Pinching Antenna Systems Versus Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces in mmWave

energy efficiency; millimeter wave (mmWave); Pinching antenna systems; reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS); spectral efficiency; Antenna system; Energy; Flexible antennas; Intelligent antennas; Millimeter wave; Millimeter-wave band; Pinching antenna system; Reconfigurable; Reconfigurable intelligent surface; Spectral efficiencies; Control and Systems Engineering; Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Abstract :

[en] Flexible and intelligent antenna designs, such as pinching antenna systems and reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS), have gained extensive research attention due to their potential to enhance the wireless channels. This letter, for the first time, presents a comparative study between the emerging pinching antenna systems and RIS in millimeter wave (mmWave) bands. Our results reveal that RIS requires an extremely large number of elements (in the order of 104) to outperform pinching antenna systems in terms of spectral efficiency, which severely impact the energy efficiency performance of RIS. Moreover, pinching antenna systems demonstrate greater robustness against hardware impairments and severe path loss typically encountered in high-frequency mmWave bands.

Disciplines :

Electrical & electronics engineering

Author, co-author :

SAMY, Mostafa ; University of Luxembourg > Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SNT) > SigCom

AL-HRAISHAWI, Hayder ; University of Luxembourg > Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust > SigCom > Team Symeon CHATZINOTAS ; University of South Florida, Department of Electrical Engineering, Tampa, United States

Alsenwi, Madyan ; University of Luxembourg, Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT), Luxembourg

Adam, Abuzar B.M. ; University of Luxembourg, Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT), Luxembourg

CHATZINOTAS, Symeon ; University of Luxembourg > Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SNT) > SigCom ; Kyung Hee University, College of Electronics and Information, Yongin-si, South Korea

OTTERSTEN, Björn ; University of Luxembourg > Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SNT) > PI Ottersten

External co-authors :

yes

Language :

English

Title :

Pinching Antenna Systems Versus Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces in mmWave

Publication date :

September 2025

Journal title :

IEEE Wireless Communications Letters

ISSN :

2162-2337

eISSN :

2162-2345

Publisher :

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.

Pages :

1-1

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Additional URL :

http://xplorestaging.ieee.org/ielx8/5962382/6065724/11172334.pdf?arnumber=11172334

Funders :

Fonds National de la Recherche Luxembourg

Available on ORBilu :

since 05 November 2025

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