What are the Promising Use Cases for RIS in 6G?

[@bobozee]

Love your content for a long time. Actually works in standardization of 6G. Here are some concerns of the industrial side for RIS deployment for 6G. The biggest question is what is the difference between RIS and a small repeater base station. I think this one is one that the operators are having a hard time with. If RIS is going to be powered, isn't it just as easy to set up a micro base station which has the full functionality. The current network setup is usually based on macro cells that are fully functioning. Even if it may be overkill for some places, it will be easier than trying to upgrade to a more capable base station later on (labour costs etc). Another major issue is that most vendors are actually not in support of RIS. If you are Ericsson/Nokia/Huawei/ZTE. Why would you want to sell a RIS station that is far less profitable than a full on base station.

[@WirelessFuture]

I think these are all valid concerns. It might be easier to deploy an RIS than a micro base station since no wired front/backhaul link is needed for the RIS. It is easier to find deployment locations with access to power than places with access to fiber infrastructure. However, the benefits of RIS compared small repeaters seem to be quite limited; Erik and I noted this in our first papers from 2019. In recent years, I have looked into zero-energy RIS that harvest energy from the surroundings. By alleviating the need for wired power supply, one can deploy such RIS at locations where repeaters and small base stations cannot be deployed. Even if Ericsson/Nokia/Huawei/ZTE prefer to sell more expensive equipment than RIS, I’m sure they will develop such products if there is a demand for them. But so far, the telecom operators don’t seem to be particularly interested in that technology.

[@jonnalagaddatharunkumar303]

What is meant by static path??

[@WirelessFuture]

It is the propagation paths between the transmitter and receiver that do not involve the RIS. They are "static" since the RIS cannot control them, while the paths via the RIS are dynamic.