Meta-Backscatter: A New ISAC Paradigm for Battery-Free Internet of Things

The meta-material sensor has been regarded as a next-generation sensing technology for the battery-free Internet of Things (IoT) due to its battery-free characteristic and improved sensing performance. The meta-material sensors function as backscatter tags that change their reflection coefficients with the conditions of sensing targets, such as temperature and gas concentration, allowing transceivers to perform sensing by analyzing the reflected signals from the sensors. Simultaneously, the sensors also function as environmental scatterers, creating additional signal paths to enhance communication performance. Therefore, the meta-material sensor potentially provides a new paradigm of integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) for the battery-free IoT system. In this article, we first propose a meta-backscatter system that utilizes meta-material sensors to achieve diverse sensing functionalities and improved communication performance. We begin with the introduction of the meta-material sensor and further elaborate on the meta-backscatter system. Subsequently, we present optimization strategies for meta-material sensors, transmitters, and receivers to strike a balance between sensing and communication. Furthermore, this article provides a case study of the system and examines the feasibility and trade-off through the simulation results. Finally, potential extensions of the system and their related research challenges are addressed.