SEME@TN // Smart Electromagnetic Environment in Trentino, 2023-2025

The “Smart Electromagnetic Environment in Trentino” project, focuses on developing advanced electromagnetic metasurfaces that enable the environment to actively support and direct wireless signal transmission, instead of obstructing it.

• The context

Next-generation wireless communication infrastructures—such as those supporting 5G and future 6G networks—must ensure unprecedented levels of coverage and connectivity, while also minimizing architectural complexity, energy consumption, and operational costs.

This can be achieved by implementing a Smart Electromagnetic Environment (SEME)—an evolution of traditional concepts like “wireless infrastructure” and “wireless channel” that current mobile systems rely on.

• Key features

The vision is to make the environment itself an active component of the communication system. For example, building façades can be coated with intelligent metasurface materials, enabling them to dynamically reflect and redirect wireless signals. This allows coverage to reach users located in areas that were previously unreachable, turning passive surfaces into smart, signal-boosting interfaces.

The technology developed in this project is entirely passive—unlike mobile repeaters, it requires no power source. These engineered surfaces act as electromagnetic “mirrors,” making them energy-efficient and environmentally sustainable solutions for enhancing wireless signal propagation.

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The project, funded by the Autonomous Province of Trento (PAT), builds on a long-standing collaboration between the Sensors and Devices Center at FBK and the ELEDIA Research Center at the University of Trento, established through the Smart ElectroMagnetic Environment joint laboratory.