Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface MIMO Simulation using Quasi Deterministic Radio Channel Model

Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS) is a planar array that can control reflection and thus can implement the concept of partially controllable propagation environment. RIS received a lot of attention from industry and academia, but the majority of the researchers who study RIS-assisted systems use simple Rician model. Though it is suitable for theoretical analysis, stochastic Non Line-of-Sight (NLoS) component in Rician model does not account for the geometry of deployment. Furthermore, Rician model is not eligible to evaluate 3GPP standardization proposals. In this article we adapt the popular Quasi Deterministic Radio channel Generator (QuaDRiGa) for RIS-assisted systems and compare it against Rician model. The comparison shows that geometry-inconsistent NLoS Rician modeling results in higher estimated achievable rate. Our method, in contrast, inherits the advantages of QuaDRiGa: spatial consistency of Large Scale Fading, User Equipment mobility support as well as consistency between Large Scale and Small Scale Fading. Moreover, QuaDRiGa comes with calibrated scenario parameters that ensure 3GPP compatibility. Finally, the proposed method can be applied to any model or software originally designed for conventional MIMO, so every researcher can use it to build a simulation platform for RIS-assisted systems.