Fast Beam-Sweeping in mmWave Cellular Network Relying on Frequency Shifting-RIS

The novel frequency shifting reconfigurable intel-ligent surface (FS-RIS) is built by a new generation of meta-materials and circuits, which is able to perform an operation that changes the frequency spectrum of the signal that was originally transmitted. The use of this FS- RIS for communication is still in its infancy. In this work, a millimeter wave (mmWave) communication link aided by FS-RIS is proposed. The FS-RIS is able to down-convert the carrier frequency of the mm Wave signal and spread the control information to the cell by using a more reliable and stable link, due to the fact that lower bands have a lower attenuation. A novel multi-frequency beam-management procedure (BMP) relying on FS-RIS is given. The proposed method is faster than existing methods since it makes use of wider beams without suffering from range penalization thanks to the better propagation in sub-6 GHz bands, unlike the hierarchical BMP. Overall, this paper provides a new way to exploit FS-RIS in wireless communications, which has the potential to change the way we look at spectrum and interference management.