Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces [Scanning the Issue]

Wireless connectivity is regarded as a fundamental need for our society. Between 2020 and 2030, it is forecast that the data traffic of the global internet protocol will increase by 55% each year, eventually reaching 5016 EB, with data rates scaling up to 1 Tb/s. Besides supporting very high data rates, future wireless networks are expected to offer several other heterogeneous services, which include sensing, localization, low-latency, and ultrareliable communications. Fifth-generation (5G) networks are, however, not designed to meet these requirements. As the demands and needs become more stringent, in fact, fundamental limitations arise, which are ultimately imposed by the inherent nature of the wireless operation.