A reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) is a type of metasurface that can dynamically control the reflection and transmission of electromagnetic waves, such as radio waves, by changing its physical properties. Recently, RISs have played an important role in intelligently reshaping wireless propagation environments to improve the received signal gain as well as spectral efficiency performance. In this paper, we consider a millimeter wave (mmWave) vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system in which, an RIS is deployed to aid downlink V2V data transmission. In particular, the line-of-sight path of the mmWave system is affected by blockages, resulting in higher signaling overhead. Thus, the system performance may suffer due to interruptions caused by static or mobile blockers, such as buildings, trees, vehicles, and pedestrians. In this paper, we propose an RIS-assisted hybrid beamforming scheme for blockage-aware mmWave V2V MIMO systems to increase communication service coverage. First, we propose a conjugate gradient and location-based hybrid beamforming (CG-LHB) algorithm to solve the user sub-rate maximization problem. We then propose a double-step iterative algorithm that utilizes an error covariance matrix splitting method to minimize the effect of location error on the passive beamforming. The proposed algorithms perform quite well when the channel uncertainty is smaller than 10%. Finally, the simulation results validate the proposed CG-LHB algorithm in terms of the RIS-assisted equivalent channel for mmWave V2V MIMO communications.
Keywords: RIS; connected autonomous vehicle; location error; millimeter-wave MIMO; spectral efficiency; vehicle-to-vehicle communications.