The present disclosure provides a mode switching method for reducing training overheads in a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted communication system. The system includes one single-antenna base station, one single-antenna user terminal, and an RIS including N reflection elements, the single-antenna user terminal sends data to the single-antenna base station, however, when a direct link of a user-base station is blocked by a blockage, the data can be sent to the single-antenna base station only via the RIS; the RIS determines a proper reflection solution by using a controller, and dynamically adjusts a phase shift thereof to improve an achievable data rate of the system; and necessary information for phase shift adjustment can be obtained at the base station by uplink training, and transmitted to the RIS controller by using a control link.

An electronic device, includes an intelligent reflecting surface and an electronic device controller. The intelligent reflecting surface is configured to reflect all or a part of a received signal. The electronic device controller is configured to control the intelligent reflecting surface to determine a first phase of the intelligent reflecting surface to increase a relay gain of first data of the received signal, determine a second phase related to second data, and control a phase of the intelligent reflecting surface based on a sum of the first phase and the second phase to reflect the first data and the second data to a receiving device by beamforming.

The present disclosure provides methods and devices that use the RIS phase shifting ability to provide many degrees of freedom to enable data to be overlaid on transmitted signals. The data overlay is done while the RIS is still beamforming the signal towards the receiver(s). The phase shifting capabilities of the RIS elements can provide amplitude, phase, frequency, and polarization manipulations. These manipulations can help enhance the communication and provide the ability to overlay information. The present application also provides new configuration signaling among devices in a communication network utilizing the RIS and configuration for the RIS.

A wireless access point (AP) may communicate with a user equipment (UE) device via reflection off a reflective device having an array of fixed or adjustable reflectors in different orientations. The AP may illuminate different portions of an area by pointing a signal beam to different reflectors and/or by controlling the reflective device to electrically rotate the reflectors. The AP may calibrate the position of the reflective device and may establish wireless communications with the UE device by performing a sweep of signal beams over the reflectors and/or by controlling the reflective device to sweep over different reflector orientations. The AP may track movement of the UE device over time. The AP may sweep the AP beam over a subset of the reflectors around an active reflector to maintain communications with the UE device even as the UE device moves over time.

A wireless access point (AP) may communicate with a user equipment (UE) device via reflection off a reflective device having an array of fixed or adjustable reflectors in different orientations. The AP may illuminate different portions of an area by pointing a signal beam to different reflectors and/or by controlling the reflective device to electrically rotate the reflectors. The AP may calibrate the position of the reflective device and may establish wireless communications with the UE device by performing a sweep of signal beams over the reflectors and/or by controlling the reflective device to sweep over different reflector orientations. The AP may track movement of the UE device over time. The AP may sweep the AP beam over a subset of the reflectors around an active reflector to maintain communications with the UE device even as the UE device moves over time.

A controller may map user equipment (UE) devices in a wireless system to access points (AP) and reflective intelligent surfaces (RIS). The controller may generate a corresponding communications schedule based on the locations of the UE device(s), AP(s), and RIS(s) and based on current traffic demands. The controller may control the RIS(s), AP(s), and UE devices to implement the schedule. The schedule may divide the time, frequency, and/or spatial resources of the RIS(s) to meet the traffic demands of the UE devices using a space division multiple access scheme, a time-division multiple access scheme, a frequency-division multiple access scheme, and/or a distributed multiple-input and multiple output scheme. The schedule may be updated over time as needed. The RIS(s) may allow for a reduction in the number of AP(s) required to meet the dynamic demands of the UE devices, thereby minimizing deployment and operating costs.

A transmission method and apparatus, a device, and a readable storage medium are provided. The method includes: sending first information to a second device, where the first information is used for indicating at least one of a reconfigurable intelligent surface RIS capability, an RIS type, and an RIS parameter.

A method of operating a re-configurable reflective device, RRD (109) is provided. One or more wireless communication devices (102, 103, 104) are served by an access node (101) via the RRD (109) using multiple spatial data streams. The RRD (109) comprises multiple reflective elements (1094), the multiple reflective elements (1094) being grouped into a plurality of subsets (691-697), the multiple reflective elements (1094) of each subset (691-697) being re-configurable to provide multiple spatial filters. The method comprises obtaining, from the access node (101) and for each subset (691-697) of the plurality of subsets (691-697), a respective first indicator indicative of a respective entry of a respective first codebook and a respective second indicator indicative of a respective entry of a respective second codebook, and reconfiguring, for each subset (691-697) of the plurality of subsets (691-697), the respective multiple reflective elements (1094) to provide a respective one of the multiple spatial filters, based on the respective entry of the respective first codebook and the respective entry of the respective second codebook.

A user equipment (UE) device may communicate with a wireless access point (AP) via reflection off a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS). The RIS may begin to sweep antenna elements over one or more sets of signal beams beginning at an initial time while reflecting signals transmitted by the AP. The UE may record times at which the UE receives reference signals reflected by the RIS. The UE may select an optimal signal beam of the RIS based on the time periods between the initial time and the times at which the reference signals were received. The UE may inform the AP of the optimal signal beam and the RIS may use the optimal signal beam to reflect wireless data between the AP and the UE. Multiple signal beam sweeps may eliminate uncertainty or ambiguity in signal beam selection associated with timing drift or offsets between the RIS and the UE.

Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communications are described. In some systems, abase station may employ a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) that uses passive components to reflect incoming signals in one or more directions. The base station may dynamically configure the RIS to reflect an incoming signal in a specific direction. The base station may transmit, to one or more user equipments (UEs), a message indicating a configuration of one or more RISs. In some aspects, the configuration may include a location of a RIS, reflection angles of a RIS, or both. Based on the configuration, a UE may select a RIS to facilitate communications with the base station. The base station and the UE may communicate via the selected RIS. In some examples, the base station may communicate with one or more UEs via one or more RISs using RIS division multiple access (RDMA).