WiFi-Driven Non-Reciprocal RIS: Overcoming Power Mismatch Challenges and Reliable Communication in IoT

One of the main challenges faced by internet of things (IoT) devices is operating in low-power environments, necessitating efficient energy management strategies to prolong battery life. In wireless networks like WiFi, managing energy consumption becomes more complex, especially when there is a mismatch in power levels between access points (APs) and IoT devices, leading to the near-far problem. To address this, we propose the use of non-reciprocal transmissive reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) to dynamically adjust signal properties, improving connectivity without increasing transmit power. Our contributions include introducing non-reciprocal transmissive RIS as a solution to the near-far problem, analyzing IoT device energy consumption in RIS-aided WiFi, and presenting experimental results of packet data retries for non-reciprocal transmissive RIS. The results demonstrate the significant impact of RIS on enhancing energy savings for IoT devices. Furthermore, the experimental findings confirm that non-reciprocal transmissive RIS can enhance the reliability of uplink communications by reducing the number of packet data retries.