Codebook-Based Solutions for Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces and Their Open Challenges
Open accessAbstract
Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) is a revolutionary technology to cost-effectively improve the performance of wireless networks. We first review the existing framework of channel estimation and passive beamforming (CE & PBF) in RIS-assisted communication systems. To reduce the excessive pilot signaling overhead and implementation complexity of the CE & PBF framework, we conceive a codebook-based framework to strike flexible trade-offs between communication performance and signaling overhead. Moreover, we provide useful insights into the codebook design and learning mechanisms of the RIS reflection pattern. Finally, we analyze the scalability of the proposed framework by flexibly adapting the training overhead to the specified quality-of-service requirements and then elaborate on its appealing advantages over the existing CE & PBF approaches. It is shown that our novel codebook-based framework can be beneficially applied to all RIS-assisted scenarios and avoids the curse of model dependency faced by its existing counterparts, thus constituting a competitive solution for practical RIS-assisted communication systems.
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RIS is typically lightweight and compact, making it easy to integrate with various environment structures such as buildings, ceilings, light poles, and road signs.
“Furthermore, RIS is typically lightweight and compact, making it easy to integrate with various environment structures, such as buildings, ceilings, light poles, and road signs [9].”
From Emerging Technologies in Intelligent Metasurfaces: Shaping the Future of Wireless Communications (2026) · cites this paper as [9]
The Introduction (p. 1) describes an RIS as a planar array of low-cost passive reflecting elements, but does not say it is lightweight or compact. Searches for mounting and integration found no passage in our copy addressing installation on buildings, ceilings, light poles, or road signs. (LLM, conf=0.72)
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Research works printed but not linked: 14
- [1][1] M. Di Renzo, et al. , 'Smart radio environments empowered by reconfigurable intelligent surfaces: How it works, state of research, and the road ahead,' IEEE J. Sel. Areas Commun. , vol. 38, pp. 2450-2525, Nov. 2020. -
- [2][2] Y. Zhang, et al. , 'Dual codebook design for intelligent omni-surface aided communications,' IEEE Trans. Wireless Commun. , pp. 1-14, 2022, Early Access. -
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- [4][4] J. An, et al. , 'Low-complexity channel estimation and passive beamforming for RIS-assisted MIMO systems relying on discrete phase shifts,' IEEE Trans. Commun. , vol. 70, pp. 1245-1260, Feb. 2022. -
- [5][5] T. L. Jensen and E. De Carvalho, 'An optimal channel estimation scheme for intelligent reflecting surfaces based on a minimum variance unbiased estimator,' in Proc. IEEE ICASSP , pp. 5000-5004, May 2020. -
- [6][6] Z. Wang, L. Liu, and S. Cui, 'Channel estimation for intelligent reflecting surface assisted multiuser communications: Framework, algorithms, and analysis,' IEEE Trans. Wireless Commun. , vol. 19, pp. 6607-6620, Oct. 2020. -
- [7][7] C. Huang, et al. , 'Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces for energy efficiency in wireless communication,' IEEE Trans. Wireless Commun. , vol. 18, pp. 4157-4170, Aug. 2019. -
- [8][8] Q. Wu and R. Zhang, 'Intelligent reflecting surface enhanced wireless network via joint active and passive beamforming,' IEEE Trans. Wireless Commun. , vol. 18, pp. 5394-5409, Nov. 2019. -
- [9][9] M.-M. Zhao, et al. , 'Intelligent reflecting surface enhanced wireless networks: Two-timescale beamforming optimization,' IEEE Trans. Wireless Commun. , vol. 20, pp. 2-17, Jan. 2021. -
- [10][10] G. Gradoni and M. Di Renzo, 'End-to-end mutual coupling aware communication model for reconfigurable intelligent surfaces: An electromagnetic-compliant approach based on mutual impedances,' IEEE Wireless Commun. Lett. , vol. 10, pp. 938-942, May 2021. -
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- [13][13] J. An, et al. , 'Joint training of the superimposed direct and reflected links in reconfigurable intelligent surface assisted multiuser communications,' IEEE Trans. Green Commun. Netw. , vol. 6, pp. 739-754, Jun. 2022. -
- [14][14] M. Cui, G. Zhang, and R. Zhang, 'Secure wireless communication via intelligent reflecting surface,' IEEE Wireless Commun. Lett. , vol. 8, pp. 1410-1414, Oct. 2019. -
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An, J., Debbah, M., Cui, T. J., Chen, Z. N., & Yuen, C. (2024) · arXiv · Cited by 72 · see citing works
“The codeword resulting in optimal performance is used to assist data transmission [9].”
Self-citation
- Authors
- An, J., Xu, C., Wu, Q., Ng, D. W. K., Di Renzo, M., Yuen, C., & Hanzo, L.
- Affiliations
- Nanyang Technological University (SG)
- University of Southampton (GB)
- Shanghai Jiao Tong University (CN)
- UNSW Sydney (AU)
- Universite Paris-Saclay,France
- Venue
- IEEE Wireless Communications
- Published
- 2024-04
- Volume
- 31
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 134-141
- ISSN
- 1536-1284 (ISSN-L)
- 1558-0687
- OpenAlex
- W4312563363
- Cited by
- 169
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 22 · 2025: 63 · 2024: 59 · 2023: 25
- FWCI
- 10.07
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- arxiv.org
- Licence
- Locations
- IEEE Wireless Communications (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- DR-NTU (Nanyang Technological University) (submittedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Funders
- European Commission (101017011, 871464, H2020, H2020-RISE, H2020 RISE-6G)
- Ministry of Education - Singapore (MOE-T2EP50220-0019, MOE Tier 2, Tier 2)
- Ministry of Education, India
- Horizon 2020 Framework Programme (871464, 101017011)
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/P003990/1, EP/W016605/1, 789028, EP/N004558/1, EP/J016640/1, H2020, EP/D056691/1, /W016605/1, EP/G05178X/1, EP/W016524/1)
- Australian Research Council (DP210102169)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Advanced Wireless Communication Technologies
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Aerospace Engineering › Advanced Antenna and Metasurface Technologies
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Millimeter-Wave Propagation and Modeling
- Keywords
- reconfigurable intelligent surface, channel estimation, passive beamforming, pilot overhead reduction, RIS-assisted communication, scalability, quality of service
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