SISO-LoRa Wireless Communication Aided By Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces

Abstract

The recent emergence of reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) offers a revolutionary approach with the potential to dramatically enhance spectrum and energy efficiency in future wireless communication networks. This technique allows network operators to manage the scattering, reflection, and refraction of radio waves, thereby mitigating the adverse effects of natural wireless propagation. Long Range (LoRa) serves as the physical layer of the LoRa wide area network (LoRaWAN) protocol, renowned for its extensive use in internet of things (IoT) applications. It is prized for its exceptional long-range capabilities, global availability, and support for bidirectional communication, despite its low data rate. In previous works, RIS technology has been investigated within MIMO communication systems. This paper presents a novel system design that integrates RIS-assisted single input single output (SISO) scenario in LoRa wireless communication. By exploiting RIS technology, we aim to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the receiver to enhance the system performance in terms of bit error rate (BER) through optimal phase shifts at the reflecting RIS elements. We evaluate the BER performance of the new communication system at the output of a coherent receiver.