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Cited by 1,150Advanced Wireless Communication TechnologiesAdvanced Antenna and Metasurface TechnologiesMillimeter-Wave Propagation and Modeling

Active RIS vs. Passive RIS: Which Will Prevail in 6G?

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Zhang, Zijian, Dai, Linglong, Chen, Xibi, Liu, Changhao, Yang, Fan, Schober, Robert, Poor, H. Vincent·2023·IEEE Transactions on Communications
DOI 10.1109/tcomm.2022.3231893
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Abstract

As a revolutionary paradigm for controlling wireless channels, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) have emerged as a candidate technology for future 6G networks. However, due to the “multiplicative fading” effect, the existing passive RISs only achieve limited capacity gains in many scenarios with strong direct links. In this paper, the concept of active RISs is proposed to overcome this fundamental limitation. Unlike passive RISs that reflect signals without amplification, active RISs can amplify the reflected signals via amplifiers integrated into their elements. To characterize the signal amplification and incorporate the noise introduced by the active components, we develop and verify the signal model of active RISs through the experimental measurements based on a fabricated active RIS element. Based on the verified signal model, we further analyze the asymptotic performance of active RISs to reveal the substantial capacity gain they provide for wireless communications. Finally, we formulate the sum-rate maximization problem for an active RIS aided multi-user multiple-input single-output (MU-MISO) system and a joint transmit beamforming and reflect precoding scheme is proposed to solve this problem. Simulation results show that, in a typical wireless system, passive RISs can realize only a limited sum-rate gain of 22%, while active RISs can achieve a significant sum-rate gain of 130%, thus overcoming the “multiplicative fading” effect.

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  • Zhang et al. designed an active RIS by integrating a small amplifier into each element, experimentally verified a signal model to characterize signal amplification, and demonstrated the potential of active RISs to double the sum rate for multiuser MISO communications.

    “Moreover, Zhang et al. [61] designed an active RIS by integrating a small amplifier into each element, as depicted in Fig. 2(b). They developed and experimentally verified a signal model to characterize the signal amplification. Based on the tested model, they demonstrated the potential of active RISs to double the sum rate for multiuser MISO communications.”

    From Emerging Technologies in Intelligent Metasurfaces: Shaping the Future of Wireless Communications (2026) · cites this paper as [61]

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Research works printed but not linked: 39

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Zhang, Z., Dai, L., Chen, X., Liu, C., Yang, F., Schober, R., & Poor, H. V.
Affiliations
  • Beijing National Research Center for Information Science and Technology (CN)
  • Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (DE)
  • Princeton University (US)
ORCID
Venue
IEEE Transactions on Communications
Publisher
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Published
2023-03
Volume
71
Issue
3
Pages
1707-1725
ISSN
  • 0090-6778 (ISSN-L)
  • 1558-0857
DOI
10.1109/tcomm.2022.3231893
OpenAlex
W4313001863
Cited by
1,150
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 197 · 2025: 371 · 2024: 314 · 2023: 168 · 2022: 82 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 1
FWCI
64.03
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • IEEE Transactions on Communications (publishedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University) (public-domain)
Funders
  • National Key Research and Development Program of China (2020YFB1807201)
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China (62031019)
  • European Commission through the H2020-MSCA-ITN META WIRELESS Research Project (956256)
  • U.S National Science Foundation (CCF-1908308, CNS-2128448)
  • Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany under the programme of “Souveran. Digital. Vernetzt.” joint project 6G-RIC (PIN 16KISK023)
  • Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SCHO 831/15-1)
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
active reconfigurable intelligent surface, 6G, multiplicative fading, signal amplification, sum rate maximization, transmit beamforming, channel capacity, signal model

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