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Aug 25, 2023

ZTE and AIS Achieve World's First Dynamic RIS Trial in mmWave Network

ZTE Corporation and Advanced Info Service Public Company Limited (AIS), Thailand’s leading telecommunications operator, have successfully completed the world’s first dynamic RIS (Reconfigurable

ZTE Corporation and Advanced Info Service Public Company Limited (AIS), Thailand’s leading telecommunications operator, have successfully completed the world’s first dynamic RIS (Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface) trial in an mmWave network at the AZ center in Bangkok. This collaboration aims to revolutionize millimeter-wave communication, offering a cost-effective and environmentally friendly solution for deploying millimeter-wave networks on a large scale.

RIS is an innovative technology that utilizes electromagnetic metamaterials to extend the coverage of base stations. It intelligently reflects or transmits base station signals, resulting in improved coverage at a low cost and with minimal carbon emissions. ZTE’s dynamic RIS technology incorporates beam sweeping and user tracking, enhancing the coverage range of base stations and ensuring optimal user experience, even while on the move.

During the trial, ZTE implemented the dynamic RIS product in AIS’ millimeter-wave network with a 400MHz bandwidth. This implementation significantly enhanced millimeter-wave signal coverage, allowing users to maintain a peak downlink rate of over 1.6Gbps and an uplink peak rate of over 260Mbps while moving within a 400 square meter office room. This performance is more than three times higher than what could be achieved without RIS under obstructed circumstances.

Millimeter-wave communication, a crucial frequency range in 5G networks, offers advantages such as large bandwidth and capacity. However, it faces challenges in long-distance transmission and penetration through obstacles. Through the collaboration between ZTE and AIS, dynamic RIS technology has been successfully implemented in millimeter-wave networks, overcoming propagation obstacles and enhancing coverage range and transmission speed.

This successful trial marks an important milestone in millimeter-wave communication and represents a significant step forward in the commercialization of dynamic RIS technology. The implementation of this groundbreaking technology will bring revolutionary changes to the global communication industry, laying a stronger network foundation for the development of future smart cities, industrial IoT, and other domains.

Source: ZTE Corporation (0763.HK / 000063.SZ) and Advanced Info Service Public Company Limited (AIS)