Network-independent and user-controlled RIS: An experimental perspective

The march towards 6G is accelerating and future wireless network architectures require enhanced performance along with significant coverage especially, to combat impairments on account of the wireless channel. Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) technology is a promising solution, that has recently been considered as a research topic in standards, to help manipulate the channel in favor of users' needs. Generally, in experimental RIS systems, the RIS is either connected to the transmitter (Tx) or receiver (Rx) through a physical backhaul link and it is controlled by the network and requires significant computation at the RIS for codebook (CB) designs. In this paper, we propose a practical user-controlled RIS system that is isolated from the network to enhance communication performance and provide coverage to the user based on its location and preference. Furthermore, a low-complexity algorithm is proposed to aid in CB selection for the user, which is performed through the wireless cloud to enable a passive and energy efficient RIS. Extensive experimental test-bed measurements demonstrate the enhanced performance of the proposed system while both results match and validate each other.