Redefining Electromagnetic Signal and Information Theory with Programmable Surfaces: Open Critical Questions and Future Horizon
Rohit Singh, Jiancheng An, Aryan Kaushik, Chau Yuen, Angela Zhang, Octavia A. Dobre · 2025
Wireless systems rely predominantly on Shannon's mathematical theory, treating information theory and electromagnetic theory as separate domains. While Shannon's abstraction gained widespread acceptance due to its analytical simplicity, it overlooks the physical essence of information transmission. Nonetheless, the emergence of engineered surfaces highlighted the importance of near-field interactions and surface wave behavior, raising questions about the limitations of traditional communication models. Motivated by these developments, this paper presents electromagnetic signal and information theory (ESIT) as a wavecentric framework and explains how engineered surfaces can act as dynamic boundaries to reshape signal propagation. Besides, this work explores critical questions related to ESIT through a wave-centric lens, by combining ESIT with programmable metasurfaces. Besides, this work reveals new opportunities in spatial multiplexing, wavefront shaping, and adaptive communication. Further, the paper also addresses challenges in linking electromagnetic field behavior to information metrics, designing sensingmodulation strategies, and managing system-level constraints. To combine these aspects, a simulation-based multiuser multipleinput single-output downlink system is demonstrated, validating the promise of ESIT-based wireless designs.