Dr ZHANG Shuowen, Member of the Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence of Things (RIAIoT), won the Best Tutorial Paper Award 2023 from the IEEE Communications Society for the paper “Intelligent Reflecting Surface-Aided Wireless Communications: A Tutorial” published in IEEE Transactions on Communications. The award is given to an outstanding tutorial paper published in any IEEE Communications Society magazine or journal in the previous five calendar years.
Intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) is an enabling technology that enhances the performance of wireless network communication. It comprises a large number of low-cost passive reflecting elements which dynamically tune signal reflections and alter wireless channels to increase signal coverage and reduce energy consumption. Hence, IRS is a highly promising and cost-effective technology to expand the capacity of wireless networks. However, the integration of IRS circuits into wireless networks faces technical challenges in the areas of reflection optimisation, channel estimation and communication design.
Dr Zhang’s paper provides an overview of the above issues with discussion of reflection and channel models, hardware architecture, and practical constraints of IRS, as well as its applications in wireless networks. The paper also highlights important directions for further investigation.
