The prospects of using a Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS) to aid
wireless communication systems have recently received much attention from
academia and industry. Most papers make theoretical studies based on elementary
models, while the prototyping of RIS-aided wireless communication and
real-world field trials are scarce. In this paper, we describe a new RIS
prototype consisting of 1100 controllable elements working at 5.8 GHz band. We
propose an efficient algorithm for configuring the RIS over the air by
exploiting the geometrical array properties and a practical receiver-RIS
feedback link. In our indoor test, where the transmitter and receiver are
separated by a 30 cm thick concrete wall, our RIS prototype provides a 26 dB
power gain compared to the baseline case where the RIS is replaced by a copper
plate. A 27 dB power gain was observed in the short-distance outdoor
measurement. We also carried out long-distance measurements and successfully
transmitted a 32 Mbps data stream over 500 m. A 1080p video was live-streamed
and it only played smoothly when the RIS was utilized. The power consumption of
the RIS is around 1 W. Our paper is vivid proof that the RIS is a very
promising technology for future wireless communications.

本文介绍了一个由 1100 个可控元素组成的 5.8 GHz 带宽的新型可重构智能表面 (RIS) 原型，提出了一个有效的无线配置算法并进行了室内、室外和远距离的测试。结果表明，与使用铜板替换 RIS 的基准情况相比，我们的 RIS 原型在室内测试中提供了 26 dB 的增益，而在短距离室外测试中提供了 27 dB 的增益。在长距离测试中，成功传输了 32 Mbps 数据流，并且当利用 RIS 时才能流畅播放 1080p 视频。RIS 是未来无线通信非常有前途的技术。