Heterogeneous Planning of Smart Entities in Next Generation Wireless Communication Scenarios

In this work, an optimal planning strategy for smart electromagnetic entities (SEEs) aimed at enhancing wireless coverage and Quality-of-Service (QoS) in large urban areas is presented. The proposed approach focuses on integrating different technologies that enable the Smart Electromagnetic Environment (SEME) paradigm, including integrated access-and-backhaul nodes (IABs), smart repeaters (SRs), reconfigurable passive electromagnetic skins (RP-EMSs) - also known as reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) - and static passive electromagnetic skins (SP-EMSs). By leveraging the complementary capabilities of these heterogeneous devices, the strategy is designed to restore or boost received power within a set of regions-of-interest (RoIs) in outdoor scenarios. An innovative planning framework has been developed to optimize the selection, placement, orientation, and configuration of the smart entities, while considering constraints such as cost and energy efficiency. Numerical results, dealing with real-world scenario, are shown to demonstrate the effectiveness and the potentiality of the proposed planning strategy.