Radar-aided reconfigurable intelligent surface for vehicular wireless communication

Area of Science:

• Wireless Communication
• Intelligent Transportation Systems
• Electromagnetic Wave Propagation

Background:

• Modern urban traffic faces challenges with wireless signal coverage and base station-to-vehicle communication links.
• Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS) present a novel solution for controlling electromagnetic waves in real-time.
• Intelligent transportation and vehicle connectivity require advanced communication solutions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a radar-aided intelligent wireless communication system for dynamic beam tracking.
• To leverage frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar and artificial neural networks (ANN) for vehicle localization and beam direction control.
• To utilize a dual-polarized RIS for intelligent beam tracking and enhanced wireless communication.

Main Methods:

• A 3-bit dual-polarized RIS with 256 controllable units operating at 3.5 GHz was designed.
• A high-speed control board was developed for real-time voltage coding sequence updates.
• FMCW radar was used for vehicle location detection, and an ANN processed this data to control the RIS.

Main Results:

• The radar-assisted RIS system demonstrated effective dynamic beam tracking without manual intervention in comparative experiments.
• The system successfully improved wireless signal strength and communication stability across different environments.
• Experimental results validate the feasibility of the proposed system for intelligent vehicular networking.

Conclusions:

• The proposed radar-aided RIS system offers a viable solution for overcoming wireless communication challenges in intelligent transportation.
• Dynamic beam tracking capabilities significantly enhance vehicular connectivity and network performance.
• This technology paves the way for more robust and reliable intelligent vehicular networks.