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Cited by 358Advanced Wireless Communication TechnologiesAdvanced Antenna and Metasurface TechnologiesMetamaterials and Metasurfaces Applications

Stacked Intelligent Metasurfaces for Efficient Holographic MIMO Communications in 6G

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An, Jiancheng, Xu, Chao, Ng, Derrick Wing Kwan, Alexandropoulos, George C., Huang, Chongwen, Yuen, Chau, Hanzo, Lajos·2023·IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications
DOI 10.1109/jsac.2023.3288261
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Abstract

A revolutionary technology relying on Stacked Intelligent Metasurfaces (SIM) is capable of carrying out advanced signal processing directly in the native electromagnetic (EM) wave regime. An SIM is fabricated by a sophisticated amalgam of multiple stacked metasurface layers, which may outperform its single-layer metasurface counterparts, such as reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) and metasurface lenses. We harness this new SIM for implementing holographic multiple-input multiple-output (HMIMO) communications without requiring excessive radio-frequency (RF) chains, which is a substantial benefit compared to existing implementations. First of all, we propose an HMIMO communication system based on a pair of SIM at the transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX), respectively. In sharp contrast to the conventional MIMO designs, SIM is capable of automatically accomplishing transmit precoding and receiver combining, as the EM waves propagate through them. As such, each spatial stream can be directly radiated and recovered from the corresponding transmit and receive port. Secondly, we formulate the problem of minimizing the error between the actual end-to-end channel matrix and the target diagonal one, representing a flawless interference-free system of parallel subchannels. This is achieved by jointly optimizing the phase shifts associated with all the metasurface layers of both the TX-SIM and RX-SIM. We then design a gradient descent algorithm to solve the resultant non-convex problem. Furthermore, we theoretically analyze the HMIMO channel capacity bound and provide some fundamental insights. Finally, extensive simulation results are provided for characterizing our SIM-aided HMIMO system, which quantifies its substantial performance benefits, e.g., 150% capacity improvement over both conventional MIMO and its RIS-aided counterparts.

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  • Recent prototypes have demonstrated SIMs with capabilities for MIMO beamforming, radar sensing, and image classification.

    “Recent prototypes have demonstrated SIMs with impressive capabilities for applications such as MIMO beamforming [25], radar sensing [26], and image classification [27].”

    From Emerging Technologies in Intelligent Metasurfaces: Shaping the Future of Wireless Communications (2026) · cites this paper as [25]

    The Proposed SIM Design section describes SIM-based precoding and combining for MIMO communications, supporting the beamforming application attributed to [25]. But the Simulation Setups section says the performance results come from simulations; our copy does not establish that a prototype demonstrated this capability. Radar sensing and image classification are attached to other citations and are not judged here. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • By properly configuring the transmission coefficients of the meta-atoms on each metasurface, a SIM can automatically accomplish various advanced computation and signal processing tasks as electromagnetic waves propagate through the layered structure at the speed of light.

    “By properly configuring the transmission coefficients of the meta-atoms on each metasurface, a SIM becomes capable of automatically accomplishing various advanced computation and signal processing tasks as EM waves propagate through the layered structure at the speed of light [25], [26].”

    From Emerging Technologies in Intelligent Metasurfaces: Shaping the Future of Wireless Communications (2026) · cites this paper as [25]

  • In [25], An et al. harnessed a pair of SIM devices to automatically perform MIMO precoding and combining as electromagnetic waves propagate through them.

    “In [25], An et al. harnessed a pair of SIM devices to automatically perform MIMO precoding and combining as EM waves propagate through them.”

    From Emerging Technologies in Intelligent Metasurfaces: Shaping the Future of Wireless Communications (2026) · cites this paper as [25]

  • The field response impinging on each layer is the weighted sum of the diffracted fields from the meta-atoms on the previous layer, with the weight coefficient determined by the product of the complex-valued transmission coefficients and corresponding propagation coefficients.

    “The field response impinging on each layer is the weighted sum of the diffracted fields from the meta-atoms on the previous layer, with the weight coefficient determined by the product of the complex-valued transmission coefficients and corresponding propagation coefficients [25], [26].”

    From Emerging Technologies in Intelligent Metasurfaces: Shaping the Future of Wireless Communications (2026) · cites this paper as [25]

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
An, J., Xu, C., Ng, D. W. K., Alexandropoulos, G. C., Huang, C., Yuen, C., & Hanzo, L.
Affiliations
  • Singapore University of Technology and Design (SG)
  • University of Southampton (GB)
  • UNSW Sydney (AU)
  • National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (GR)
  • Xidian University (CN)
  • Nanyang Technological University (SG)
ORCID
Venue
IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications
Publisher
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Published
2023-08
Volume
41
Issue
8
Pages
2380-2396
ISSN
  • 0733-8716 (ISSN-L)
  • 1558-0008
DOI
10.1109/jsac.2023.3288261
OpenAlex
W4381785979
Cited by
358
References
3
Citations by year
2026: 92 · 2025: 146 · 2024: 104 · 2023: 16
FWCI
26.59
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications (publishedVersion)
  • ePrints Soton (University of Southampton) (acceptedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
  • UNSWorks (UNSW Sydney) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • DR-NTU (Nanyang Technological University) (submittedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University)
Funders
  • Ministry of Education, Singapore, under its Ministry of Education (MOE) Tier 2 (MOE-T2EP50220-0019)
  • Science and Engineering Research Council of Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) Singapore (M22L1b0110)
  • Australian Research Council's Discovery Project (DP210102169, DP230100603)
  • Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU) TERahertz ReconfigurAble METAsurfaces for ultra-high rate wireless communications (TERRAMETA) Project
  • European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Program (101097101)
  • China National Key Research and Development Program (2021YFA1000500)
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China (62101492)
  • Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (LR22F010002)
  • Zhejiang University Global Partnership Fund
  • Zhejiang University Education Foundation Qizhen Scholar Foundation
  • Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2021FZZX001-21)
  • Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
  • European Research Council's Advanced Fellow Grant QuantCom (789028)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Advanced Wireless Communication Technologies
  • Physical Sciences › Engineering › Aerospace Engineering › Advanced Antenna and Metasurface Technologies
  • Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials › Metamaterials and Metasurfaces Applications
Keywords
stacked intelligent metasurfaces, holographic MIMO, 6G communication, reconfigurable intelligent surface, precoding, channel capacity bounds, gradient descent, non-convex optimization

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