A communication module based on a paper-based cellular carrier, a reconfigurable smart metasurface structure, a multi-user efficient collaborative communication system, and a communication method thereof.

Abstract

This invention discloses a paper-based cellular carrier-based intelligent reconfigurable metasurface structure communication module, a multi-user high-efficiency collaborative communication system, and its communication method, belonging to the field of electronic communication antenna design. It includes a reconfigurable metasurface structure, a switching circuit, and a control unit. The reconfigurable metasurface structure comprises a metasurface radiating array and a planar lens. Multiple radiating elements of the metasurface radiating array radiate electromagnetic waves in different spatial directions. The planar lens, positioned along the electromagnetic wave radiation path of the metasurface radiating array, has a gradually changing refractive index distribution structure, enabling it to refract and focus electromagnetic waves from different spatial directions onto radiating elements at different locations. Multiple switching switches in the switching circuit control the selection and deactivation of different radiating elements. The control unit is communicatively connected to the switching circuit to control the corresponding switching switches. While maintaining high aperture efficiency and broadband characteristics, it achieves low-overhead concurrent beamforming in multiple directions and at multiple nodes.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The application belongs to the technical field of antenna design of electronic communication, and particularly relates to a paper-based honeycomb carrier-based transparent intelligent reconfigurable metasurface structure communication module, a multi-user efficient cooperative communication system and a communication method thereof. BACKGROUND

[0002] With the rapid development of new generation mobile communication technology (such as B5G / 6G), the demand for efficient parallel communication of multi-user and multi-node is showing an increasing trend. However, the traditional wireless communication system has many limitations in dealing with this demand. The traditional system usually adopts fixed direction antenna or mechanical scanning antenna to realize beam orientation, and when dealing with the parallel communication scene of multi-node and multi-user, it often faces problems such as low bandwidth utilization, serious signal interference and poor communication efficiency.

[0003] In order to overcome the above limitations, the current multi-user generally adopts the traditional intelligent reconfigurable metasurface technology (Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface, RIS), which mainly refers to the phased intelligent reconfigurable metasurface technology. From the structure, the phased intelligent reconfigurable metasurface technology is generally composed of a large-scale, sub-wavelength interval "metasurface reflection unit array", each metasurface reflection unit is integrated with a PIN diode, and the reflection coefficient and phase are adjusted by changing the equivalent impedance of the metasurface reflection unit, so as to form the desired spatial phase gradient on the whole array surface of the metasurface reflection unit array, so as to realize the orientation and shaping of the reflected beam. Simply speaking, the phased intelligent reconfigurable metasurface technology remolds the reflected wave of the incident electromagnetic wave by applying controllable phase distribution to each unit on the array surface.

[0004] In recent years, the phased intelligent reconfigurable metasurface has been widely studied, such as the Chinese patent with publication number CN111162374A, which discloses an ultra-low sidelobe phased array system based on one-bit time modulation coding metasurface. This kind of phased intelligent reconfigurable metasurface is composed of a planar metasurface and several passive metasurface reflection units, and these reflection units change the incident signal by means of adaptive controlled phase shifters, specifically as Figures 2-3In such designs, each reflective element in the smart reconfigurable metasurface can independently reflect the incident signal locally from other elements. Although these ideal reflection smart reconfigurable metasurface models based on local design have been proven to be able to improve communication performance, in-depth analysis shows that passive lossless local metasurfaces have inherent defects in realizing arbitrary wavefront transformation; it cannot complete this transformation without generating parasitic beams in the direction of the desired direction. Moreover, each reflective unit of the phased smart reconfigurable metasurface is integrated with a PIN diode, and the PIN diode can only realize switching between two states (i.e., simultaneous conduction state or simultaneous open state).

[0005] Secondly, according to the above, the core of the phased smart reconfigurable metasurface technology lies in the "fine phasing of each unit". However, in practical applications, the phased smart reconfigurable metasurface technology requires a large amount of computing resources to calculate the phase shift of each reflective unit, especially in wideband, wide-angle and multi-user dynamic scenarios, often requiring large-scale array channel state information for high-dimensional non-convex optimization, resulting in long online solving time and being extremely sensitive to control link bandwidth and latency.

[0006] Moreover, the mutual coupling phenomenon between metasurface reflective units, the limited phase quantization accuracy, and the insertion loss of the phase shifter itself will introduce amplitude and phase errors. These errors will further cause problems such as parasitic sidelobes and beam distortion. When the user position changes rapidly, the entire system needs to frequently issue configuration instructions, which results in a significant increase in control bit overhead, a significant increase in system energy consumption, and limitations on engineering scalability.

[0007] In addition, the control scale of the traditional phased smart reconfigurable metasurface technology grows linearly with the number of phase shifters / tunable units. The larger the array of metasurface reflective units, the more concurrent beams, and the more difficult the control and interconnection complexity to bear.

[0008] Therefore, the existing related technology is difficult to realize multi-direction, multi-node low-overhead concurrent beamforming while maintaining high aperture efficiency and wideband characteristics, and the usability and scalability of the existing technology in engineering applications have been limited, which is a major technical problem and defect in the field. SUMMARY

[0009] To address the problems in related technologies, this invention proposes a paper-based cellular carrier-based intelligent reconfigurable metasurface structure communication module, a multi-user efficient collaborative communication system, and a communication method to overcome the aforementioned technical problems in existing related technologies. This invention introduces a planar lens with graded refractive index characteristics and designs it collaboratively with a metasurface antenna array, switching circuit, and control unit to establish a fixed mapping relationship between the incident direction, lens focusing position, and metasurface grouping. This simplifies the complex global beamforming problem into a selective gating problem for a few directional groups. Furthermore, this invention is simpler to operate, has more advanced beamforming capabilities, requires less control overhead, and exhibits better aperture efficiency and broadband characteristics, ±50° large-angle scanning capability, lower sidelobes and crosstalk, and less wiring and power consumption.

[0010] The technical solution of the present invention is implemented as follows: a communication module based on a paper-based cellular carrier with a reconfigurable metasurface structure, comprising a communication module body, wherein the communication module body comprises a reconfigurable metasurface structure; The reconfigurable metasurface structure includes a metasurface radiation array for radiating electromagnetic waves; the metasurface radiation array includes multiple radiation elements arranged at periodic intervals; the multiple radiation elements are respectively radiating incident electromagnetic waves in different spatial directions. The reconfigurable metasurface structure further includes a planar lens, which is disposed on the electromagnetic wave radiation path of the metasurface radiation array; the planar lens has a refractive index gradient distribution structure, which is used to refract and focus incident electromagnetic waves from different spatial directions onto the radiation units at different positions on the metasurface radiation array. The main body of the communication module also includes a switching circuit and a control unit; the switching circuit is electrically connected to the metasurface radiation array, and the switching circuit includes multiple switching switches, which are used to control the selection and shutdown of different radiation elements; the control unit is communicatively connected to the switching circuit, and is used to generate a gating control signal according to the received beam scheduling command, and dynamically select or shut down the radiation element corresponding to the target beam direction by controlling the corresponding switching switch in the switching circuit.

[0011] Preferably, the switching switch is a radio frequency switch.

[0012] Furthermore, the planar lens has two opposing aperture planes, an upper one and a lower one, which are the incident plane and the radiation plane of the electromagnetic wave, respectively; the refractive index of the planar lens decreases radially from the center of one of the opposing planes toward its surrounding edges.

[0013] Furthermore, the central refractive index of one of the opposing planes is set to The target refractive index of its radial edge is set to The height between the incident plane and the radiating plane of the plane lens is set as ,by Let the radial distance extending circumferentially from the center be set as ,but Refractive index at position The inverse hyperbolic cosine distribution function, which is symmetric along its central axis, is specifically expressed by the following formula: ; According to the above formula, the refractive index corresponding to each point on the aperture plane can be calculated.

[0014] Furthermore, the control unit is configured to generate a gating control signal for controlling the switching circuit to select multiple different directional grouping regions based on multiple beam scheduling commands at the same time.

[0015] Furthermore, the radiating unit, from top to bottom, includes a metasurface layer, a patch radiating layer, a ground layer, a first feed network layer, and a second feed network layer; the patch radiating layer is connected to the ground layer through a grounding via; the switching circuit is correspondingly connected to the first feed network layer, and the first feed network layer is then connected to the patch radiating layer through a first metal via to form a transmission link; the switching circuit is correspondingly connected to the second feed network layer, and the second feed network layer is then connected to the patch radiating layer through a second metal via to form a reception link; Furthermore, the power supply networks for the transmit link and the receive link are isomorphic but independent of each other.

[0016] Furthermore, in each of the aforementioned radiating units, the metasurface layer and the patch radiating layer are simultaneously divided into four meta-sub-units by a cross-shaped dividing line; each of the aforementioned radiating units includes a transmitting element and a receiving element disposed on the patch radiating layer; in the four meta-sub-units, the ports of the transmitting element are equally divided into transmitting ports P1 to P4 for transmitting four signals with the same amplitude but different phases; the ports of the receiving element are equally divided into receiving ports P5 to P8 for receiving four signals with the same amplitude but different phases; Furthermore, the phases of the four received or transmitted signals are 0°, 90°, 180°, and 270° respectively; Furthermore, the radiating element is a dual orthogonal port radiating structure; Furthermore, the transmitting ports P1~P4 or the receiving ports P5~P8 are arranged in a clockwise direction and at 90° intervals in space. In each meta-subunit, the transmit port and the receive port are spatially perpendicular to each other; Furthermore, the transmitting ports P1~P4 are connected to the first power supply network layer through the first metal via; the receiving ports P5~P8 are connected to the second power supply network layer through the second metal via. Furthermore, a single link in the transmit link or the receive link is fed into the four clockwise rotating superstructure subunits through a power supply network to achieve unidirectional circular polarization radiation.

[0017] A multi-user high-efficiency collaborative communication system includes a base station, at least one user equipment, and the aforementioned communication module based on a paper-based cellular carrier with a transparent polymer intelligent reconfigurable metasurface structure. The base station is communicatively connected to the control unit and is used to send beam scheduling instructions, user allocation information and channel status information to the control unit. The control unit generates a gating strategy based on the information sent by the base station and controls the switching circuit to execute it, so that the beam formed by the main body of the communication module is directed to the designated user equipment.

[0018] Furthermore, the switching circuit and the control unit are connected via a high-speed bus; The control unit is connected to the control plane interface of the base station to receive the beam scheduling command, user allocation information and channel status information; In this invention, the control unit adopts an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) or a dedicated control chip, which is connected to the switching circuit through a high-speed bus (such as SPI, LVDS) and connected to the control plane of the base station through a standard interface (such as CPRI, Ethernet). The control unit receives scheduling instructions (such as target user location, channel quality indication) issued by the base station, and generates specific gating strategies by combining them with the built-in "direction-group" mapping table.

[0019] A multi-user efficient collaborative communication method, applied to the aforementioned multi-user efficient collaborative communication system, the method comprising the following steps: Step S1: Based on the electromagnetic properties of the planar lens, the metasurface radiation array is divided into multiple directional grouping regions corresponding to different beam directions in advance; Step S2: Receive beam scheduling instructions from the base station; Step S3: According to the beam scheduling instruction, determine at least one target direction to be served and generate a corresponding gating strategy, wherein the gating strategy indicates at least one direction grouping area to be gated; Step S4: According to the gating strategy, control the switching circuit to turn on the radiation units in the directional grouping area corresponding to the target direction and turn off the radiation units in other areas, so that the electromagnetic waves passing through the plane lens form a beam pointing to the target direction via the selected radiation units.

[0020] Furthermore, in step S2, the received beam scheduling instruction includes concurrent service requests for multiple user equipments on the same frequency; In step S3, the generated gating strategy indicates that multiple different directional grouping regions are gated simultaneously to form multiple independent beams of the same frequency to serve the multiple user equipment respectively.

[0021] Furthermore, at the protocol and system level, this invention defines the beam control process of the Transco-Intelligent Reconfigurable Metasurface as follows: 3GPP TS 38.331 uniformly issues and manages measurement resources, the Transco-Intelligent Reconfigurable Metasurface scanning plan, and the reporting cycle; the user receives signals and completes channel state information measurement under different Transco-Intelligent Reconfigurable Metasurface states according to TS 38.211 (Physical Layer Channel and Waveform); then, according to TS 38.214 (Physical Layer Procedure / Channel State Information Report), channel state information is generated and reported; the base station aligns the channel state information with the Transco-Intelligent Reconfigurable Metasurface state index, jointly selects the base station-side precoding and the Transco-Intelligent Reconfigurable Metasurface-side gating unit, and quickly issues the target configuration to the Transco-Intelligent Reconfigurable Metasurface through a dedicated control plane; the data plane still uses TS 38.211 for transmission. Based on the periodic or event-triggered mechanism defined in TS 38.214, rapid tracking and reconfiguration can be achieved, thereby supporting dynamic changes in user mobility and service load.

[0022] The beneficial effects of this invention are: This invention provides a transparent, reconfigurable metasurface structure communication module based on a paper-based cellular carrier, a multi-user high-efficiency collaborative communication system, and a communication method thereof. The transparent, reconfigurable metasurface structure communication module enables parallel communication between multiple communication nodes in different directions and effectively reduces signal interference. Furthermore, the multi-user high-efficiency collaborative communication system can dynamically adjust the beam direction, which is beneficial for achieving efficient signal propagation. Moreover, this invention is simpler to operate, has more advanced beamforming capabilities, requires less control overhead, and exhibits better aperture efficiency and broadband characteristics, ±50° large-angle scanning capability, lower sidelobes and mutual interference, and less wiring and power consumption. Attached Figure Description

[0023] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of the transparent polymer intelligent reconfigurable metasurface structure communication module of the present invention; Figure 2A schematic diagram of a traditional phase-controlled intelligent reconfigurable metasurface; Figure 3 A schematic diagram of the metasurface reflection unit of a traditional phase-controlled intelligent reconfigurable metasurface; Figure 4 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of the radiation unit of the present invention; Figure 5 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of the emitting element and the receiving element of the radiation unit of the present invention; Figure 6 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of the multi-user high-efficiency collaborative communication system of the present invention; Figure 7 This is a schematic diagram showing the radial decrease in refractive index on the aperture plane of the planar lens of the present invention; Figure 8 This is a schematic diagram of the propagation path of the electromagnetic wave emitted by the transmitter of the present invention when it is incident at different positions on the aperture plane. Figure 9 This is a partial structural schematic diagram of the planar lens of the present invention; Figure 10 This is a top view of the planar lens of the present invention; Figure 11 This is a schematic diagram of the combination of a planar lens and a metasurface radiation array according to the present invention; Figure 12 This is a gain curve of the beam scanning angle when different radiating units of the present invention transmit signals; Figure 13 This is a schematic diagram showing the connection between the radiation unit, the switching circuit, and the control unit of the present invention. Detailed Implementation

[0024] The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Obviously, the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, and not all of them. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art without creative effort are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0025] In the description of this invention, it should be understood that the terms "center," "longitudinal," "lateral," "length," "width," "thickness," "upper," "lower," "front," "rear," "left," "right," "vertical," "horizontal," "top," "bottom," "inner," "outer," "clockwise," and "counterclockwise," etc., indicate the orientation or positional relationship based on the orientation or positional relationship shown in the accompanying drawings. They are only for the convenience of describing this invention and simplifying the description, and do not indicate or imply that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation, or be constructed and operated in a specific orientation. Therefore, they should not be construed as limitations on this invention.

[0026] Example 1 like Figures 1-13 As shown, this embodiment provides a communication module based on a paper-based cellular carrier with a reconfigurable metasurface structure, including a communication module body, wherein the communication module body includes a reconfigurable metasurface structure; The reconfigurable metasurface structure includes a metasurface radiation array for radiating electromagnetic waves; the metasurface radiation array includes multiple radiation elements arranged at periodic intervals; the multiple radiation elements are respectively radiating incident electromagnetic waves in different spatial directions. The reconfigurable metasurface structure also includes a planar lens made of a paper-based honeycomb carrier, which is disposed on the electromagnetic wave radiation path of the metasurface radiation array. The planar lens has a refractive index gradient distribution structure, which is used to refract and focus incident electromagnetic waves from different spatial directions onto the radiation units at different positions on the metasurface radiation array. The main body of the communication module also includes a switching circuit and a control unit; the switching circuit is electrically connected to the metasurface radiation array, and the switching circuit includes multiple switching switches, which are used to control the selection and shutdown of different radiation elements; the control unit is communicatively connected to the switching circuit, and is used to generate a gating control signal according to the received beam scheduling command, and dynamically select or shut down the radiation element corresponding to the target beam direction by controlling the corresponding switching switch in the switching circuit.

[0027] Preferably, the switching device is a radio frequency switch; It should be noted that, compared to the PIN diode type switch in the traditional phase-controlled intelligent reconfigurable metasurface which only has two states of switching, on and off, the radio frequency switch in the transparent polymer intelligent reconfigurable metasurface based on the paper-based cellular carrier in this embodiment can achieve more precise operation, such as continuous angle switching.

[0028] Specifically, the planar lens has two opposing aperture planes, an upper one and a lower one, which are the incident plane and the radiation plane of the electromagnetic wave, respectively; the refractive index of the planar lens decreases radially from the center of one of the opposing planes toward its surrounding edges. More specifically, the planar lens is a three-dimensional paper-based honeycomb carrier; the paper-based honeycomb carrier is formed by surrounding periodically spaced void structures with sheet-like paper substrate. Specifically, the incident surfaces of all the radiation elements are formed as incident array surfaces; the radiation plane completely covers the incident array surfaces of the metasurface radiation array. The sheet-like paper base has thin film-like metal structures distributed and attached thereon; The metal structure, when compared with the metal surface area per unit volume in the paper-based honeycomb carrier, shows that the metal surface area per unit volume in the center of the plane lens is greater than that at the periphery of the plane lens. More specifically, the paper-based honeycomb carrier is cylindrical, polygonal, or frustum-shaped; More specifically, the cavity structure is a three-dimensional columnar void structure that is circular or polygonal; More specifically, the material of the sheet-like paper base includes, but is not limited to, aramid paper; More specifically, the metal structure is made of a metal material with high conductivity, such as silver paste or copper, with silver paste being the preferred material in this embodiment.

[0029] To enable the emitted electromagnetic wave to dynamically adjust the beam pointing as it moves along the aperture plane (incident or radiating plane) of the planar lens without a significant drop in gain, a gradient-varying refractive index is constructed on the aperture plane of the planar lens, such as... Figure 7 As shown; the refractive index is highest at the center of the aperture plane, and gradually decreases towards the edges of the aperture plane; Specifically, the central refractive index of one of the opposing planes is set to The target refractive index of its radial edge is set to The height between the incident plane and the radiating plane of the plane lens is set as ,by Let the radial distance extending circumferentially from the center be set as ,but Refractive index at position The inverse hyperbolic cosine distribution function, which is symmetric along its central axis, is specifically expressed by the following formula: ; According to the above formula, the refractive index corresponding to each point on the aperture plane can be calculated. Figure 6 and Figure 8 The propagation path of electromagnetic waves within a paper-based honeycomb carrier is presented, differing from that of a phased-array intelligent reconfigurable metasurface. Due to the presence of the paper-based honeycomb carrier, electromagnetic waves emitted from a distant transmitter, after incident on the plane, reach the metasurface radiation array in a curved manner and are focused onto the corresponding radiating element. The signal is transmitted from the designated radiating element via a switching circuit. The transmitted electromagnetic waves reach the incident plane and propagate into free space as plane waves, ultimately being received by the receiver. Therefore, electromagnetic waves can radiate as plane waves regardless of their incident position, achieving large-angle beam control without significant gain loss. Figure 12 As shown.

[0030] Reconfigurable metasurface structures establish an "incident / emission angle" through a radially decreasing gradient refractive index. "and "focus position of the formation" A one-to-one mapping; when the beam deflects, the focus shifts along the aperture plane and falls between two adjacent radiating elements, thus distributing the received energy between the two radiating elements. To stably select the optimal port and avoid jitter during movement, the control unit periodically samples the pilot signals of each port and calculates a score via a switching circuit. (Based on received signal strength, signal-to-noise ratio, and other indicators), let A lightweight state machine with "dual thresholds + hysteresis + dwell time" is used: when Keep the current port; when When entering the boundary state; And continue to exceed The switch is executed on time. Perform time smoothing and combine with pre-calibrated "incident / emission angle" The mapping table for "radiating elements" allows for rapid positioning, enabling tracking of gain peaks as the focus moves with the beam.

[0031] It should be noted that, in order to achieve an equivalent gradient refractive index in this embodiment, a metal structure is printed on aramid paper, and different equivalent refractive indices are achieved by adjusting the size of the metal structure. For example... Figure 9 As shown, an open-ring structure can be printed on aramid paper to change the equivalent dielectric constant. The required refractive index on the exit diameter plane is calculated using the inverse hyperbolic cosine distribution function formula. Then, a metal structure with the corresponding refractive index is placed at the corresponding position on the paper-based honeycomb carrier to obtain a planar lens. Finally, the planar lens is combined with the metasurface radiation array to obtain the reconfigurable metasurface structure, as shown in the figure. Figures 10-11 As shown.

[0032] Figure 12 The changes in the antenna beam scanning angle and gain are presented when different radiating units in a transparent polymer smart reconfigurable metasurface based on a paper-based cellular carrier transmit signals. It can be seen that when the position of the transmitting signal metasurface antenna moves from the center to the edge, the antenna beam scanning angle can scan from 0 degrees to ±50 degrees, and the gain roll-off relative to the 0-degree direction is less than 1 dB at the ±50-degree scanning angle.

[0033] Specifically, the control unit is configured to generate a gating control signal for controlling the switching circuit to select multiple different directional grouping regions based on multiple beam scheduling instructions at the same time, so as to realize the concurrent transmission or reception of multiple independent beams on the same frequency.

[0034] like Figure 13As shown, the radiating unit, from top to bottom, includes a metasurface layer, a patch radiating layer, a ground layer, a first feed network layer, and a second feed network layer. The patch radiating layer is connected to the ground layer through a grounding via. The switching circuit is correspondingly connected to the first feed network layer, and the first feed network layer is then connected to the patch radiating layer through a first metal via to form a transmit link. The switching circuit is correspondingly connected to the second feed network layer, and the second feed network layer is then connected to the patch radiating layer through a second metal via to form a receive link. More specifically, the power supply networks of the transmit and receive links are isomorphic but independent of each other, achieving high port isolation (high port isolation means gain >40dB) through symmetry and phase relationship, and maintaining high gain in a compact aperture.

[0035] Specifically, in each of the aforementioned radiating units, the metasurface layer and the patch radiating layer are simultaneously divided into four metastructure subunits by a cross-shaped dividing line; each of the aforementioned radiating units includes a transmitting element and a receiving element disposed on the patch radiating layer; in the four metastructure subunits, the ports of the transmitting element are equally divided into transmitting ports P1 to P4 for transmitting four signals with the same amplitude but different phases; the ports of the receiving element are equally divided into receiving ports P5 to P8 for receiving four signals with the same amplitude but different phases; More specifically, the phases of the four received or transmitted signals are 0°, 90°, 180°, and 270°, respectively; Specifically, the radiating element is a dual orthogonal port radiating structure; More specifically, the transmitting ports P1~P4 or receiving ports P5~P8 are arranged in a clockwise direction and spaced at 90° intervals. With the phase-progressive power supply of the four signals, the circularly polarized electromagnetic waves can be more stable over a wider frequency band, and the radiation patterns of the transmitting and receiving elements can be more similar. In each meta-subunit, the transmit port and the receive port are spatially perpendicular to each other; More specifically, the transmitting ports P1~P4 are connected to the first feed network layer through the first metal via; the receiving ports P5~P8 are connected to the second feed network layer through the second metal via. More specifically, a single link in the transmit link or the receive link is fed into the four superstructure sub-units arranged in a clockwise rotation through a power supply network to achieve unidirectional circular polarization radiation.

[0036] It should be noted that traditional phase-controlled intelligent reconfigurable metasurface technology relies on precise phase control to achieve single-beam orientation, while this embodiment uses a planar lens and broadband feeding to achieve multi-beam parallelism and efficient spatial multiplexing.

[0037] Example 2 like Figure 6 As shown, this embodiment also provides a multi-user efficient collaborative communication system. Features not explained in this embodiment can be explained using the methods in Embodiment 1, and will not be repeated here. The difference between this embodiment and Embodiment 1 is as follows: The multi-user high-efficiency collaborative communication system includes a base station, at least one user equipment, and the aforementioned communication module based on a paper-based cellular carrier with a transparent polymer intelligent reconfigurable metasurface structure. The base station is communicatively connected to the control unit and is used to send beam scheduling instructions, user allocation information and channel status information to the control unit. The control unit generates a gating strategy based on the information sent by the base station and controls the switching circuit to execute it, so that the beam formed by the main body of the communication module is directed to the designated user equipment.

[0038] In this embodiment, the communication module of the communication system based on a paper-based cellular carrier and a transparent polymer intelligent reconfigurable metasurface structure has significant advantages over traditional phase-controlled intelligent reconfigurable metasurfaces in terms of control overhead, system stability, and multi-user concurrency capability.

[0039] First, the control overhead of traditional phased array structures is linearly related to the number of phase shifters. However, this embodiment introduces the electromagnetic properties of a graded-index lens on a paper-based honeycomb carrier, grouping the incident array planes by direction. This allows the electromagnetic waves in each direction to correspond to specific radiating elements under the action of the plane lens, achieving stable main lobe pointing without the need for fine phase shifting element by element. Figure 6 As shown. Based on this direction mapping mechanism, the control variables only have an approximately logarithmic relationship with the size of the metasurface radiation array, which significantly reduces the complexity of the control algorithm, wiring complexity, and energy consumption.

[0040] Secondly, in terms of system implementation, although this embodiment uses passive components, it can be integrated with a two-port amplifier, avoiding the stability issues caused by the reflection-mode amplifier required in traditional phased array structures. Although there is a slight loss after electromagnetic waves propagate through the plane lens, the main system losses originate from the attenuation of the transmission line and electronic equipment, and the overall performance is comparable.

[0041] Moreover, this embodiment supports the simultaneous selection of multiple radiating elements to form multiple independent beams on the same frequency, enabling spatial multiplexing for multiple users concurrently, thereby significantly improving bandwidth utilization and cell throughput.

[0042] Furthermore, leveraging the lightweight, low-loss, and easy-to-process characteristics of aramid paper-based planar lenses, this embodiment combines high aperture efficiency, good bandwidth, and wide-angle scanning capabilities. It also boasts engineering advantages such as modular assembly, easy large-scale manufacturing, and low maintenance costs, making it suitable for multi-user scenarios including indoor distributed antennas, millimeter-wave small base stations, industrial IoT, and vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication. In practical applications, this multi-user high-efficiency collaborative communication system, while maintaining high aperture efficiency and bandwidth, can achieve multi-channel concurrent scanning with an azimuth of approximately ±50°, and the main lobe isolation between directions is higher than 10dB.

[0043] In summary, this embodiment replaces the unit-by-unit linear control of traditional phased-array RIS with logarithmic control overhead, providing a more efficient, stable, and scalable solution for future communication systems.

[0044] Specifically, the switching circuit and the control unit are connected via a high-speed bus; The control unit is connected to the control plane interface of the base station to receive the beam scheduling command, user allocation information and channel status information; In this embodiment, the control unit adopts an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) or a dedicated control chip, which is connected to the switching circuit through a high-speed bus (such as SPI, LVDS) and connected to the control plane of the base station through a standard interface (such as CPRI, Ethernet). The control unit receives scheduling instructions (such as target user location, channel quality indication) issued by the base station, and generates specific gating strategies by combining them with the built-in "direction-group" mapping table.

[0045] Example 3 like Figure 6 As shown, this embodiment also provides a multi-user efficient collaborative communication method. Features not explained in this embodiment can be explained using the methods in Embodiments 1 and 2, and will not be repeated here. The difference between this embodiment and Embodiments 1 and 2 is as follows: The multi-user efficient collaborative communication method is applied to the aforementioned multi-user efficient collaborative communication system, and the method includes the following steps: Step S1: Based on the electromagnetic properties of the planar lens, the metasurface radiation array is divided into multiple directional grouping regions corresponding to different beam directions in advance; Step S2: Receive beam scheduling instructions from the base station; Step S3: According to the beam scheduling instruction, determine at least one target direction to be served and generate a corresponding gating strategy, wherein the gating strategy indicates at least one direction grouping area to be gated; Step S4: According to the gating strategy, control the switching circuit to turn on the radiation units in the directional grouping area corresponding to the target direction and turn off the radiation units in other areas, so that the electromagnetic waves passing through the plane lens form a beam pointing to the target direction through the selected radiation units. It should be noted that during communication, the control unit can update the gating strategy in real time based on the channel measurement report or protocol feedback from the user, and quickly switch the selected directional grouping area through the switching circuit (e.g., quickly switch between adjacent groups) to perform periodic beam scanning and reconfiguration in order to cope with user movement or channel changes. like Figure 6 As shown, the switching circuit is electrically connected to the metasurface radiation array, with each switching switch corresponding to several directional grouped radiation elements. The control unit is connected to the switching circuit via a high-speed bus to send gating signals and status control commands, and is connected to the control plane interface on the base station side to receive beam scheduling and resource configuration instructions. The control unit generates a gating strategy based on the beam pointing, user allocation, and channel status information issued by the base station, guiding the switching circuit to dynamically turn on or off radiation elements corresponding to specific directions, achieving multi-beam transmission at the same frequency. The switching circuit, as the execution module, is responsible for rapidly switching and turning on the corresponding directional elements in the metasurface radiation array according to the control unit's instructions, thereby selecting and reflecting the incident wave after refraction by the plane lens to the target user, achieving simultaneous transmission of multiple user independent beams. The control unit, as the scheduling and feedback core, updates the gating scheme in real time based on channel measurement and protocol feedback results (reporting mechanism defined in TS 38.331 / 38.214), achieving rapid beam tracking and reconfiguration. Together, they constitute a low-overhead, scalable multi-beam scheduling mechanism, achieving an optimal balance between control efficiency and energy consumption.

[0046] More specifically, at the protocol and system level, this embodiment defines the beam control process of the Transcosity Intelligent Reconfigurable Metasurface as follows: 3GPP TS 38.331 uniformly issues and manages measurement resources, the Transcosity Intelligent Reconfigurable Metasurface scanning plan, and the reporting cycle; the user receives signals and completes channel state information measurement under different Transcosity Intelligent Reconfigurable Metasurface states according to TS 38.211 (Physical Layer Channel and Waveform); then, according to TS 38.214 (Physical Layer Procedure / Channel State Information Report), channel state information is generated and reported; the base station aligns the channel state information with the Transcosity Intelligent Reconfigurable Metasurface state index, jointly selects the base station-side precoding and the Transcosity Intelligent Reconfigurable Metasurface-side gating unit, and quickly issues the target configuration to the Transcosity Intelligent Reconfigurable Metasurface through a dedicated control plane; the data plane still uses TS 38.211 for transmission. Based on the periodic or event-triggered mechanism defined in TS 38.214, rapid tracking and reconfiguration can be achieved, thereby supporting dynamic changes in user mobility and service load.

[0047] Specifically, in step S2, the received beam scheduling instruction includes concurrent service requests for multiple user equipments at the same frequency; In step S3, the generated gating strategy indicates that multiple different directional grouping regions are gated simultaneously to form multiple independent beams of the same frequency to serve the multiple user equipment respectively.

[0048] It should be noted that the additional losses introduced by the planar lens are negligible to a minor order of magnitude compared to the losses of the transmission line and electronic devices.

[0049] In summary, this embodiment, through its unique architecture of "planar lens focusing + group gating," transforms the core task of beamforming from "computation-intensive digital phase shifting" to "query-mapping hardware gating." While ensuring multi-beam performance, it achieves orders-of-magnitude optimization in control complexity, hardware cost, and system energy consumption, making it particularly suitable for large-scale antenna arrays and low-power green communication scenarios.

[0050] Based on the disclosure and teachings of the foregoing specification, those skilled in the art can make changes and modifications to the above embodiments. Therefore, the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments disclosed and described above, and some modifications and changes to the present invention should also fall within the protection scope of the claims of the present invention. Furthermore, although some specific terms are used in this specification, these terms are only for convenience of explanation and do not constitute any limitation on the present invention.

Claims

1. A communication module based on a paper-based cellular carrier and a reconfigurable metasurface structure, comprising a communication module body, wherein the communication module body includes a reconfigurable metasurface structure, characterized in that: The reconfigurable metasurface structure includes a metasurface radiation array for radiating electromagnetic waves; the metasurface radiation array includes multiple radiation elements arranged at periodic intervals; the multiple radiation elements are respectively radiating incident electromagnetic waves in different spatial directions. The reconfigurable metasurface structure further includes a planar lens, which is disposed on the electromagnetic wave radiation path of the metasurface radiation array; the planar lens has a refractive index gradient distribution structure, which is used to refract and focus incident electromagnetic waves from different spatial directions onto the radiation units at different positions on the metasurface radiation array. The main body of the communication module also includes a switching circuit and a control unit; the switching circuit is electrically connected to the metasurface radiation array, and the switching circuit includes multiple switching switches, which are used to control the selection and shutdown of different radiation elements; the control unit is communicatively connected to the switching circuit, and is used to generate a gating control signal according to the received beam scheduling command, and dynamically select or shut down the radiation element corresponding to the target beam direction by controlling the corresponding switching switch in the switching circuit.

2. The communication module based on a paper-based cellular carrier and a permeable polymer intelligent reconfigurable metasurface structure according to claim 1, characterized in that, The planar lens has two opposing aperture planes, an upper one and a lower one, which are the incident plane and the radiation plane of the electromagnetic wave, respectively; the refractive index of the planar lens decreases radially from the center of one of the opposing planes toward its surrounding edges.

3. The communication module based on a paper-based cellular carrier and a permeable polymer intelligent reconfigurable metasurface structure according to claim 2, characterized in that, Let the central refractive index of one of the opposing planes be set to The target refractive index of its radial edge is set to The height between the incident plane and the radiating plane of the plane lens is set as ,by Let the radial distance extending circumferentially from the center be set as ,but Refractive index at position The inverse hyperbolic cosine distribution function, which is symmetric along its central axis, is specifically expressed by the following formula: 。 4. The communication module based on a paper-based cellular carrier and a permeable polymer intelligent reconfigurable metasurface structure according to claim 1, characterized in that, The control unit is configured to generate a gating control signal that controls the switching circuit to select multiple different directional grouping regions based on multiple beam scheduling commands at the same time.

5. The communication module based on a paper-based cellular carrier and a reconfigurable smart metasurface structure according to claim 1, characterized in that, The radiating unit, from top to bottom, includes a metasurface layer, a patch radiating layer, a ground layer, a first feed network layer, and a second feed network layer. The patch radiating layer is connected to the ground layer through a grounding via. The switching circuit is connected to the first feed network layer, which is then connected to the patch radiating layer through a first metal via to form a transmit link. The switching circuit is connected to the second feed network layer, which is then connected to the patch radiating layer through a second metal via to form a receive link.

6. The communication module based on a paper-based cellular carrier and a permeable polymer intelligent reconfigurable metasurface structure according to claim 5, characterized in that, In each of the aforementioned radiating units, the metasurface layer and the patch radiating layer are simultaneously divided into four metastructure sub-units by a cross-shaped dividing line; each of the aforementioned radiating units includes a emitting element and a receiving element disposed on the patch radiating layer; In the four superstructure subunits, the ports of the transmitting element are equally divided into transmitting ports P1 to P4 for transmitting four signals with the same amplitude but different phases; the ports of the receiving element are equally divided into receiving ports P5 to P8 for receiving four signals with the same amplitude but different phases.

7. A multi-user high-efficiency collaborative communication system, characterized in that, Includes a base station, at least one user equipment, and a transparent polymer intelligent reconfigurable metasurface structure communication module based on a paper-based cellular carrier as described in any one of claims 1 to 6; The base station is communicatively connected to the control unit and is used to send beam scheduling instructions, user allocation information and channel status information to the control unit. The control unit generates a gating strategy based on the information sent by the base station and controls the switching circuit to execute it, so that the beam formed by the main body of the communication module is directed to the designated user equipment.

8. A multi-user high-efficiency collaborative communication system according to claim 7, characterized in that, The switching circuit and the control unit are connected via a high-speed bus; The control unit is connected to the control plane interface of the base station to receive beam scheduling instructions, user allocation information, and channel status information.

9. A multi-user efficient collaborative communication method, characterized in that, The method, applied to a multi-user efficient collaborative communication system as described in any one of claims 7-8, includes the following steps: Step S1: Based on the electromagnetic properties of the planar lens, the metasurface radiation array is divided into multiple directional grouping regions corresponding to different beam directions in advance; Step S2: Receive beam scheduling instructions from the base station; Step S3: According to the beam scheduling instruction, determine at least one target direction to be served and generate a corresponding gating strategy, wherein the gating strategy indicates at least one direction grouping area to be gated; Step S4: According to the gating strategy, control the switching circuit to turn on the radiation units in the directional grouping area corresponding to the target direction and turn off the radiation units in other areas, so that the electromagnetic waves passing through the plane lens form a beam pointing to the target direction via the selected radiation units.

10. A multi-user efficient collaborative communication method according to claim 9, characterized in that, In step S2, the received beam scheduling instruction includes concurrent service requests for multiple user equipments on the same frequency; In step S3, the generated gating strategy indicates that multiple different directional grouping regions are gated simultaneously to form multiple independent beams of the same frequency to serve the multiple user equipment respectively.

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