Machine Learning for Metasurfaces Design and Their Applications

Metasurfaces (MTSs) are increasingly emerging as enabling technologies to meet the demands for multi-functional, small form-factor, efficient, reconfigurable, tunable, and low-cost radio-frequency (RF) components because of their ability to manipulate waves in a sub-wavelength thickness through modified boundary conditions. They enable the design of reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) for adaptable wireless channels and smart radio environments, wherein the inherently stochastic nature of the wireless environment is transformed into a programmable propagation channel. In particular, space-limited RF applications, such as communications and radar, that have strict radiation requirements are currently being investigated for potential RIS deployment. The RIS comprises sub-wavelength units or meta-atoms, which are independently controlled and whose geometry and material determine the spectral response of the RIS. Conventionally, designing RIS to yield the desired EM response requires trial and error by iteratively investigating a large possibility of various geometries and materials through thousands of full-wave EM simulations. In this context, machine/deep learning (ML/DL) techniques are proving critical in reducing the computational cost and time of RIS inverse design. Instead of explicitly solving Maxwell's equations, DL models learn physics-based relationships through supervised training data. The ML/DL techniques also aid in RIS deployment for numerous wireless applications, which requires dealing with multiple channel links between the base station (BS) and the users. As a result, the BS and RIS beamformers require a joint design, wherein the RIS elements must be rapidly reconfigured. This chapter provides a synopsis of DL techniques for both inverse RIS design and RIS-assisted wireless systems.Comment: Book chapter, 70 pages, 12 figures, 2 tables. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2101.09131, arXiv:2009.0254

A Prospective Look: Key Enabling Technologies, Applications and Open Research Topics in 6G Networks

The fifth generation (5G) mobile networks are envisaged to enable a plethora of breakthrough advancements in wireless technologies, providing support of a diverse set of services over a single platform. While the deployment of 5G systems is scaling up globally, it is time to look ahead for beyond 5G systems. This is driven by the emerging societal trends, calling for fully automated systems and intelligent services supported by extended reality and haptics communications. To accommodate the stringent requirements of their prospective applications, which are data-driven and defined by extremely low-latency, ultra-reliable, fast and seamless wireless connectivity, research initiatives are currently focusing on a progressive roadmap towards the sixth generation (6G) networks. In this article, we shed light on some of the major enabling technologies for 6G, which are expected to revolutionize the fundamental architectures of cellular networks and provide multiple homogeneous artificial intelligence-empowered services, including distributed communications, control, computing, sensing, and energy, from its core to its end nodes. Particularly, this paper aims to answer several 6G framework related questions: What are the driving forces for the development of 6G? How will the enabling technologies of 6G differ from those in 5G? What kind of applications and interactions will they support which would not be supported by 5G? We address these questions by presenting a profound study of the 6G vision and outlining five of its disruptive technologies, i.e., terahertz communications, programmable metasurfaces, drone-based communications, backscatter communications and tactile internet, as well as their potential applications. Then, by leveraging the state-of-the-art literature surveyed for each technology, we discuss their requirements, key challenges, and open research problems

Design and application of intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) for beyond 5G wireless networks: a review

The existing sub-6 GHz band is insufficient to support the bandwidth requirement of emerging data-rate-hungry applications and Internet of Things devices, requiring ultrareliable low latency communication (URLLC), thus making the migration to millimeter-wave (mmWave) bands inevitable. A notable disadvantage of a mmWave band is the significant losses suffered at higher frequencies that may not be overcome by novel optimization algorithms at the transmitter and receiver and thus result in a performance degradation. To address this, Intelligent Reflecting Surface (IRS) is a new technology capable of transforming the wireless channel from a highly probabilistic to a highly deterministic channel and as a result, overcome the significant losses experienced in the mmWave band. This paper aims to survey the design and applications of an IRS, a 2-dimensional (2D) passive metasurface with the ability to control the wireless propagation channel and thus achieve better spectral efficiency (SE) and energy efficiency (EE) to aid the fifth and beyond generation to deliver the required data rate to support current and emerging technologies. It is imperative that the future wireless technology evolves toward an intelligent software paradigm, and the IRS is expected to be a key enabler in achieving this task. This work provides a detailed survey of the IRS technology, limitations in the current research, and the related research opportunities and possible solutions

A prospective look: key enabling technologies, applications and open research topics in 6G networks

The fifth generation (5G) mobile networks are envisaged to enable a plethora of breakthrough advancements in wireless technologies, providing support of a diverse set of services over a single platform. While the deployment of 5G systems is scaling up globally, it is time to look ahead for beyond 5G systems. This is mainly driven by the emerging societal trends, calling for fully automated systems and intelligent services supported by extended reality and haptics communications. To accommodate the stringent requirements of their prospective applications, which are data-driven and defined by extremely low-latency, ultra-reliable, fast and seamless wireless connectivity, research initiatives are currently focusing on a progressive roadmap towards the sixth generation (6G) networks, which are expected to bring transformative changes to this premise. In this article, we shed light on some of the major enabling technologies for 6G, which are expected to revolutionize the fundamental architectures of cellular networks and provide multiple homogeneous artificial intelligence-empowered services, including distributed communications, control, computing, sensing, and energy, from its core to its end nodes. In particular, the present paper aims to answer several 6G framework related questions: What are the driving forces for the development of 6G? How will the enabling technologies of 6G differ from those in 5G? What kind of applications and interactions will they support which would not be supported by 5G? We address these questions by presenting a comprehensive study of the 6G vision and outlining seven of its disruptive technologies, i.e., mmWave communications, terahertz communications, optical wireless communications, programmable metasurfaces, drone-based communications, backscatter communications and tactile internet, as well as their potential applications. Then, by leveraging the state-of-the-art literature surveyed for each technology, we discuss the associated requirements, key challenges, and open research problems. These discussions are thereafter used to open up the horizon for future research directions

Application and Theory of Multimedia Signal Processing Using Machine Learning or Advanced Methods

This Special Issue is a book composed by collecting documents published through peer review on the research of various advanced technologies related to applications and theories of signal processing for multimedia systems using ML or advanced methods. Multimedia signals include image, video, audio, character recognition and optimization of communication channels for networks. The specific contents included in this book are data hiding, encryption, object detection, image classification, and character recognition. Academics and colleagues who are interested in these topics will find it interesting to read