The way that mobile communication networks are designed changed dramatically with the advent of 5G. In the past, it was all about utilizing large bandwidths and deploying many base stations. Nowadays, we are instead equipping each base station and smartphone with multiple antennas, which enables us to use signal processing algorithms to improve signal strength, enhance reliability, and send more data of the same spectrum by controlling the spatial direction of each signal layer. In essence, we refine the hardware and algorithms instead of deploying more infrastructure and requiring more signal resources.

Further dramatic changes are envisioned in the 6G era, where the use of even larger antenna arrays uncovers near-field effects, conventional frequency bands will be complemented with millimeter and sub-terahertz spectrum, optimized reflections from reconfigurable surfaces might improve propagation conditions, and communication networks can provide new localization and sensing services.

These extraordinary changes will affect not only the wireless technology but also the required knowledge and skills among the engineers and researchers who will implement it. Hence, it is essential to revise the curriculum in basic wireless communication courses to shift focus onto these new aspects of the physical layer.

When I realized the need for a new basic textbook, I joined forces with Özlem Tuğfe Demir to write “Introduction to Multiple Antenna Communications and Reconfigurable Surfaces”, NowOpen (2024). The book provides a gentle introduction to multiple antenna communications with a focus on system modeling, channel capacity theory, algorithms, and practical implications. The reader is expected to be familiar with basic signals and systems, linear algebra, probability theory, and digital communications, but a comprehensive recap is provided in the book. Once the fundamental point-to-point and multi-user MIMO theory and its practical implications have been covered, we also demonstrate how similar methodologies are used for wireless localization, radar sensing, and optimization of reconfigurable intelligent surfaces.

The first draft of the book was written for the first-year Master course TSKS14 Multiple Antenna Communications at Linköping University. You might have seen the YouTube video series that I produced while teaching that course during the pandemic. The book covers the same things and much more, and it contains numerous new examples and exercises.

The writing process focused on pinpointing all the technical and practical know-how that we believe the next-generation wireless engineers must have within this topic. We then wrote the text as a story that leads to these points. The writing has taken a long time: four years of progressive course material development followed by two years of intense writing with the goal of completing a book.

Our ambition has not been to write the one-and-only textbook on the topic, but the book that one should read first to build a deep knowledge foundation. After that, one can continue reading books such as “Fundamentals of Massive MIMO,” “Massive MIMO Networks,” or “Foundations of User-Centric Cell-Free Massive MIMO,” depending on personal preference.

The book is published with open access and accompanying MATLAB code that reproduces all the simulation results. You can access the PDF from the publisher’s website, where you can also buy printed copies. We are extremely proud of the book and hope you will like it too!