WiThRay: Versatile 3D Simulator for Intelligent Reflecting Surface-aided MmWave Systems

Abstract

Millimeter-wave (mmWave) communication systems that provide wideband spectra are a key technology in 5G communication systems. Although the small coverage of mmWave communication systems can be extended by beamforming with a large number of antennas, the strong directivity of signals inherited in high-frequency bands makes the mmWave communication systems vulnerable to signal blockage. Intelligent reflecting surface (IRS), which is able to change channel propagation characteristics by using a large number of passive elements, will become essential to mitigate the signal blockage in mmWave channels. Most of previous works on the mmWave systems using IRS, however, relied on stochastic channel models and did not consider real-world geometric environments. This paper is to introduce WiThRay (Wireless three-dimensional ray-tracing), a versatile simulator that generates the mmWave channels for 3D rendered geometric environments, where multiple base stations and multiple IRSs can be configured, based on ray-tracing. WiThRay also models the IRS response based on electromagnetics. Using WiThRay, we demonstrate the advantage of the IRS-aided mmWave communication systems in complicated and realistic environments.