Near-Field Communications: Research Advances, Potential, and Challenges
Abstract
To support high throughput and massive connectivity, next-generation mobile networks are expected to utilize extremely large-scale antenna arrays. This would result in wireless communications occurring in the near-field region. Leveraging the unique channel characteristics of near-field propagation presents both opportunities and challenges, hence we critically appraise near-field communications (NFC). We commence by determining the boundary that distinguishes NFC and conventional far-field communications. Furthermore, some of the key challenges of NFC, including its spherical wavefront-based channel modeling and channel estimation, near-field beamfocusing, hardware design, as well as wireless sensing, are covered based on a comprehensive survey of existing progress. Two case studies demonstrate the potential of NFC in improving the spatial multiplexing gain and positioning accuracy in the near field. Finally, a suite of open issues are identified for motivating future research, such as dealing with spatial non-stationarity, and the potential of stacked intelligent metasurface-based transceiver design.
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When a large intelligent surface is utilized, users are typically within its radiating near-field region, which enables exploitation of full spatial degrees of freedom even in strong line-of-sight channel conditions.
“When a large intelligent surface is utilized, users are typically within its radiating near-field region. This enables the exploitation of full spatial degrees of freedom (DoF), even in strong lineof-sight (LoS) channel conditions [51].”
From Emerging Technologies in Intelligent Metasurfaces: Shaping the Future of Wireless Communications (2026) · cites this paper as [51]
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Two-Dimensional Direction-of-Arrival Estimation Using Stacked Intelligent Metasurfaces
An, J., Yuen, C., Guan, Y. L., Renzo, M. D., Debbah, M., Poor, H. V., & Hanzo, L. (2024) · IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications · doi:10.1109/jsac.2024.3414613 · Cited by 125 · see citing works
Self-citationEmerging Technologies in Intelligent Metasurfaces: Shaping the Future of Wireless Communications
An, J., Debbah, M., Cui, T. J., Chen, Z. N., & Yuen, C. (2026) · IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation · doi:10.1109/tap.2025.3571069 · Cited by 72 · see citing works
Self-citationFlexible Intelligent Metasurfaces for Enhancing MIMO Communications
An, J., Han, Z., Niyato, D., Debbah, M., Yuen, C., & Hanzo, L. (2025) · IEEE Transactions on Communications · doi:10.1109/tcomm.2025.3550318 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
Self-citationDownlink Multiuser Communications Relying on Flexible Intelligent Metasurfaces
An, J., Yuen, C., Di Renzo, M., Debbah, M., Poor, H. V., & Hanzo, L. (2024) · GLOBECOM 2024 - 2024 IEEE Global Communications Conference · doi:10.1109/globecom52923.2024.10901792 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Self-citation
- Authors
- An, J., Yuen, C., Dai, L., Di Renzo, M., Debbah, M., & Hanzo, L.
- Affiliations
- Nanyang Technological University (SG)
- Tsinghua University (CN)
- Université Paris-Saclay,France
- Khalifa University of Science and Technology,UAE
- University of Southampton (GB)
- Venue
- IEEE Wireless Communications
- Published
- 2024-06
- Volume
- 31
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 100-107
- ISSN
- 1536-1284 (ISSN-L)
- 1558-0687
- OpenAlex
- W4399665799
- Cited by
- 122
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 33 · 2025: 65 · 2024: 24
- FWCI
- 12.59
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- IEEE Wireless Communications (publishedVersion)
- ePrints Soton (University of Southampton) (acceptedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion)
- DR-NTU (Nanyang Technological University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Ministry of Education, Singapore (MOE-T2EP50220-0019)
- Science and Engineering Research Council of A*STAR (M22L1b0110)
- European Commission (101086228,101129618,101139161)
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche (22-PEFT-0006,22-PEFT-0005)
- European Research Council's Advanced Fellow Grant QuantCom (789028)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Millimeter-Wave Propagation and Modeling
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Advanced Wireless Communication Technologies
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Electromagnetic Compatibility and Measurements
- Keywords
- near field communication, near-field propagation, channel estimation, near-field beamforming, wireless sensing, spatial multiplexing gain, spatial non-stationarity, massive antenna arrays, next generation mobile networks
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