Stacked Intelligent Metasurface Enabled Near-Field Multiuser Beamfocusing in the Wave Domain
Open accessAbstract
Intelligent surfaces represent a breakthrough technology capable of customizing the wireless channel cost-effectively. However, the existing works generally focus on planar wavefront, neglecting near-field spherical wavefront characteristics caused by large array aperture and high operation frequencies in the terahertz (THz). Additionally, the single-layer reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) lacks the signal processing ability to mitigate the computational complexity at the base station (BS). To address this issue, we introduce a novel stacked intelligent metasurfaces (SIM) comprised of an array of programmable metasurface layers. The SIM aims to substitute conventional digital baseband architecture to execute computing tasks with ultra-low processing delay, albeit with a reduced number of radio-frequency (RF) chains and low-resolution digital-to-analog converters. In this paper, we present a SIM-aided multiuser multiple-input single-output (MU-MISO) near-field system, where the SIM is integrated into the BS to perform beamfocusing in the wave domain and customize an end-to-end channel with minimized inter-user interference. Finally, the numerical results demonstrate that near-field communication achieves superior spatial gain over the far-field, and the SIM effectively suppresses inter-user interference as the wireless signals propagate through it.
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Li et al. [100] explored integrating SIMs into APs to improve the spectrum and energy efficiency of uplink CF systems.
“To tackle these issues, Li et al. [100] explored integrating SIMs into APs to improve the spectrum and energy efficiency of the uplink CF systems.”
From Emerging Technologies in Intelligent Metasurfaces: Shaping the Future of Wireless Communications (2026) · cites this paper as [100]
The Introduction and Conclusion describe integrating a SIM into a base station, and Section IV evaluates the resulting system sum rate. But Section IV explicitly studies a downlink MU-MISO system, not an uplink cell-free system with SIM-equipped access points; the cited passages also do not establish an energy-efficiency improvement. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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Cites
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Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- J. An, M. Di Renzo, M. Debbah, and C. Yuen, "Stacked intelligent metasurfaces enabled multiuser beamforming in the wave domain," in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Commun. (ICC), Rome, Italy, May. 2023.
Cited by
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Jia, X., An, J., Liu, H., Gan, L., Di Renzo, M., Debbah, M., & Yuen, C.
- Affiliations
- University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (CN)
- Nanyang Technological University (SG)
- Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, CentraleSupélec, Laboratoire des Signaux et Systémes,Gif-sur-Yvette,France,91192
- Khalifa University of Science and Technology,KU 6G Research Center,Abu Dhabi,UAE,P O Box 127788
- Venue
- 2024 IEEE 99th Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC2024-Spring)
- Publisher
- IEEE
- Published
- 2024-06-24
- Pages
- 1-5
- ISSN
- 1090-3038 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4402834851
- Cited by
- 19
- References
- 14
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 9
- FWCI
- 14.56
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- arxiv.org
- Locations
- IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Advanced Wireless Communication Technologies
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Aerospace Engineering › Advanced Antenna and Metasurface Technologies
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Millimeter-Wave Propagation and Modeling
- Keywords
- stacked intelligent metasurfaces, reconfigurable intelligent surface, near field communication, terahertz communication, inter-user interference suppression, spherical wavefront
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