Page 17 - ITU Journal, Future and evolving technologies - Volume 1 (2020), Issue 1, Inaugural issue

ITU Journal on Future and Evolving Technologies, Volume 1 (2020), Issue 1

The Internet of MetaMaterial Things and their software enablers

Pages 55-77
Christos Liaskos, Georgios G. Pyrialakos, Alexandros Pitilakis, Ageliki Tsioliaridou, Michail
Christodoulou, Nikolaos Kantartzis, Sotiris Ioannidis, Andreas Pitsillides, Ian F. Akyildiz

A new paradigm called the Internet of MetaMaterial Things (IoMMT) is introduced in this paper where
artificial materials with real-time tunable physical properties can be interconnected to form a network
to realize communication through software-controlled electromagnetic, acoustic, and mechanical
energy waves. The IoMMT will significantly enrich the Internet of Things ecosystem by connecting
anything at any place by optimizing the physical energy propagation between the metamaterial devices
during their lifetime, via “eco-firmware” updates. First, the means for abstracting the complex physics
behind these materials are explored, showing their integration into the IoT world. Subsequently, two
novel software categories for the material things are proposed, namely the metamaterial Application
Programming Interface and Metamaterial Middleware, which will be in charge of the application and
physical domains, respectively. Regarding the API, the paper provides the data model and workflows
for obtaining and setting the physical properties of a material via callbacks. The Metamaterial
Middleware is tasked with matching these callbacks to the corresponding material-altering actuations
through embedded elements. Furthermore, a full stack implementation of the software for the
electromagnetic metamaterial case is presented and evaluated, incorporating all the aforementioned
aspects. Finally, interesting extensions and envisioned use cases of the IoMMT concept are discussed.

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Design and analysis of a Reconfigurable Intelligent Meta-surface for vehicular
networks

Pages 79-88
Mohammad Ojaroudi, Valeria Loscrí, Anna Maria Vegni

In this work, a new paradigm for vehicular communications based on Reconfigurable Intelligent Meta-
surfaces (RIMs) is presented. By using the proposed RIM, we are able to manipulate electromagnetic
waves in the half-space, since the element is reflective. The unit cell consists of a U-shaped designed
microstrip structure equipped with a pin diode and via a hole. In this study, two different reflection
modes are achieved for 1-bit data transferring in each state. By incorporating these two different
configurations together, the reflected phases in the proposed RIM surface can be controlled respectively
in 0∘ and 180∘. The proposed unit cell can provide a usable double negative functional characteristic
around 5.3 GHz. The main goal of this paper is the use of a multifunctional behavior RIM for vehicular
communications to code the transmitted wave. A novel phase distribution diagram is generated to
propagate in each angle. Moreover, two major electromagnetic modulation functions, beam forming
and space coding have been demonstrated. Finally, we show how the RIM can be employed for
vehicular communications, acting as a coated access point along the street. We derive the instantaneous
data rate at the receiver node, the outage probability and the channel capacity, as affected by different
beam widths, distances and vehicle speed.
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