Efficient Propagation Modeling for Communication Channels with Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces

We present a hybrid numerical method that combines full-wave analysis with ray-tracing to efficiently model propagation in reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-enabled communication channels. Full-wave simulation is used to obtain the radiation pattern of the transmitter and the complex radar cross-section (RCS) of the RIS. Then, the RIS is imported into a ray-tracer as a secondary transmitter. That enables the modeling of the interaction of the RIS with complex environments. We present the formulation of the proposed technique and its validation against full-wave (finite element) results in representative scenarios of indoor propagation in the presence of an RIS.