Wireless Communication Based on Information Metasurfaces

Metasurface has great capabilities in tailoring the electromagnetic (EM) waves in a controllable way owing to the carefully designed and arranged subwavelength meta-atoms. In this review paper, the digital version of metasurface, information metasurface (IM), is systematically introduced with its application in wireless communications. IM extends the research scope of metasurface from physics to the information perspective, in which the meta-atoms are represented by using digital codes “0” and “1” to characterize the EM responses. It can achieve programmable controls of EM waves in real time by integrating with the field-programmable gate array (FPGA). On the other hand, the digital coding strategy bridges the physical world and digital world, and further make the metasurface realize direct information processing. With the outstanding advantages, IMs have shown great potentials to bring revolutionary applications in wireless communications. In this article, the basic concepts and principles of IMs and their programmable features are presented first. Then it focuses on the IM-based new architecture transmitters, as well as the IM-integrated wireless networks in more detail. Finally, the current progress and the future directions of IMs in the wireless communications are respectively summarized.