Conclusion

The emergence of sensor networks and Internet of Things has propelled the backscatter communication and RF sensing into mainstream research, with various potential applications most significantly in healthcare. This chapter briefly discusses some of the hot research topics that have surfaced, namely signal modulation, channel estimation, low-throughput, network security, and energy management. Software-controlled metasurfaces have brought backscatter communication to the mainstream as the propagation of communication signals in a given environment can be tailored as per the channel requirements. Metasurfaces have found numerous applications due to their ability to control the propagation of electromagnetic waves. In communication systems, they have been used for beam focusing.