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Abstract The emergence of new technological needs in 5 G/6 G networking and broadband satellite internet access amplifies the demand for innovative wireless communication hardware, including high-performance low-profile transceivers. In this context, antennas based on metasurfaces – artificial surfaces engineered to manipulate electromagnetic waves at will – represent highly promising solutions. In this article, we introduce leaky-wave metasurface antennas operating at micro/millimeter-wave frequencies that are designed using the principles of quasi-bound states in the continuum, exploiting judiciously tailored spatial symmetries that enable fully customized radiation. Specifically, we unveil additional degrees of control over leaky-wave radiation by demonstrating pointwise control of the amplitude, phase and polarization state of the metasurface aperture fields by carefully breaking relevant symmetries with tailored perturbations. We design and experimentally demonstrate metasurface antenna prototypes showcasing a variety of functionalities advancing capabilities in wireless communications, including single-input multi-output and multi-input multi-output near-field focusing, as well as far-field beam shaping.
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This content will become publicly available on January 20, 2026
MetaFly: Aerial "MetaSurface-in- The-Middle" Attacks on Wireless Backhaul Links
Transcending the capabilities of traditional architectures, metasurfaces offer nearlimitless control over the fundamental electromagnetic properties of wireless signals, presenting new opportunities for wireless communication. However, they also bring forth unprecedented security challenges, particularly for millimeter-wave and sub-THz wireless backhaul links employed for many critical functions, such as financial trading on Wall Street. In this article, we expose a new category of aerial ''MetaSurface-in-the-Middle'' attacks, wherein an adversary armed with an on-drone metasurface, MetaFly, can intercept wireless backhaul links with an almost imperceptible trace. Strikingly, such adversarial metasurfaces can be fabricated in minutes using standard office items like a foil sheet and a laminator. The attack is implemented and experimentally evaluated in both a large indoor atrium and outdoor rooftops in a large metropolitan area, demonstrating the adversary's ability to establish a secondary diffraction beam for eavesdropping while maintaining minimal impact on legitimate communication.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1954780
- PAR ID:
- 10613633
- Publisher / Repository:
- ACM
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- GetMobile: Mobile Computing and Communications
- Volume:
- 28
- Issue:
- 4
- ISSN:
- 2375-0529
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 5 to 11
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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