Movable-element RIS-aided wireless communications: an element-wise position optimization approach

Jingjing Zhao; Qingyi Huang; Kaiquan Cai; Quan Zhou; Xidong Mu; Yuanwei  Liu

doi:10.1109/LCOMM.2026.3655084

Movable-element RIS-aided wireless communications: an element-wise position optimization approach

Jingjing Zhao
, Qingyi Huang
, Kaiquan Cai
, Quan Zhou
, Xidong Mu
, Yuanwei Liu

School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

69 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

A point-to-point movable element (ME) enabled reconfigurable intelligent surface (ME-RIS) communication system is investigated, where each element position can be flexibly adjusted to create favorable channel conditions. For maximizing the communication rate, an efficient ME position optimization approach is proposed. Specifically, by characterizing the cascaded channel power gain in an element-wise manner, the position of each ME is iteratively updated by invoking the successive convex approximation method. Numerical results unveil that 1) the proposed element-wise ME position optimization algorithm outperforms the standard gradient ascent algorithm (GAA) which is easily trapped in local optima; and 2) the ME-RIS significantly improves the communication rate compared to the conventional RIS with fixed-position elements.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	967 - 971
Journal	IEEE Communications Letters
Volume	30
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/LCOMM.2026.3655084
Publication status	Published - 19 Jan 2026

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Movable-element RIS-aided wireless communications: an element-wise position optimization approach
Copyright 2026 the authors. This is an accepted manuscript distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the author and source are cited.
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Cite this

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title = "Movable-element RIS-aided wireless communications: an element-wise position optimization approach",

abstract = "A point-to-point movable element (ME) enabled reconfigurable intelligent surface (ME-RIS) communication system is investigated, where each element position can be flexibly adjusted to create favorable channel conditions. For maximizing the communication rate, an efficient ME position optimization approach is proposed. Specifically, by characterizing the cascaded channel power gain in an element-wise manner, the position of each ME is iteratively updated by invoking the successive convex approximation method. Numerical results unveil that 1) the proposed element-wise ME position optimization algorithm outperforms the standard gradient ascent algorithm (GAA) which is easily trapped in local optima; and 2) the ME-RIS significantly improves the communication rate compared to the conventional RIS with fixed-position elements.",

author = "Jingjing Zhao and Qingyi Huang and Kaiquan Cai and Quan Zhou and Xidong Mu and Yuanwei Liu",

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AU - Zhao, Jingjing

AU - Huang, Qingyi

AU - Cai, Kaiquan

AU - Zhou, Quan

AU - Mu, Xidong

AU - Liu, Yuanwei

PY - 2026/1/19

Y1 - 2026/1/19

N2 - A point-to-point movable element (ME) enabled reconfigurable intelligent surface (ME-RIS) communication system is investigated, where each element position can be flexibly adjusted to create favorable channel conditions. For maximizing the communication rate, an efficient ME position optimization approach is proposed. Specifically, by characterizing the cascaded channel power gain in an element-wise manner, the position of each ME is iteratively updated by invoking the successive convex approximation method. Numerical results unveil that 1) the proposed element-wise ME position optimization algorithm outperforms the standard gradient ascent algorithm (GAA) which is easily trapped in local optima; and 2) the ME-RIS significantly improves the communication rate compared to the conventional RIS with fixed-position elements.

AB - A point-to-point movable element (ME) enabled reconfigurable intelligent surface (ME-RIS) communication system is investigated, where each element position can be flexibly adjusted to create favorable channel conditions. For maximizing the communication rate, an efficient ME position optimization approach is proposed. Specifically, by characterizing the cascaded channel power gain in an element-wise manner, the position of each ME is iteratively updated by invoking the successive convex approximation method. Numerical results unveil that 1) the proposed element-wise ME position optimization algorithm outperforms the standard gradient ascent algorithm (GAA) which is easily trapped in local optima; and 2) the ME-RIS significantly improves the communication rate compared to the conventional RIS with fixed-position elements.

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JO - IEEE Communications Letters

JF - IEEE Communications Letters

ER -

Movable-element RIS-aided wireless communications: an element-wise position optimization approach

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