# Exploration of Intercell Wireless Millimeter-Wave Communication in the Landscape of Intelligent Metasurfaces

## TL;DR

This paper investigates wireless millimeter-wave communication between cells in intelligent metasurfaces, exploring physical implementations, channel metrics, and trade-offs to advance AI-enabled electromagnetic surfaces.

## Contribution

It introduces the concept of intercell wireless mm-wave communication within software-defined metasurfaces for the first time, analyzing different channel configurations and their performance.

## Key findings

- Wireless channels vary in complexity and performance
- Physical implementation strategies are identified for each channel type
- Trade-offs between complexity and communication efficiency are characterized

## Abstract

Software-defined metasurfaces are electromagnetically ultra-thin, artificial components that can provide engineered and externally controllable functionalities. The control over these functionalities is enabled by the metasurface tunability, which is implemented by embedded electronic circuits that modify locally the surface resistance and reactance. Integrating controllers within the metasurface cells, able to intercommunicate and adaptively reconfigure it, thus imparting a desired electromagnetic operation, opens the path towards the creation of an artificially intelligent (AI) fabric where each unit cell can have its own sensing, programmable computing, and actuation facilities. In this work we take a crucial step towards bringing the AI metasurface technology to emerging applications, in particular exploring the wireless mm-wave intercell communication capabilities in a software-defined HyperSurface designed for operation is the microwave regime. We examine three different wireless communication channels within the landscape of the reflective metasurface: Firstly, in the layer where the control electronics of the HyperSurface lie, secondly inside a dedicated layer enclosed between two metallic plates, and, thirdly, inside the metasurface itself. For each case we examine the physical implementation of the mm-wave transponder nodes, we quantify communication channel metrics, and we identify complexity vs. performance trade-offs.