Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Mobile communications have been undergoing generation changes over the past few decades. Each generation of mobile communications performs significantly better than its predecessor thus meeting the ever-increasing demands of higher data rate and better connectivity. These demands, however, continue to increase exponentially, which, with the introduction of plethora of new data-hungry applications and services, are going to make the design of future communication systems extremely challenging. The challenges associated with the design of future wireless communication systems cannot be addressed by improving the transceiver design alone. In fact, the major bottleneck in improving the performance of a wireless channel is the uncontrollable fading communication channel. As such, the requirements of future wireless communications can be met if the communication channel can be improved as well. Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) technology is a recent technological breakthrough that can dynamically alter the communication channel. My research program focuses on this technology as a candidate solution to meet the unprecedented demands of significantly higher data rate, better connectivity and improved end-user experience for future wireless communications. The long-term objective of my research program is to explore novel strategies to meet the demands of the next generations of wireless communication systems. To achieve this goal, my proposed research program has the following three short-term objectives: 1) integration of RIS with the state-of-the-art wireless technologies; 2) RIS-based modulation and encoding for wireless communications; and 3) performance analysis of RIS-based communication systems. The proposed research program will provide a conducive environment to the researchers involved for learning advanced techniques and acquiring new skills in the field of wireless communications, thus helping them excel in their future careers. The findings of the research program may also result in many new services and applications designed for the next generations of wireless communications, which might improve the competitive edge of the Canadian economy.