ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides a basic inter-disciplinary scientific background for newcomers, to delve into the resulting new research direction. It also provides the foundational concepts of electromagnetism that permeate and describe the operation of metasurfaces and metamaterials. The book discusses the metasurface foundations from the Computer Science aspect, introducing novel software classes that enable the transparent integration of HyperSurfaces into the Internet of Things ecosystem. It also discusses the network protocols that interconnect the HyperSurfaces and their components to the external world, providing access to their functionalities at the network level. The book showcases the Internet of Metamaterials applied to the wireless communications case, with a focuses on studying their inter-networking approaches. It details prospectful Internet of Things-compliant approaches for inter-networking metamaterials. Existing solutions in the IoT market are surveyed, from the aspects of hardware, software, and standards.
