ComSoc Technology News (CTN) is a free, online monthly publication that publishes interesting, timely, and newsworthy articles that span a wide range of topics related to the communications technology industry. Our mission is to be an informational resource that brings diverse perspective and thought leadership, while providing a platform for lively discussion amongst our readers.

CTN is run by a team of volunteer editorial board members who are technical experts in diverse fields. All articles are reviewed and edited by a technical editor. The editor-in-chief performs the final review prior to publication. 

September 2021 Issue

From Walls at the Office to Sides of Buildings, What If These Surfaces Can Manage the Way in Which Wireless Signals Propagate?

Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces aka RIS, can adapt or change the radio signals between the transmitters and receivers giving birth to the new concept of wireless as a service. In this article, the author Marco Di Renzo, presents the historical emergence of the RIS and highlights some future applications. He argues that recent research results confirm that effective deployment of RIS could enhance capacity, coverage and security on one side, and on other side RIS can create opportunities for future applications such as positioning and localisation by exploiting backscatter communication principles.  As a new idea it does sound promising, as with any new technology RIS is not an exception when it comes to challenges. Signal Processing, implementation, deployment and cost related challenges are a few to name when controlling the behavior of the wireless communication channel.

As you can imagine many researchers around the world are working on this technology. If you would like to learn more about RIS then this article is a must read. It presents ongoing research activities including recently funded projects, so you know where to look for recent directions, research interest groups (e.g., Special Interest Group within IEEE ComSoc Wireless Communications Technical Committee) and other recent standardisation and study groups activities.  As always, we look forward to your comments.

Muhammad Zeeshan Shakir, CTN Associate Editor

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