Unified Framework for RIS-Enhanced Wireless Communication and Ambient RF Energy Harvesting: Performance and Sustainability Analysis
The increasing demand for high-capacity, energy-efficient wireless networks poses significant challenges in maintaining spectral efficiency, minimizing interference, and ensuring sustainability. Traditional direct-link communication suffers from signal degradation due to path loss, multipath fading,...
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MDPI AG
2025-06-01
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| Series: | Technologies |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7080/13/6/244 |
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| author | Sunday Enahoro Sunday Ekpo Yasir Al-Yasir Mfonobong Uko Fanuel Elias Rahul Unnikrishnan Stephen Alabi |
| author_facet | Sunday Enahoro Sunday Ekpo Yasir Al-Yasir Mfonobong Uko Fanuel Elias Rahul Unnikrishnan Stephen Alabi |
| author_sort | Sunday Enahoro |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The increasing demand for high-capacity, energy-efficient wireless networks poses significant challenges in maintaining spectral efficiency, minimizing interference, and ensuring sustainability. Traditional direct-link communication suffers from signal degradation due to path loss, multipath fading, and interference, limiting overall performance. To mitigate these challenges, this paper proposes a unified RIS framework that integrates passive and active Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs) for enhanced communication and ambient RF energy harvesting. Our methodology optimizes RIS-assisted beamforming using successive convex approximation (SCA) and adaptive phase shift tuning, maximizing desired signal reception while reducing interference. Passive RIS efficiently reflects signals without external power, whereas active RIS employs amplification-assisted reflection for superior performance. Evaluations using realistic urban macrocell and mmWave channel models reveal that, compared to direct links, passive RIS boosts SNR from 3.0 dB to 7.1 dB, and throughput from 2.6 Gbps to 4.6 Gbps, while active RIS further enhances the SNR to 10.0 dB and throughput to 6.8 Gbps. Energy efficiency increases from 0.44 to 0.67 (passive) and 0.82 (active), with latency reduced from 80 ms to 35 ms. These performance metrics validate the proposed approach and highlight its potential applications in urban 5G networks, IoT systems, high-mobility scenarios, and other next-generation wireless environments. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-acffaf59adef484e87add528c8f97408 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2227-7080 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-06-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Technologies |
| spelling | doaj-art-acffaf59adef484e87add528c8f974082025-08-20T03:26:53ZengMDPI AGTechnologies2227-70802025-06-0113624410.3390/technologies13060244Unified Framework for RIS-Enhanced Wireless Communication and Ambient RF Energy Harvesting: Performance and Sustainability AnalysisSunday Enahoro0Sunday Ekpo1Yasir Al-Yasir2Mfonobong Uko3Fanuel Elias4Rahul Unnikrishnan5Stephen Alabi6Communication and Space Systems Engineering Research Team, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester M1 5GD, UKCommunication and Space Systems Engineering Research Team, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester M1 5GD, UKCommunication and Space Systems Engineering Research Team, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester M1 5GD, UKCommunication and Space Systems Engineering Research Team, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester M1 5GD, UKCommunication and Space Systems Engineering Research Team, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester M1 5GD, UKResearch and Development Engineering, SmOp CleanTech, Manchester M40 8WN, UKResearch and Development Engineering, SmOp CleanTech, Manchester M40 8WN, UKThe increasing demand for high-capacity, energy-efficient wireless networks poses significant challenges in maintaining spectral efficiency, minimizing interference, and ensuring sustainability. Traditional direct-link communication suffers from signal degradation due to path loss, multipath fading, and interference, limiting overall performance. To mitigate these challenges, this paper proposes a unified RIS framework that integrates passive and active Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs) for enhanced communication and ambient RF energy harvesting. Our methodology optimizes RIS-assisted beamforming using successive convex approximation (SCA) and adaptive phase shift tuning, maximizing desired signal reception while reducing interference. Passive RIS efficiently reflects signals without external power, whereas active RIS employs amplification-assisted reflection for superior performance. Evaluations using realistic urban macrocell and mmWave channel models reveal that, compared to direct links, passive RIS boosts SNR from 3.0 dB to 7.1 dB, and throughput from 2.6 Gbps to 4.6 Gbps, while active RIS further enhances the SNR to 10.0 dB and throughput to 6.8 Gbps. Energy efficiency increases from 0.44 to 0.67 (passive) and 0.82 (active), with latency reduced from 80 ms to 35 ms. These performance metrics validate the proposed approach and highlight its potential applications in urban 5G networks, IoT systems, high-mobility scenarios, and other next-generation wireless environments.https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7080/13/6/244Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs)ambient RF energy harvestingwireless communicationenergy efficiencysustainable networksspectral efficiency |
| spellingShingle | Sunday Enahoro Sunday Ekpo Yasir Al-Yasir Mfonobong Uko Fanuel Elias Rahul Unnikrishnan Stephen Alabi Unified Framework for RIS-Enhanced Wireless Communication and Ambient RF Energy Harvesting: Performance and Sustainability Analysis Technologies Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs) ambient RF energy harvesting wireless communication energy efficiency sustainable networks spectral efficiency |
| title | Unified Framework for RIS-Enhanced Wireless Communication and Ambient RF Energy Harvesting: Performance and Sustainability Analysis |
| title_full | Unified Framework for RIS-Enhanced Wireless Communication and Ambient RF Energy Harvesting: Performance and Sustainability Analysis |
| title_fullStr | Unified Framework for RIS-Enhanced Wireless Communication and Ambient RF Energy Harvesting: Performance and Sustainability Analysis |
| title_full_unstemmed | Unified Framework for RIS-Enhanced Wireless Communication and Ambient RF Energy Harvesting: Performance and Sustainability Analysis |
| title_short | Unified Framework for RIS-Enhanced Wireless Communication and Ambient RF Energy Harvesting: Performance and Sustainability Analysis |
| title_sort | unified framework for ris enhanced wireless communication and ambient rf energy harvesting performance and sustainability analysis |
| topic | Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs) ambient RF energy harvesting wireless communication energy efficiency sustainable networks spectral efficiency |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7080/13/6/244 |
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