RIS-assisted Seamless Connectivity in Wireless Multi-Hop Relay Networks

Abstract

In recent years, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) have garnered significant attention for their ability to control the phase shifts in reflected signals. By intelligently adjusting these phases, RIS can establish seamless direct paths between communication devices obstructed by obstacles, eliminating the need for forwarding and significantly reducing system overhead associated with relaying. This capability is crucial in multi-hop ad hoc networks requiring multiple relay steps. Consequently, the concept of incorporating multi-hop RIS into wireless multi-hop relay networks has emerged. In this paper, we propose a novel network model where each UAV communication node is equipped with a RIS, facilitating seamless connections in multi-hop relay wireless networks. We analyze the performance of this model by integrating RIS-assisted physical layer modeling into the seamless connection network framework and conducting a detailed comparative analysis of RIS-assisted and conventional connections. At the medium access layer, we introduce a RIS-DCF MAC protocol based on the IEEE 802.11 distributed coordination function (DCF), modeling the medium access process as a two-hop access scenario. Our results demonstrate that the seamless connections and diversity gain provided by RIS significantly enhance the performance of multi-hop relay wireless networks.