Enabling mmWave Communications with VCSEL-Based Light-Emitting Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces
This addresses the need for scalable, multifunctional solutions in future 6G programmable wireless environments, representing a novel integration rather than an incremental improvement.
The paper tackles the challenge of joint user localization and mmWave communication in 6G networks by proposing a light-emitting reconfigurable intelligent surface (LeRIS) with integrated VCSELs, achieving millimeter-level localization accuracy and high spectral efficiency in simulations.
This paper proposes a light-emitting reconfigurable intelligent surface (LeRIS) architecture that integrates vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) to jointly support user localization and mmWave communication. By leveraging the directional Gaussian beams and dual-mode diversity of VCSELs, we derive a closed-form method for estimating user position and orientation using only three VCSEL sources. These estimates are then used to configure LeRIS panels for directional mmWave beamforming, enabling optimized wave propagation in programmable wireless environments. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed system achieves millimeter-level localization accuracy and maintains high spectral efficiency. These findings establish VCSEL-integrated LeRIS as a scalable and multifunctional solution for future 6G programmable wireless environments.