A Novel Physics-based Channel Model for Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface-assisted Multi-user Communication Systems

The reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) is one of the promising technologies contributing to the next generation smart radio environment. A novel physics-based RIS channel model is proposed. Particularly, we consider the RIS and the scattering environment as a whole by studying the signals multipath propagation, as well as the radiation pattern of the RIS. The model suggests that the RIS-assisted wireless channel can be approximated by a Rician distribution. Analytical expressions are derived for the shape factor and the scale factor of the distribution. For the case of continuous phase shifts, the distribution depends on the number of elements of the RIS and the observing direction of the receiver. For the case of continuous phase shifts, the distribution further depends on the quantization level of the RIS phase error. The scaling law of the average received power is obtained from the scale factor of the distribution. For the application scenarios where RIS functions as an anomalous reflector, we investigate the performance of single RIS-assisted multiple access networks for time-division multiple access (TDMA), frequency-division multiple access (FDMA) and non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA). Closed-form expressions for the outage probability of the proposed channel model are derived. It is proved that a constant diversity order exists, which is independent of the number of RIS elements. Simulation results are presented to confirm that the proposed model applies effectively to the phased-array implemented RISs.