Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English en
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

SUrface waves in smart Radio Frequency EnviRonments

Project description

Smart radio waves for enhanced indoor communications

Based on the free-space communication (FSC) paradigm, radio waves occupy the entire space, naturally propagate in all directions, and are reflected, refracted and scattered after hitting objects. Current wireless networks based on reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) are based on FSC. In this context, the EU-funded SURFER project will pioneer the theoretic foundation and experimental validation of surface wave communication (SWC) for indoor communications. In contrast with FSC-based RISs, SWC enables reliable, energy-efficient and interference-free communications in indoor environments. Surface waves glide at the interface of materials and their propagation is inherently confined on their surfaces. Compared with FSC, SWC offers much easier interference management and an inherent low probability of intercept.

Objective

Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) have emerged as the new wireless communication research frontier with the goal of realizing smart and reconfigurable radio propagation environments via passive and tunable signal transformations. Featured by orders-of-magnitude lower hardware and energy cost than traditional active arrays and yet superior performance, RISs are the new driving technology for future 6G wireless networks, especially for enabling them to migrate to higher frequency bands. RISs will fundamentally transform today’s wireless networks with active nodes solely to a new hybrid network comprising active and passive components co-working in an intelligent way, so as to achieve a sustainable capacity growth with low and affordable cost and power consumption. Current wireless networks based on RISs are, however, based on the free-space communication (FSC) paradigm: The radio waves occupy the entire space, naturally propagate in all directions, and are reflected, refracted, and scattered after hitting objects.

In contrast with FSC-based RISs, an emerging technology for enabling reliable, energy-efficient, and interference-free communications in indoor environments is surface wave communication (SWC). Surface waves glide at the interface of materials and their propagation is inherently confined on their surface. Compared with FSC, the unique advantages of SWC are a much more favorable pathloss, a much easier interference management, and an inherent low probability of intercept if appropriate anti-wiretapping schemes are used, since the radio waves propagate along surfaces without leaving them and creating unwanted interference.

Supervised and trained by a team of five internationally renowned researchers from academia and industry, Surfer’s experienced researcher aims to pioneer the theoretic foundation and experimental validation of SWC for indoor communications and to unveil its ultimate performance limits, optimized design, and integration with FSC.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

This project has not yet been classified with EuroSciVoc.
Be the first one to suggest relevant scientific fields and help us improve our classification service

Keywords

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)

See all projects funded under this funding scheme

Call for proposal

(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2020

See all projects funded under this call

Coordinator

CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS
Net EU contribution
€ 184 707,84
Address
RUE MICHEL ANGE 3
75794 Paris
France
Region
Ile-de-France Ile-de-France Paris
Activity type
Research Organisations
Links
Total cost
€ 184 707,84