To solve the two core challenges that plague existing wireless communications, namely the high cost and energy consumption caused by the densification of base stations and antennas and the random and uncontrollable nature of the wireless propagation environment, Wu proposed a technology called "Intelligent Reflecting Surface Communications (IRS-COM)" which transforms the wireless environment from a passive, random factor into an intelligent, controllable entity that actively serves communication, thereby opening up a new dimension for the sustainable evolution of 6G networks.
An Intelligent Reflecting Surface is an artificial electromagnetic metasurface composed of a large number of reconfigurable reflecting elements that can precisely control the phase, amplitude, polarization, and frequency of electromagnetic waves in real time. Through software programming, an IRS can coordinate with base stations and user devices to intelligently reconfigure signal propagation paths, for example, by bypassing obstacles, enhancing signal coverage, or suppressing network interference. This technological paradigm marks a shift from "adapting to the channel" to "reconfiguring the channel," breaking the design limitation of traditional systems that only perform optimization at the transmitter and receiver.
He further discovered three fundamental theorems of IRS communications, the Gain Theorem, the Quantization Theorem, and the Deployment Theorem, which laid the theoretical foundation to become the basic principles of IRS communications.
He also conducted systematic research on key issues such as integrated sensing and communication, channel estimation, and air-ground network deployment strategies. His designed methods can effectively reduce the required transmit power and number of radio frequency (RF) chains, thus significantly improving network energy efficiency and reduces costs, thereby advancing the engineering applications and standardization of intelligent surface communications, and providing a feasible solution for realizing low-cost, low-power, and wide-coverage 6G networks.
