Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface Placement in 5G NR/6G: Optimization and Performance Analysis

The reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) adoption has drawn significant attention for the upcoming generation of cellular networks, i.e., 5G New Radio (NR)/6G, as a technology for forming virtual line-of-sight (LoS) links during human blockage or non-line-of-sight (NLoS) transmissions. However, the exploration of RIS placement under realistic conditions of multiple user operations has been limited by 1-2 user scenarios, but still is crucial since RIS deployment affects system performance. This paper addresses the challenge of optimal RIS deployment in 5G NR/6G cellular networks with directional antennas. Specifically, we formulate the RIS deployment problem as a facility location problem that maximizes the total data rate. We then evaluate and analyze the impact of various parameters on RIS-aided communications, such as RIS height, blockers density, number of users, and user distribution. The results confirm that the optimal RIS placement is near the BS for the case of uniform and cluster user distributions with RIS height of more than 5 m and close to the hotspots in the case of the cluster user distribution with RIS height of less than 5 m.