Metasurfaces 3.0: a New Paradigm for Enabling Smart Electromagnetic Environments

TL;DR

This paper reviews the emerging role of metasurfaces in transforming the environment into an active component of wireless systems, enabling smarter, more efficient electromagnetic interactions for next-generation communications.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of metasurfaces as a key technology for creating smart electromagnetic environments, highlighting recent applications and their potential to improve wireless system performance.

Findings

Metasurfaces can control electromagnetic wave propagation effectively.

They help mitigate environmental effects like fading and blockage.

Metasurfaces are promising for practical implementation in 6G systems.

Abstract

So far, the environment has been considered as a source of fading, clutter, blockage, etc., with detrimental consequences for the efficiency and robustness of communication systems. However, the intense research developed toward beyond-5G communications is leading to a paradigm change, in which the environment is exploited as a new degree of freedom and plays an active role in achieving unprecedented system performances. For implementing this challenging paradigm, it has been recently proposed the use of intelligent surfaces able to control almost at will the propagation of electromagnetic waves. In this framework, metasurfaces have emerged as a promising solution, thanks to their field manipulation capabilities achieved through low-cost, lightweight, and planar structures. The aim of this paper is to review some recent applications of metasurfaces and cast them in the scenario of next-generation wireless systems. In particular, we show their potentialities in overcoming some detrimental effects presented by the environment in wireless communications, and discuss their crucial role towards the practical implementation of a smart electromagnetic environment.