RIS Assisted Anti-Jamming in Next-Generation Wireless Communication Networks: A Survey of Threats, Solutions, and Research Challenges

Rapid growth in wireless data traffic and the increasing demand for secure, low-latency communication have driven research toward next-generation (6G) technology, which aims to provide ubiquitous, secure wireless connectivity. Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS) have emerged as a promising technology in 6G, offering a means of combating increasing physical layer security threats by smartly managing wireless channel conditions. This survey offers an in-depth review of RIS-assisted anti-jamming strategies in next-generation wireless communication networks, encompassing threats, solutions, and research challenges. We start by presenting the analysis of existing surveys and their research gaps in the area of the use of RIS for the security of wireless communications. Following this, we present core concepts of jamming, and the threats they pose across various wireless networks, challenges of state-of-the-art anti-jamming techniques, motivation for using RIS for anti-jamming, and its potential applications. The survey also examines state-of-the-art RIS-assisted countermeasures against jamming threats in wireless networks, some key lessons learned, and gaps identified. In conclusion, we identify key technical challenges and propose future research directions for RIS-assisted anti-jamming in next-generation wireless communication networks, underscoring the potential of RIS technology to enhance security and resilience in future wireless systems.