Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces, panels of tiny elements that redirect wireless signals, are expected to be a cornerstone of 6G networks. A team led by the University of Glasgow has addressed one of their stubborn weaknesses: electromagnetic interference. Rather than cancelling interference, which can also weaken the wanted signal, the new framework identifies the interference's statistical signature, sweeps beam directions to find the strongest signal, and feeds the results into the surface's control algorithm.
The researchers validated the approach in the laboratory using a surface with more than 4,000 elements arranged in a 64 by 64 grid, driven by software-defined radios operating at 3.5 gigahertz. In a five-user test, the three intended users inside a room received the signal cleanly, while two users placed in an outside corridor, standing in for potential eavesdroppers, could not obtain a usable signal. Measured data rates and localisation accuracy matched the team's simulations.
The study, published in the IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Electromagnetics, Antennas and Propagation, was led from the James Watt School of Engineering with collaborators at King Fahd University and the University of Leicester. It connects to ISAC3, Glasgow's Centre for Integrated Sensing, Communication and Computing for Cognitive Cities, launched in February 2026. Funding came from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Ibn Battuta Global Scholarship Program.