Intelligent Adaptive Metasurface in Complex Wireless Environments

TL;DR

This paper introduces an adaptive metasurface that can sense and dynamically manipulate electromagnetic waves in real time, improving wireless communication in complex environments without external sensors.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel adaptive metasurface capable of sensing electromagnetic fields and manipulating waves autonomously, eliminating the need for external environmental information.

Findings

Prototype successfully demonstrates sensing and manipulation capabilities.

Enhances communication quality in complex electromagnetic environments.

Validates effectiveness in various integrated sensing and communication scenarios.

Abstract

The programmable metasurface is regarded as one of the most promising transformative technologies for next-generation wireless system applications. Due to the lack of effective perception ability of the external electromagnetic environment, there are numerous challenges in the intelligent regulation of wireless channels, and it still relies on external sensors to reshape electromagnetic environment as desired. To address that problem, we propose an adaptive metasurface (AMS) which integrates the capabilities of acquiring wireless environment information and manipulating reflected electromagnetic (EM) waves in a programmable manner. The proposed design endows the metasurfaces with excellent capabilities to sense the complex electromagnetic field distributions around them and then dynamically manipulate the waves and signals in real time under the guidance of the sensed information, eliminating the need for prior knowledge or external inputs about the wireless environment. For verification, a prototype of the proposed AMS is constructed, and its dual capabilities of sensing and manipulation are experimentally validated. Additionally, different integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) scenarios with and without the aid of the AMS are established. The effectiveness of the AMS in enhancing communication quality is well demonstrated in complex electromagnetic environments, highlighting its beneficial application potential in future wireless systems.