International Journal of Broadband Cellular Communication
RIS-Assisted 6G Wireless Communication: BER, Security Gain and Multi-Metric Performance Analysis
1 Student, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Dharmsinh Desai University, Nadiad, Gujarat, India,
2 Assistant Professor, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Dharmsinh Desai University, Nadiad, Gujarat, India,
3 Associate Professor, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Dharmsinh Desai University, Nadiad, Gujarat, India,
4 Assistant Professor, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Dharmsinh Desai University, Nadiad, Gujarat, India,
5 Professor and Head, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Dharmsinh Desai University, Nadiad, Gujarat, India.
Abstract
Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs) provide programmable control over wireless signal propagation and are emerging as a promising technology for enhancing the reliability, energy efficiency, coverage, and physical-layer security of sixth generation (6G) wireless networks. This paper presents a unified simulation-based performance evaluation of conventional SISO, 4G SIMO, and 6G multi-antenna communication systems, followed by an RIS-assisted reliability and security analysis under Rayleigh fading conditions. The simulation results demonstrate that antenna diversity significantly improves bit error rate (BER) performance, particularly in the moderate signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) region, although practical system impairments may introduce a high-SNR error floor. The incorporation of a 16-element RIS further shifts the BER curve toward lower SNR values, providing a substantial reliability improvement compared with the conventional SISO link. In addition, the physical-layer security gain increases considerably with RIS size, reaching approximately 320%, 400%, and 482% for 16, 32, and 64 reflecting elements, respectively, while showing diminishing incremental improvement at larger configurations. A radar-chart-based comparative assessment also demonstrates simultaneous enhancements in SNR, throughput, BER performance, and transmit-power efficiency. Overall, the results suggest that RIS configurations containing approximately 32–64 elements provide a balanced operating region and offer practical design guidance for future secure and energy-efficient RIS- assisted 6G networks.
Keywords - Reconfigurable intelligent surface, 6G, bit error rate, Rayleigh fading, physical-layer security, SIMO, SISO, throughput
References (15)
- Hum SV, Perruisseau-Carrier J. Reconfigurable reflectarrays and array lenses for dynamic antenna beam control: A review. IEEE transactions on antennas and propagation. 2013 Oct 25;62(1):183-98.
- Wu Q, Zhang R. Intelligent reflecting surface enhanced wireless network via joint active and passive beamforming. IEEE transactions on wireless communications. 2019 Aug 23;18(11):5394- 409.
- Basar E, Di Renzo M, De Rosny J, Debbah M, Alouini MS, Zhang R. Wireless communications through reconfigurable intelligent surfaces. IEEE access. 2019 Aug 13;7:116753-73.
- Di Renzo M, Zappone A, Debbah M, Alouini MS, Yuen C, De Rosny J, Tretyakov S. Smart radio environments empowered by reconfigurable intelligent surfaces: How it works, state of research, and the road ahead. IEEE journal on selected areas in communications. 2020 Jul 14;38(11):2450-525.
- Renzo MD, Debbah M, Phan-Huy DT, Zappone A, Alouini MS, Yuen C, Sciancalepore V, Alexandropoulos GC, Hoydis J, Gacanin H, Rosny JD. Smart radio environments empowered by reconfigurable AI meta-surfaces: An idea whose time has come. EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking. 2019 Dec;2019(1):1-20.
- Huang C, Zappone A, Alexandropoulos GC, Debbah M, Yuen C. Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces for energy efficiency in wireless communication. IEEE transactions on wireless communications. 2019 Jun 19;18(8):4157-70.
- Yu X, Xu D, Schober R. MISO wireless communication systems via intelligent reflecting surfaces. In2019 IEEE/CIC International Conference on Communications in China (ICCC) 2019 Aug 11 (pp. 735-740). IEEE.
- Liu Y, Liu X, Mu X, Hou T, Xu J, Di Renzo M, Al-Dhahir N. Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces: Principles and opportunities. IEEE communications surveys & tutorials. 2021 May 5;23(3):1546-77.
- ElMossallamy MA, Zhang H, Song L, Seddik KG, Han Z, Li GY. Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces for wireless communications: Principles, challenges, and opportunities. IEEE Transactions on Cognitive Communications and Networking. 2020 May 5;6(3):990-1002.
- Xu J, Xu W, Swindlehurst AL. Discrete phase shift design for practical large intelligent surface communication. In2019 IEEE pacific rim conference on communications, computers and signal processing (PACRIM) 2019 Aug 21 (pp. 1-5). IEEE.
- Yang L, Yang Y, Hasna MO, Alouini MS. Coverage, probability of SNR gain, and DOR analysis of RIS-aided communication systems. IEEE Wireless Communications Letters. 2020 Apr 14;9(8):1268-72.
- Cui M, Zhang G, Zhang R. Secure wireless communication via intelligent reflecting surface. IEEE wireless communications letters. 2019 May 28;8(5):1410-4.
- Shen H, Xu W, Gong S, He Z, Zhao C. Secrecy rate maximization for intelligent reflecting surface assisted multi-antenna communications. IEEE Communications Letters. 2019 Jun 21;23(9):1488-92.
- Makarfi A, Rabie K, Kaiwartya O, Badarneh O, Nauryzbayev G, Kharel R. Physical layer security in RIS-assisted networks in Fisher-Snedecor composite fading. In2020 12th International symposium on communication systems, networks and digital signal processing (CSNDSP) 2020 Jul 20 (pp. 1-6). IEEE.
- Abeywickrama S, Zhang R, Wu Q, Yuen C. Intelligent reflecting surface: Practical phase shift model and beamforming optimization. IEEE Transactions on Communications. 2020 Jun 12;68(9):5849-63.