Reconfigurable intelligent surface beamforming

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12436219-B2
Application number	US-202217948751-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 20, 2022
Priority date	Sep 22, 2021
Publication date	Oct 7, 2025
Grant date	Oct 7, 2025

Abstract

Reconfigurable surfaces and methods for configuring surfaces include measuring properties of one or more incident signals at a configurable cell of a surface. A beam forming pattern for the surface is determined based on the measured properties of the one or more incident signals. Parameters of the configurable cell are set to implement the beam forming pattern in the surface.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for configuring a surface, comprising:
measuring properties of one or more incident signals at a configurable cell of a surface that includes configurable cells in an array of height v and width h;
determining a beam forming pattern for the surface based on the measured properties of the one or more incident signals;
determining a gain parameter for the configurable cell as:

β
m

v

,

m
h

=

❘
"\[LeftBracketingBar]"

c

𝒟
,

m
v

,

m
h

❘
"\[RightBracketingBar]"


c


∞

where m v , m h designates a location of the configurable cell in the array, C D,m v ,m h designates a beamforming vector of the configurable cell, and c is a beamforming vector of the surface;
determining a phase shift parameter for the configurable cell as:

θ

m
v

,

m
h

=

∠
⁢

c

𝒟
,

m
v

,

m
h

where ∠C D,m v ,m h is an angle of the beamforming vector of the configurable cell; and
setting the gain parameter and the phase shift parameter of the configurable cell to implement the beam forming pattern in the surface.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more incident signals include communication signals between three or more devices.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the one or more incident signals include signals between at least one transmitter and at least two receivers.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the beam forming pattern includes a composite beam having a plurality of disjoint beam lobes, wherein the at least two receivers are physically disjoint and are covered by different respective disjoint beam lobes of the composite beam.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein different pairs of the three or more devices communicate through the surface at once.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein a pair of communication devices comprised of a transmitter and a receiver, and plurality of transmitters with plurality of incident angles are communicating with corresponding plurality of receivers with plurality of reflecting angles.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein a surface parameter is set to concurrently reflect an incident signal from a first transmitter of the plurality of transmitters toward a first receiver of the plurality of receivers and an incident signal from a second transmitter of the plurality of transmitters toward a second receiver of the plurality of receivers.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the surface includes a plurality of configurable cells arranged in a uniform planar array.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the parameters of the configurable cell include a complex number, and wherein setting the parameters of the configurable cell includes adding together corresponding parameters of a plurality of beams that have disjoint angular coverage intervals.

10. A reconfigurable surface, comprising:
configurable cells in an array of height v and width h
a hardware processor configured to determine a beam forming pattern based on properties of one or more incident signals;
a control unit configured to set parameters of a configurable cell at location m v , m h to implement the beam forming pattern in the surface, including a gain parameter and a phase shift parameter, with the gain parameter being determined as:

β
m

v

,

m
h

=

❘
"\[LeftBracketingBar]"

c

𝒟
,

m
v

,

m
h

❘
"\[RightBracketingBar]"


c


∞

where m v , m h designates a location of the configurable cell in the array, C D,m v ,m h designates a beamforming vector of the configurable cell, and e is a beamforming vector of the surface, and with the phase shift parameter being determined as:
θmv,mh=∠C D,m v ,m h

where ∠C D,m v ,m h is an angle of the beamforming vector of the configurable cell.

11. The surface of claim 10 , wherein the one or more incident signals include communication signals between three or more devices.

12. The surface of claim 11 , wherein the one or more incident signals include signals between at least one transmitter and at least two receivers.

13. The surface of claim 12 , wherein the beam forming pattern includes a composite beam having a plurality of disjoint beam lobes, wherein the at least two receivers are physically disjoint and are covered by different respective disjoint beam lobes of the composite beam.

14. The surface of claim 11 , wherein different pairs of the three or more devices communicate through the surface at once.

15. The surface of claim 14 , wherein a plurali

Assignees

• Nec Lab America Inc
• Nec Corp

Inventors

• Khojastepour Mohammad
• Torkzaban Nariman

Classifications

• H04B7/0617

  for beam forming · CPC title

• G01S7/02

  of systems according to group G01S13/00 · CPC title

• H04W84/047

  using dedicated repeater stations · CPC title

• G01S3/14 Primary

  Systems for determining direction or deviation from predetermined direction {(aerial arrangements for changing or varying the orientation or the shape of the directional pattern H01Q3/00; combinations of different interacting aerial units for giving a desired directional characteristic H01Q21/29; aerials or aerial systems providing at least two radiation patterns H01Q25/00)} · CPC title

• H04B7/04013 Primary

  Intelligent reflective surfaces · CPC title