Smart Surface Enabling Frequency Conversion
Published in Proceedings of the 26th International Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications (HotMobile), 2025
Abstract
Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) have gained much recent attention as a low-power tool to improve the coverage of wireless networks. They are often designed to be seamlessly attached to walls and capable of beam-steering signals through radio frequency (RF) propagation control. RIS platforms are typically lower cost compared to access points or relays, however, they traditionally operate on specific frequency bands. Indeed, operating over wider operating frequency bands is challenging because of large wavelength variations. As a result, we ask a simple question: “Can we design an RIS to bridge between the bands and generalize its design to be fully programmable?” We explore the potential of an entirely new capability of smart surfaces - configurable frequency conversion from one band to another.
Recommended citation: Yawen Liu, Shivang Aggarwal, Mohamed Ibrahim, Puneet Sharma, and Swarun Kumar. 2025. Smart Surface Enabling Frequency Conversion. In Proceedings of the 26th International Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications (HotMobile ‘25). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 126. https://doi.org/10.1145/3708468.3715682