LoRa is a prime modulation technique to enable Low-Power Wide Area Networks (LPWANs), providing adequate interference prevention, relatively low power consumption, and long range. These benefits, however, do not scale well with increases in the network density [1]. This represents an obstacle to achieving massive connectivity, seen as an important part of the future of wireless communications.

A surging technology that could mitigate the impacts of interference in LoRa-based networks is the so-called Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS). A passive element composed of meta-surfaces that can change characteristics of an impinging electromagnetic wave [2], the RIS concept allows the power of a received signal to be boosted through matching waveforms (i.e. phase delays) of otherwise destructive multi-path reflections.

This thesis will focus on the possible application of RIS in a LoRa-based network and will study the theoretical modeling of its impacts on the network performance, measured through energy efficiency and network range. If you are interested in this work, please do not hesitate to get in contact.

[1] Scalability Analysis of a LoRa Network Under Co-SF and Inter-SF Interference in Large-scale IoT Applications

[2] Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces for 6G Systems: Principles, Applications, and Research Directions