Considerations on Potential Standardization Work for Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) is a promising technique towards 6G evolution. In 3GPP Rel-18 workshop, the topic of RIS attracted numerous companies' interest. Although no consensus was reached to include RIS as part of Rel-18, a study item on similar technique, noted as network-controlled repeater (NCR), was approved in 3GPP RAN meeting #94e. In this paper, we provide an insight of the discussion on RIS and NCR in 3GPP, and analyze the relationship between them. Moreover, based on the discussion during Rel-18 workshop, six key points for the research on RIS are summarized and analyzed. In the end, we compare NCR and RIS from hardware, function and requirement aspects, and provide some considerations on potential standardization work for RIS.