End-to-End Dynamic Metasurface Antenna Wireless System: Prototype, Opportunities, and Challenges

TL;DR

This paper presents a prototype of an end-to-end wireless system using dynamic metasurface antennas with strong mutual coupling, demonstrating beam control and jamming suppression, and discusses future challenges and opportunities.

Contribution

It provides the first complete end-to-end DMA-based wireless system prototype, highlighting the benefits of mutual coupling and flexible beam control.

Findings

Achieved up to 43 dB discrimination between desired and undesired signals.

Demonstrated successful transmission and reception of QPSK OFDM waveforms.

Showcased beam steering and nulling capabilities in a practical prototype.

Abstract

Dynamic metasurface antennas (DMAs) are a promising hybrid analog/digital beamforming technology to realize next-generation wireless systems with low cost, footprint, and power consumption. The research on DMA-empowered wireless systems is still at an early stage, mostly limited to theoretical studies under simplifying assumptions on the one hand and a few antenna-level experiments on the other hand. Substantial knowledge gaps arise from the lack of complete end-to-end DMA-empowered wireless system prototypes. In addition, recently unveiled benefits of strong inter-element mutual coupling (MC) in DMAs remain untapped. Here, we demonstrate a K-band prototype of an end-to-end wireless system based on a DMA with strong inter-element MC. To showcase the flexible control over the DMA's radiation pattern, we present an experimental case study of simultaneously steering a beam to a desired transmitter and a null to an undesired jammer, achieving up to 43~dB discrimination. Using software-defined radios, we transmit and receive QPSK OFDM waveforms to evaluate the bit error rate. We also discuss algorithmic and technological challenges associated with envisioned future evolutions of our end-to-end testbed and real-life DMA-based wireless systems.