Configuring an Intelligent Reflecting Surface for Wireless Communications: Highlights from the 2021 IEEE Signal Processing Cup student competition [SP Competitions]

The shape of a surface determines how it interacts with wireless radio-frequency signals. Taking a homogenous metal plate as an example, we can bend and rotate it in different ways to make the incident wireless signal become diffusely or specularly reflected in the desired manner. The same effect can be electronically achieved by using an intelligent reflecting surface (IRS), which is a 2D array of metamaterials. By creating heterogeneous impedance variations over the surface, we can synthesize the reflection of a bent and rotated surface but without any mechanical manipulations.