Reconfigurable Holographic Surfaces for Future Wireless Communications

Future wireless communications look forward to constructing a ubiquitous intelligent information network with high data rates through cost-efficient devices. Benefiting from the tunability and programmability of metamaterials, the reconfigurable holographic surface (RHS) composed of numerous metamaterial radiation elements is being developed as a promising solution to fulfill such challenging visions. The RHS is more likely to serve as an ultra-thin and lightweight surface antenna integrated with the transceiver to generate beams in desirable directions by leveraging the holographic principle. This is different from reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs), widely used as passive relays due to the reflection characteristic. In this article, we investigate RHS-aided wireless communications. Starting with a basic introduction of the RHS, including its hardware structure, holographic principle, and fabrication methodologies, we propose a hybrid beamforming scheme for RHS-aided multi-user communication systems. A joint sum-rate maximization algorithm is then developed where the digital beamforming performed at the base station and the holographic beamforming performed at the RHS are optimized iteratively. Furthermore, key challenges in RHS-aided wireless communications are also discussed.