A Learnable SIM Paradigm: Fundamentals, Training Techniques, and Applications

arXiv cs.AI / 3/27/2026

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Key Points

  • The paper explains how stacked intelligent metasurfaces (SIMs)—multilayer programmable hardware—enable analog computing directly in the electromagnetic (EM) domain for future 6G-and-beyond wireless systems.
  • It argues that SIM architectures have a strong structural analogy to artificial neural networks (ANNs) and uses this connection to propose a learnable SIM architecture and an associated ML paradigm.
  • The authors develop two SIM-empowered wireless signal processing methods focused on multi-user signal separation and distinguishing communication signals from jamming signals.
  • The proposed approach is positioned as lightweight while improving spectrum utilization efficiency and anti-jamming performance, aiming to support more intelligent and resource-efficient wireless infrastructure.

Abstract

Stacked intelligent metasurfaces (SIMs) represent a breakthrough in wireless hardware by comprising multilayer, programmable metasurfaces capable of analog computing in the electromagnetic (EM) wave domain. By examining their architectural analogies, this article reveals a deeper connection between SIMs and artificial neural networks (ANNs). Leveraging this profound structural similarity, this work introduces a learnable SIM architecture and proposes a learnable SIM-based machine learning (ML) paradigm for sixth-generation (6G)-andbeyond systems. Then, we develop two SIM-empowered wireless signal processing schemes to effectively achieve multi-user signal separation and distinguish communication signals from jamming signals. The use cases highlight that the proposed SIM-enabled signal processing system can significantly enhance spectrum utilization efficiency and anti-jamming capability in a lightweight manner and pave the way for ultra-efficient and intelligent wireless infrastructures.