Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface for Sensing, Communication, and Computation: Perspectives, Challenges, and Opportunities

Forthcoming 6G networks have two predominant features of wide coverage and sufficient computation capability. To support the promising applications, Integrated Sensing, Communication, and Computation (ISCC) has been considered as a vital enabler by completing the computation of raw data to achieve accurate environmental sensing. To help the ISCC networks better support the comprehensive services of radar detection, data transmission and edge computing, Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS) can be employed to boost the transmission rate and the wireless coverage by smartly tuning the electromagnetic characteristics of the environment. In this article, we propose an RIS-assisted ISCC framework and exploit the RIS benefits for improving radar sensing, communication and computing functionalities via cross-layer design, while discussing the key challenges. Then, two generic application scenarios are presented, i.e., unmanned aerial vehicles and Internet of vehicles. Finally, numerical results demonstrate a superiority of RIS-assisted ISCC, followed by a range of future research directions.