Christos Liaskos

Bio: Christos Liaskos is an academic researcher from Foundation for Research & Technology – Hellas. The author has contributed to research in topics: Wireless & Computer science. The author has an hindex of 25, co-authored 129 publications receiving 2282 citations. Previous affiliations of Christos Liaskos include University of Ioannina & Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

A New Wireless Communication Paradigm through Software-Controlled Metasurfaces

Abstract: Electromagnetic waves undergo multiple uncontrollable alterations as they propagate within a wireless environment. Free space path loss, signal absorption, as well as reflections, refractions, and diffractions caused by physical objects within the environment highly affect the performance of wireless communications. Currently, such effects are intractable to account for and are treated as probabilistic factors. This article proposes a radically different approach, enabling deterministic, programmable control over the behavior of wireless environments. The key enabler is the so-called HyperSurface tile, a novel class of planar meta-materials that can interact with impinging electromagnetic waves in a controlled manner. The HyperSurface tiles can effectively re-engineer electromagnetic waves, including steering toward any desired direction, full absorption, polarization manipulation, and more. Multiple tiles are employed to coat objects such as walls, furniture, and overall, any objects in indoor and outdoor environments. An external software service calculates and deploys the optimal interaction types per tile to best fit the needs of communicating devices. Evaluation via simulations highlights the potential of the new concept.

A New Wireless Communication Paradigm through Software-controlled Metasurfaces

Abstract: Electromagnetic waves undergo multiple uncontrollable alterations as they propagate within a wireless environment. Free space path loss, signal absorption, as well as reflections, refractions and diffractions caused by physical objects within the environment highly affect the performance of wireless communications. Currently, such effects are intractable to account for and are treated as probabilistic factors. The paper proposes a radically different approach, enabling deterministic, programmable control over the behavior of the wireless environments. The key-enabler is the so-called HyperSurface tile, a novel class of planar meta-materials which can interact with impinging electromagnetic waves in a controlled manner. The HyperSurface tiles can effectively re-engineer electromagnetic waves, including steering towards any desired direction, full absorption, polarization manipulation and more. Multiple tiles are employed to coat objects such as walls, furniture, overall, any objects in the indoor and outdoor environments. An external software service calculates and deploys the optimal interaction types per tile, to best fit the needs of communicating devices. Evaluation via simulations highlights the potential of the new concept.

Toward Intelligent Metasurfaces: The Progress from Globally Tunable Metasurfaces to Software-Defined Metasurfaces with an Embedded Network of Controllers

Abstract: This work was supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme-Future Emerging Topics (FETOPEN) under grant agreement No 736876 (VISORSURF). Financial support by the National Priorities Research Program grant No. NPRP9-383-1-083 from the Qatar National Research Fund is also acknowledged. O.T. acknowledges the financial support of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation within the framework of the project ARCHERS (“Advancing Young Researchers’ Human Capital in Cutting Edge Technologies in the Preservation of Cultural Heritage and the Tackling of Societal Challenges”).

Using any surface to realize a new paradigm for wireless communications

Abstract: Programmable wireless environments use unique customizable software processes rather than traditional rigid channel models.

A Novel Communication Paradigm for High Capacity and Security via Programmable Indoor Wireless Environments in Next Generation Wireless Systems

Abstract: Wireless communication environments comprise passive objects that cause performance degradation and eavesdropping concerns due to anomalous scattering. This paper proposes a new paradigm, where scattering becomes software-defined and, subsequently, optimizable across wide frequency ranges. Through the proposed programmable wireless environments, the path loss, multi-path fading and interference effects can be controlled and mitigated. Moreover, the eavesdropping can be prevented via novel physical layer security capabilities. The core technology of this new paradigm is the concept of metasurfaces, which are planar intelligent structures whose effects on impinging electromagnetic waves are fully defined by their micro-structure. Their control over impinging waves has been demonstrated to span from 1 GHz to 10 THz. This paper contributes the software-programmable wireless environment, consisting of several HyperSurface tiles (programmable metasurfaces) controlled by a central server. HyperSurfaces are a novel class of metasurfaces whose structure and, hence, electromagnetic behavior can be altered and controlled via a software interface. Multiple networked tiles coat indoor objects, allowing fine-grained, customizable reflection, absorption or polarization overall. A central server calculates and deploys the optimal electromagnetic interaction per tile, to the benefit of communicating devices. Realistic simulations using full 3D ray-tracing demonstrate the groundbreaking performance and security potential of the proposed approach in 2.4 GHz and 60 GHz frequencies.

Random graphs

Abstract: We will review some of the major results in random graphs and some of the more challenging open problems. We will cover algorithmic and structural questions. We will touch on newer models, including those related to the WWW.

On the capacity of a cellular CDMA system

Abstract: It is shown that, particularly for terrestrial cellular telephony, the interference-suppression feature of CDMA (code division multiple access) can result in a many-fold increase in capacity over analog and even over competing digital techniques. A single-cell system, such as a hubbed satellite network, is addressed, and the basic expression for capacity is developed. The corresponding expressions for a multiple-cell system are derived. and the distribution on the number of users supportable per cell is determined. It is concluded that properly augmented and power-controlled multiple-cell CDMA promises a quantum increase in current cellular capacity. >

Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces for Energy Efficiency in Wireless Communication

Abstract: The adoption of a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) for downlink multi-user communication from a multi-antenna base station is investigated in this paper. We develop energy-efficient designs for both the transmit power allocation and the phase shifts of the surface reflecting elements subject to individual link budget guarantees for the mobile users. This leads to non-convex design optimization problems for which to tackle we propose two computationally affordable approaches, capitalizing on alternating maximization, gradient descent search, and sequential fractional programming. Specifically, one algorithm employs gradient descent for obtaining the RIS phase coefficients, and fractional programming for optimal transmit power allocation. Instead, the second algorithm employs sequential fractional programming for the optimization of the RIS phase shifts. In addition, a realistic power consumption model for RIS-based systems is presented, and the performance of the proposed methods is analyzed in a realistic outdoor environment. In particular, our results show that the proposed RIS-based resource allocation methods are able to provide up to 300% higher energy efficiency in comparison with the use of regular multi-antenna amplify-and-forward relaying.

Towards Smart and Reconfigurable Environment: Intelligent Reflecting Surface Aided Wireless Network

Abstract: IRS is a new and revolutionizing technology that is able to significantly improve the performance of wireless communication networks, by smartly reconfiguring the wireless propagation environment with the use of massive low-cost passive reflecting elements integrated on a planar surface. Specifically, different elements of an IRS can independently reflect the incident signal by controlling its amplitude and/or phase and thereby collaboratively achieve fine-grained 3D passive beamforming for directional signal enhancement or nulling. In this article, we first provide an overview of the IRS technology, including its main applications in wireless communication, competitive advantages over existing technologies, hardware architecture as well as the corresponding new signal model. We then address the key challenges in designing and implementing the new IRS-aided hybrid (with both active and passive components) wireless network, as compared to the traditional network comprising active components only. Finally, numerical results are provided to show the great performance enhancement with the use of IRS in typical wireless networks.