Active RIS vs. Passive RIS: Which Will Prevail in 6G?

As a revolutionary paradigm for controlling wireless channels, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) have emerged as a candidate technology for future 6G networks. Finally, we formulate the sum-rate maximization problem for an active RIS aided multi-user multiple-input single-output (MU-MISO) system and a joint transmit beamforming and reflect precoding scheme is proposed to solve this problem.

⚡ This is an original paraphrased summary — not copied from the abstract. Full paper available at the source link below.

• 1 However, due to the “multiplicative fading” effect, the existing passive RISs only achieve limited capacity gains in many scenarios with strong direct links.
• 2 In this paper, the concept of active RISs is proposed to overcome this fundamental limitation.
• 3 Unlike passive RISs that reflect signals without amplification, active RISs can amplify the reflected signals via amplifiers integrated into their elements.

These innovations can translate to real-world improvements in technology, infrastructure, and everyday tools.

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