Future prospects and challenges associated with intelligent reflecting surfaces enabled wireless communication

The considerable increase in number of connected devices over the past few years has led to the new challenges for wireless communication technology. Most of the work was focused on enhancing the capability of either the transmitter or receiver, as the propagation environment was considered uncontrollable. The concept of controlling propagation environment in order to produce smart radio environment has been introduced and gained considerable attention. The propagation environment can be controlled by deploying intelligent reflecting surfaces between the transmitter and receiver. In this paper, we aim to provide a brief overview of prospective uses and research challenges associated with intelligent reflecting surfaces.