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Experimental demonstration of reflected beamforming and interference nulling at sub6GHz thanks to varactor-based reconfigurable intelligent surface

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Abstract

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) is a promising solution to boost coverage sustainably by reflecting waves from a transmitter to a receiver and acting as a low-power and passive relay. In this paper, for the first time, we demonstrate experimentally that a reconfigurable intelligent surface designed for sub6GHz, and using varactor technology, can perform three-dimensional reflective beamforming and interference nulling. This result is achieved with a RIS prototype of 984 unit-cells, thanks to a compact control circuit individually addressing and configuring the voltage of each unit-cell, with a distinct voltage. To our knowledge, this prototype configures 17 to 70 times more distinct voltages than in the state-of-the-art. The experimental results in an indoor environment show a 10-dB gain. They also show, for the first time, that producing such a new prototype is feasible with minimal energy footprint and environmental impact, thanks to refurbishing. Indeed, a reflectarray antenna originally designed for three-dimensional beamforming has been turned into a RIS.

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No datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.

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  18. Reconfigurable intelligent surface performing interference nulling. Video Available at: https://dai.ly/kDyKcJ4vgTlERozMgic

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  20. Experimental demonstration of 3D reflected beamforming at sub6GHz thanks to varactor based reconfigurable intelligent surface — video 2. Video Available at: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8mh0sj

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the support from Micro Ondes Antennes Recherche et Development (MARDEL) and the Centre de Recherche Mutualisé sur les Antennes (CREMANT). This work has been partially performed in the framework of the H2020 project RISE-6G under grant 101017011.

Funding

Partial support of the H2020 project RISE-6G under grant 101017011.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Orange Innovation/Networks, Sophia-Antipolis, France

    Philippe Ratajczak, Ramiz Bennadji & Eric Séguenot

  2. Orange Innovation/Networks, Chatillon, France

    Dinh-Thuy Phan-Huy

Authors
  1. Philippe Ratajczak
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  2. Ramiz Bennadji
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  3. Eric Séguenot
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  4. Dinh-Thuy Phan-Huy
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Contributions

Eric Séguenot, Ramiz Bennadji and Philippe Ratajczak have developped the test bed and done the tests presented is this paper.

Dinh Thuy Phan Huy and Philippe Ratajczak wrote the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Philippe Ratajczak.

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Ratajczak, P., Bennadji, R., Séguenot, E. et al. Experimental demonstration of reflected beamforming and interference nulling at sub6GHz thanks to varactor-based reconfigurable intelligent surface. Ann. Telecommun. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12243-024-01037-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12243-024-01037-1

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