of three systems in Fig- jumps. Avoiding this requires restricting the phase shifts induced
ure 5. Computing the joint impulse response for this path is by _ n (t) to integer multiples of 2r; that is, _ n (t) = k n (t) /fc, with
slightly more complicated than before due to the cascade of k n (t) being a piecewise constant function taking integer values.
two LTV filters. To this end, we define the auxiliary signals Moreover, causality requires all x in (t) to be nonnegative. Thus, the
xu n, pb (t) and xr n, pb (t) as indicated in Figure 5, that is, as the delay is minimized by k n (t) = max i = 1, f, N ^ fc ^x i, a + x i, b (t)hh
outputs of the first and second filters, respectively. From the for all n. This increases the propagation delay by at most
input–output relations in (33) and (34), it follows that the signal one period of the carrier signal compared to the delay-mini-
transmitted across the nth RIS element is mizing configuration, avoids undesired spectral effects, and
does not introduce any extra delay spread. Moreover, we have
y n, pb (t) = #-33 b n,pb (u, t) xr n,pb (t - u) du, (35) x (t - x d (t)) . x (t - x n, a - x in (t) - x n, b (t)) as long as the sym-
bol time is much larger than the delay spread.
= #-33 b n,pb (u, t)` #-33 H n,pb; in ( f, t - u) Xu n, pb ( f ) e j2rf (t - u) df j du, Another phenomenon that occurs only under mobility is
the Doppler shift. For each propagation path, the Doppler
(36)
shift is defined as the difference between the observed and
= #- 3 ` #- 3 b n,pb (u, t) H n,pb;
3 3
i n ( f, t - u) e du j A n, pb ( f ) -j2rfu
emitted frequency:
144444444444424444444444443
= H pb; i n (f, t)
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Figure 6 gives simulation results for the achievable rates tions where a perfectly rotated metal sheet is almost as effi-
across a wideband channel, inspired by the setup in Figure 1(b). cient as an RIS [18]. The RIS can increase the rate by 2.7–2.9
The RIS and receiver are located in a large room and thus have times, which makes a huge difference when there are several
an LOS channel between them. The transmitter is an access megahertz of bandwidth.
point located 400 m away and has a non-LOS (NLOS) chan- Figure 6(b) considers the case with an NLOS path from
nel to the receiver. We consider cases where the transmitter- the transmitter to the RIS, which has two effects: the path via
to-RIS channel is either LOS or NLOS. The carrier frequency the RIS is weaker, and there is no dominant path. The former
is 3 GHz, and the RIS is 0.5 # 0.5 m, which corresponds to effect results in a much smaller gap between the upper bound
N = 400 elements that each have dimension m/4 # m/4. The and “no RIS” cases, while the latter results in an inability to
channels are modeled similarly to the 3rd Generation Partner- find a single-RIS configuration that fits the entire band. In this
ship Project (3GPP) channel model in [33], and the rate is aver- case, the RIS can improve the rate by 4% in the narrowband
aged across random realizations of the multipath components. case of B = 400 kHz, but the gain vanishes as B increases.
The rate in (42) appears in Figure 6 as a function of the band- One can find a slightly better RIS configuration using the algo-
width B. The optimal water-filling power allocation from (43) rithms in [30]–[32], but the bottom line is that an RIS must be
is utilized, and the transmit power P grows proportionally to carefully deployed to be truly effective. It should be deployed,
the bandwidth. The subcarrier spacing is 150 kHz; thus, the as in Figure 6(a), at a location with an LOS to the access point,
number of subcarriers increases with B as well as the number and it can then be configured to greatly improve the rate to
of channel taps. users that are within the LOS of it.
Figure 6(a) considers the case with an LOS path from the
transmitter to the RIS. The dashed curve represents the rate Protocol for channel estimation and reconfiguration
when using the heuristic STM configuration of the RIS. It pro- Capacity maximization has been described above assuming
vides 96–98% of the upper bound from (46). The gap grows that the channels are perfectly known, but a preceding chan-
with B, due to the increased frequency selectivity, but since nel estimation phase is required in practice. Since the RIS is
the LOS paths to/from the RIS are stronger than the scattered passive, the estimation must be carried out at the receiver. If
paths, it is possible to find a single-RIS configuration that we focus on the OFDM case and neglect the uncontrollable
works well across the entire band. The refined RIS configu- channel, the frequency response in (23) is hr i = FV T ~ i,
ration algorithms described in [30]–[32] can reduce the gap where the matrix V represents the cascade of the channel
but improve the rate by only a few percent. It is interesting to from the transmitter to the RIS and the channel from the RIS
compare the rate with what could be achieved without an RIS. to the receiver. It is sufficient to estimate V to compute hr i for
In this case, we can replace the RIS with either an absorbing any ~ i, which is fortunate since it is hard to resolve the indi-
material, thereby removing all the paths via the RIS, or a pas- vidual channels.
sive metal sheet causing zero phase shifts. The corresponding Suppose a known pilot signal x is transmitted on each of
curves in Figure 6(a) nearly overlap, but there are ideal situa- the M subcarriers, where M equals the number of (unknown)
150 60
50
100 40
Rate (Mb/s)
Rate (Mb/s)
30
50 20
10
0 0
0 5 10 15 0 5 10 15
Bandwidth (MHz) Bandwidth (MHz)
(a) (b)
FIGURE 6. The rate that can be achieved across a wideband channel grows proportionally to the bandwidth. LOS channels to and from the RIS can greatly
improve the slope and achieve a rate close to the upper bound in (46). This performance gain collapses if there is a non-LOS (NLOS) path to the RIS. (a)
An LOS channel from the transmitter to the RIS. (b) An NLOS channel from the transmitter to the RIS.
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angles-of-departure (AOD) at the transmitter, both in azimuth Suppose the uncontrollable channel from the transmit-
and elevation. This means that the user can be localized from ter (i.e., the BS) to the receiver (i.e., the user) consists of L d
the AOD of two BSs (by the intersection of two lines), signifi- propagation paths, where t l ! [0, 1] is the propagation loss
cantly reducing infrastructure needs. The channel parameter and x ld $ 0 is the delay of the lth path. The first one is the
measurements can be related to objects in the environment LOS path. Furthermore, the RIS is in the far field, and there is
with unknown 3D locations through simultaneous localization only an LOS path to/from the RIS (i.e., L a = L b = 1), where
and mapping. In contrast to 4G, which must collect measure- x RIS denotes the propagation delay via the first element. Under
ments through time [37], the additional angle measurements these circumstances, if xr ! C K is the transmitted pilot signal
in 5G enable sensing the environment from a single snapshot across the K subcarriers, the received signal rz [t] in the OFDM
of observations [3], [39]. Despite the high interest in mm-wave block with index t is
bands in 5G, it is important to note that lower-frequency bands Ld
~ ^ d (x RIS) 9 x
/ g l d (x ld) 9 xr + 1v4444 rh+ w
T
remain relevant due to their large coverage and support for rz [t] = i r [t], (50)
=1 424444 43
spatial multiplexing of many users. For dense multipath envi- 1l 44442444
43 Controllable channel
Uncontrollable channel
ronments, it is challenging to resolve individual propagation
l
paths, limiting the use of lower bands to favorable propagation where 9 is the Hadamard product and g l = t l e -j2rfc x d is the
environments (e.g., outdoors) and requiring data-driven finger- complex channel gain of path l. Here, d (x) ! C K , with
printing techniques. 6d (x)@o = e -j2rxT f o, where T f = B/K is the subcarrier spac-
ing. The vectors v ! C N and ~ i ! C N are defined in (22),
Localization and sensing with an RIS except that the subscript k as been dropped.
The inclusion of an RIS provides several opportunities for Due to the far-field LOS assumption, we have a n = a and
localization [8], [40], including new synchronized location b n = b for all n, and we can make use of the steering vec-
references and configurations for optimizing localization per- tor of the RIS. Recall that we term it a (z) ! C N , where
az el T 2
formance. Each RIS also leads to several novel geometric z = [z , z ] ! R contains the azimuth and elevation angle.
measurements, which, in turn, improve localization accuracy The steering vector gives the phase shifts between the RIS ele-
and coverage. The 5G scenario in Figure 7 is easily general- ments for a plane wave impinging from z. If we further assume
ized to one with an RIS [41], making the problem highly over- that the fraction of reradiated power from all RIS elements is
determined and in a sense easier. Thus, we focus on the more identical, i.e., c in = c in ~ i, we can write v T ~ i in (50) as
refined and challenging case with one single-antenna transmit-
c 144424443 m
ting BS, one single-antenna receiving user, and one RIS with v T ~ i = g RIS a (z a) 9 a (z b) T ~r i, (51)
N elements. While communication uses approximately sinc- = b (z b)
shaped pulses that are bandwidth-efficient, localization
employs roughly square-shaped pulses because these are easi- where g RIS = abc e j} RIS with } RIS is a global phase shift
az el T
er to distinguish in time. and z a = [z az el T 2 2
a , z a ] ! R and z b = [z b , z b ] ! R are the
BS
RIS
BS
p
BS BS User
User User
pSP
pRIS
SP SP SP
BS BS BS pBS
FIGURE 7. Localization and sensing across generations of mobile communication technology. (a) 4G relies on multiple BSs to obtain time-difference-of-
arrival measurements. Uncontrollable multipath components, represented here by a scatter point (SP), become a disturbance. (b) In 5G, the inclusion
of angle-of-arrival and angle-of-departure measurements reduces infrastructure needs and enables the sensing of the environment. (c) Beyond 5G, a
scenario with a single BS and an RIS is shown. This infrastructure is sufficient to localize a user and provide partial map information if we exploit the fact
that the RIS path is controllable.
[R T ( p - p RIS)]3
z b = arccos e o, (56) RIS design for localization and sensing
el
p - p RIS We want to design an RIS-enabled localization system in a
deployment region R 1 R 3 . We rely on Fisher information
where T clk ! R is the user’s clock bias, c is the speed of light, theory (as developed for wideband localization in [35], which
R ! C 3 # 3 is the rotation matrix defining the RIS’s orientation we use as a basis in this article) for offline and online design.
(i.e., R T z maps z from the global to the local RIS coordinate We denote the unknown channel parameters as
system), and [z] n is the nth entry of z. Signal amplitudes may
1 T T T T
also be used in localization [42], but that is not explored here. g = [x d, x RIS, z b , x l 2 1, g , g RIS] , (58)
Without an RIS, estimating p from (50) is impossible since
the observation yields only L d - 1 TDOA measurements where x l 2 1 = [x 2d, x 3d, f, x dL d] T and g = [g 1, g 2, f, g L d] T .
{x ld - x 1d : l = 2, f, L d}, while there are 3L d unknown geo- The design parameter vector v accounts for the placement
metric parameters: the user location p and locations of the and configuration of the RIS and is selected from a set S. The
L d - 1 SPs p SP,l (after the removal of the clock bias). However, Fisher information matrix (FIM) can then be defined as
we will show that adding a single RIS to the setup is suffi-
J (g ; v) = 2 / 0 "^d g n [t]hH d g n [t] ,, (59)
T
cient to make the problem identifiable in terms of p, though not
N0 t = 1
p SP,l . In particular, we will see that the RIS acts as an addition-
al synchronized BS with a phased array. We will describe the where n [t] = zr [t] - w r [t] is the noise-free observation,
K # (3L d + 5)
localization subproblems in detail: design (offline RIS place- d g n [t] ! C denotes the gradient, and 0 {$} returns
ment and online RIS configuration), channel parameter esti- the real part of its argument. The FIM satisfies the fundamen-
mation (determining {x RIS, z b, x dl : l = 1, f, L d}), localization tal Fisher information inequality J -1 (g ; v) ) E {(g - gt)
and synchronization (determining p and T clk), and sensing (g - gt) T} (in the positive semidefinite sense), under certain
(determining {p SP,l : l = 2, f, L d}). technical conditions, for any unbiased estimator gt of the
channel parameters.
RIS configuration encoding We define a corresponding parameter vector in the location
In localization, propagation paths with similar geometric domain gu = [ p, T clk, x Tl 2 1, g T, g RIS] T and associated Jacobian
parameters (angles and delays) will not be resolved when two Z = d gu g so that J (gu ; v) = Z T J (gu ; v) Z. From J (gu ; v),
conditions are met: 1) the delays and angles are similar, and 2) we can finally compute the FIM of the user location using
they are correlated. Nonresolved paths can lead to large biases Schur’s complement: we partition J (gu ; v) = 6 A, B; B T,C@,
in the estimates of angles and delays. Making the RIS config- where A ! R 3 # 3 so that J ( p ; v) = A - BC -1 B T . When
uration ~r i time varying provides new dimensions to make J ( p ; v) is invertible, we say that the location is identifiable
paths resolvable. This can be achieved across T transmission with J -1 ( p ; v) ) E " ( p - tp) ( p - tp) T ,. Since the FIM is
blocks as follows. We use Q % T RIS configurations a matrix, it is inconvenient as a design metric. However, the
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squared position error bound (SPEB) is a meaningful scalar Algorithms for channel parameter estimation
metric (measured in square meters): The controllable and uncontrollable channels can be separated
-1
using the balanced code described in (57). We obtain the fol-
SPEB ( p ; v) = trace (J ( p ; v)) # E {< p - tp < 2}. (60) lowing observation of the uncontrollable channel:
8
–10
Accuracy
6
–15 10–3
RIS
4 –20
2 –25
10–4
0 BS –30
–35
–2
–6 –4 –2 0 2 4 6 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
X Coordinate (m) T1/T
(a) (c)
Signal
Transmission Channel
Problem Offline Online
Parameter
Setup Phase Phase
Estimation
Localization
PEB (dB-meter)
–5
12 12 TDOA AOD Line
RIS –10 Hyperbola
10 10
–15
Y Coordinate (m)
Y Coordinate (m)
8 8 User
–20 RIS
6 6
RIS RIS SP
4 –25 4
2 –30 2
BS
BS
0 –35 0
TSOA Ellipse
–2 –2
–6 –4 –2 0 2 4 6 –5 0 5
X Coordinate (m) X Coordinate (m)
(b) (d)
FIGURE 8. The localization (and sensing) problem is solved in a sequence of steps, starting from the problem setup, then proceeding with the offline and
online phases, and progressing to the physical transmission, estimation, and localization. The online phase and localization can interact. (a) and (b) The
PEB (in decibel-meters) through space for one or three RISs, respectively. The white lines show the normals to the RIS surfaces. (c) The online design
for a specific location as a function of the fraction T1 /T of the configurations that maximizes the SNR among the total number of configurations. (d) The
localization output based on the LOS and controllable channel. The SP can be constrained to be on an ellipse. TSOA: time-sum-of-arrival.
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(xt dl - xt 1d) c + tp - p BS . tp - p SP, l parameters [x 1d, x RIS, z az
b]
T
is a diagonal matrix with entries
(see [35, eqs. (16) and (17)] and [45, eq. (4)])
+ p BS - p SP, l , l 2 1. (68)
2
2 g1
J (x 1d) = T B 2eff , (72)
The right-hand side can be interpreted as a time-sum-of- N0
arrival (TSOA), which determines an ellipse with the BS 2 ; g RIS ; 2 < xr < 2 T 2 Q T az
B eff / b (z b ) ~r i i , (73)
2
and estimated user location as focal points. Since the con- J (x RIS) =
N0 Q i= 1
trollable channel from the RIS is not dependent on the
uncontrollable channel, the RIS does not directly improve 2; g RIS ; 2 < xr < 2 T
J (z baz) =
sensing but indirectly contributes through better localiza- N0 Q
tion accuracy. Note that when there is detectable multi- J ) 2N
h` b (z baz) ~
r ii j
Q
/ ^ b T (z baz) ~r
.T
K O
bounce multipath (the BS to the RIS to the SP to the user), K Q .T 2
ii
O
the AOD from the RIS to the SP can also be inferred, $ K / b (z baz) ~r i i - i= 1
Q O,
enabling the unique localization of each SP. Ki = 1 / b T (z az
2 O
K b )~
r ii O
L i= 1 P
(74)
Indoor localization example .
We will now exemplify the localization in a 2D scenario, where B 2eff = R Kk = 1 (2rkT f )2 xr k 2 and b (z az
b ) denotes the
where the elevation angle z elb is removed from the set of derivative of b (z azb ) [defined in (51)] with respect to z b .
az
unknown parameters to simplify the exposition. The method- Based on the Jacobian, it can be verified that the FIM becomes
ology is summarized as a block diagram in Figure 8, and we
describe the main blocks. Following the scenario in Figure 7, J (x 1d) J (x RIS)
we consider a 10 m # 10 m indoor environment with the BS J ( p ; v) = 12 (u BS - u RIS) (u BS - u RIS) T
c J (x d1) + J (x RIS)
in the middle of a wall at location p BS = [0, 0] T . An RIS can
Nu RIS u TRIS N T
be placed at the center of each of the three remaining walls. + J (z az
b) 2
, (75)
The BS has an antenna that is omnidirectional in the azimuth p RIS - p
plane and operates at a carrier frequency of fc = 28 GHz
with 400 MHz of bandwidth, using K = 3, 000 subcarriers where N = [0, - 1; + 1, 0] is a rotation matrix across r/2, u BS
and a transmission power of 20 decibel milliwatts (dBm). is a unit vector from the BS to the user, and u RIS a unit vector
The RIS consists of N = 64 elements deployed along a line from the RIS to the user. The expression (75) shows that with
with m/5 spacing (e.g., the total size is about 14 cm) and aid of the RIS, we obtain two fundamental directions of Fisher
unity-per-element gain G (z az) = 1 for ; z az ; # r/2 and information: 1) u BS - u RIS, with an intensity (as defined in
G (z az) = 0 elsewhere. The noise power spectral density is [35]) that depends on the TOA accuracy of the LOS and RIS
N 0 = - 174 dBm/Hz. We use Q = 8 RIS configurations and path, and 2) u RIS, with an intensity reduced with the distance.
T = 256 transmission blocks. The pilot symbols have a con- This FIM analysis provides contradictory design require-
stant modulus. We generate ments: for optimal TOA estimation, we should maximize the
SNR and set ~r i i = b ) (z az b ) for all i. This is equivalent to the
`5j
m 2 compromise is to configure the RIS using ~r i i = b ) (z. az b ) for
g RIS = G (z aaz) G (z baz) 1 1 e j} RIS, a fraction of the available transmissions and set ~ i i . b ) (z az
r b)
4r p RIS - p BS p RIS - p for the remaining transmissions (which involves approximat-
(71) ing the derivative beam to be generated by the RIS so that
; [~r i i] n ; = 1). By optimizing the fraction, the two terms in (75)
where } l, } RIS are independently and uniformly distributed in can be balanced. The RIS essentially behaves like an addition-
[0, 2r) while v RCS is the radar cross section (RCS) of the SP, al synchronized BS equipped with a phased array.
expressed in square meters.
Offline design
FIM analysis We first consider five alternative designs: no RIS, an RIS on
It is instructive to investigate J ( p ; v) deeper for the case the left wall, an RIS on the front wall (facing the BS), an RIS
without uncontrollable multipath (only an LOS) and a single on the right wall, and three RISs (one on each remaining wall,
RIS. Using RIS configurations with temporal balance and bal- using orthogonal temporally balanced codes). Random RIS
anced power allocation across subcarriers and an RIS phase phase configurations are assumed. Setting the required accura-
reference in the center of the RIS, the FIM of the geometric cy to f = 0.1 m in (61), the fraction of the locations that have
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The first term accounts for the fraction of the transmitter’s Nonlinear RIS operation
signal power that is reflected by the RIS, which is a very This article focuses on applications where the RIS has a
small number even when N is large since a 1 - 70 dB is typ- (piecewise) constant configuration, so the RIS can be mod-
ical. Hence, the RIS cannot achieve a higher SNR than Nb, eled as a linear filter. We also explained how LTV system
but the difference reduces as 1/N. When comparing an RIS theory can be used in the case where the RIS is tuned to miti-
with alternative technologies, it must be physically larger to gate the Doppler effect caused by mobility. A different option
be competitive [5]. is to vary the RIS configuration continuously during the
SNR scaling behaviors are extensively studied in signal transmission of a signal block to modulate the transmitted
processing for communication and localization to understand signal before it is reradiated [46]. This effectively creates a
the ultimate performance and obtain intuitive performance nonlinear end-to-end channel where the received signal con-
approximations for cases with large arrays. Although the tains a wider range of frequencies than the transmitted signal.
asymptotic regime where N " 3 is commonly studied, prac- The key applications remain to be discovered, but it is clear
tical technologies have operated far from the limit, so it has that signal processing provides the right tools for analysis
been unimportant whether the underlying models are asymp- and optimization.
totically accurate or not. Since the law of conservation of
energy dictates that we cannot receive more power than what Mutual coupling
was transmitted, the SNR must approach a finite upper limit A model assumption that was made in Figure 1(b) is that the N
as N " 3. The aforementioned SNR scaling was obtained elements act as separate filters that each take a single input.
under a far-field assumption: the propagation losses a n b n are However, when the RIS elements are closely spaced, it is
equal for all N RIS elements. However, when the transmitter hard to fully isolate them on the substrate material. This
and receiver are at a distance from the RIS similar to the RIS’s leads to mutual coupling, where the impedance of one ele-
width/height, the geometry will make a n b n widely different ment is connected with the impedances of neighboring ones.
between the elements [23]. This scenario is unavoidable as Hence, if the curves in Figure 1 exemplify how an RIS ele-
N " 3 but also occurs in practice when the RIS is 1 m wide ment behaves in isolation, in reality, the frequency response
and the user is at a similar distance. will also depend on the configuration of the nearby elements.
The general SNR expressions presented in this tutorial The mutual impedance is dependent on the physical proper-
remain valid, and if propagation loss models that capture the ties of the components and can be determined through
radiative near-field properties are utilized, one can derive how lengthy full-wave simulations, such as the method of
the SNR converges to a finite upper limit [23]. More impor- moments, that must be carried out for each configuration.
tantly, the near field enables the RIS to focus signals not only Such an analysis has previously been done for antenna
in a particular direction but at a certain point in that direction, arrays. The special case of canonical minimum-scattering
thereby making a flat RIS better than a flat mirror [5]. This (CMS) antennas [47] enables expressing the mutual imped-
property can also be utilized for improved localization [41]. ance as a closed-form function of the distance and orienta-
Since classical array signal processing focuses on the far field, tions of two antennas [48], [49].
there are great opportunities to develop new algorithms that The CMS approach, however, does not capture the desired
exploit the unique near-field properties for improved commu- operation of the RIS, as CMS antennas do not facilitate full
nication and localization. 2r phase control [50]. In contrast, an RIS made from patch
or slot antennas effectively decouples the amplitude and
Channel modeling and sparsity phase of the reflected wave, enabling full 2r phase con-
The system models in this article can be utilized for any LTI trol. Without proper modeling of the mutual impedance, the
channel, but the channel modeling for the RIS is in its infancy, tradeoff between complexity and performance as the RIS is
with limited experimental validation. In a multipath environ- densified cannot be evaluated. Therefore, different modeling
ment, different parts of the RIS will observe various linear techniques that do not rely on the CMS assumption have to
combinations of the impinging waves, leading to fading varia- be developed to capture the behavior of RISs with closely
tions. The wavelength limits the variability, and, even in rich spaced elements.
scattering, there will be correlation between the channel coef- For conventional antenna arrays, mutual coupling carries
ficients observed at RIS elements that are within a few wave- drawbacks, such as scan blindness and ohmic losses. Scan
lengths [21]. This fundamental property has several impacts on blindness is when a wave is fully reflected, and it might
RIS operation. The resulting spatial sparsity can be exploited be a desirable effect for an RIS. The high ohmic losses of
to simplify channel estimation. It also enables an RIS to superdirectivity could potentially be utilized to absorb inter-
reflect multiple signals to different locations simultaneously, ference as heat. Hence, these effects present themselves as
thereby enabling communication and localization with multi- new opportunities that should be reevaluated in the RIS con-
ple users. The modeling of how an RIS interacts with interfer- text. A methodology based on circuit theory can be utilized
ence from other systems and electromagnetic noise remains to develop discrete-time RIS system models that capture
open. There are signal processing research challenges in sys- mutual coupling, but this research is in its infancy. Mutual
tem modeling, algorithmic design, and optimization. coupling will have an impact on algorithmic design as well as
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06:23:49 157
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