Sagar Kavaiya, Narendrakumar Chauhan, Rizwan Alad, Mitesh Limachia, Purvang Dalal | International Journal of Telecommunications & Emerging Technologies | Vol 12, Issue 02 | ISSN: 2455-0345
Abstract
This paper presents an antenna-oriented investigation of reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted sixth- generation (6G) wireless links, emphasizing practical design factors beyond conventional RIS versus non-RIS bit-error-rate comparisons. Four parameters are evaluated: phase-shifter resolution, reflected-beam directivity, aperture-dependent spectral efficiency, and controller-aware energy efficiency. A Rayleigh-fading binary phase-shift keying (BPSK) link is used for reliability analysis, while the RIS is modeled as a uniformly spaced reflective aperture through its array factor. The results show that ideal phase control provides an SNR advantage of approximately 7 dB at a BER of 10^-3. A 2-bit phase configuration preserves most of this benefit, with less than 1.5 dB additional SNR penalty, indicating that low-resolution control can offer an effective hardware-performance trade-off. Increasing the RIS size from 16 to 64 elements narrows the main beam, strengthens spatial selectivity, and progressively improves spectral efficiency. However, energy efficiency does not increase indefinitely with aperture size. When realistic per-element biasing and controller power are included, the simulated energy efficiency reaches a maximum near 60-64 elements and then declines. The study demonstrates that RIS phase resolution and aperture size should be jointly optimized rather than independently selected. For the evaluated link and power assumptions, a practical operating region of approximately 48-72 elements provides a favorable balance among reliability, directivity, spectral efficiency, implementation complexity, and energy consumption for future 6G wireless systems.
Keywords - 6G antenna, reconfigurable intelligent surface, phase quantization, array factor, beam steering, spectral efficiency, energy efficiency, Rayleigh fading
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How to cite this article
@article{KavaiyaS2026,
author = {Sagar Kavaiya and Narendrakumar Chauhan and Rizwan Alad and Mitesh Limachia and Purvang Dalal},
title = {Antenna and Beam-Control Optimization of RIS-Assisted 6G Links: Phase Resolution, Directivity and Energy Efficiency},
journal = {International Journal of Telecommunications & Emerging Technologies},
year = {2026},
volume = {12},
number = {02},
issn = {2455-0345},
url = {https://journalspub.com/publication/ijtets/article=27617}
}