Enabling Cross-Medium Wireless Networks with Miniature Mechanical Antennas

Within the burgeoning 6G wireless network landscape, there is an intensified push toward achieving all-encompassing accessibility through integrated solutions spanning a multitude of domains. Notwithstanding recent advancements, the conventional relay-centric communication paradigms grapple with scalability and optimal performance issues. In this paper, we introduce MeAnt ---a versatile IoT platform uniquely architected to foster seamless cross-medium communication by leveraging the compact design of piezoelectric-based mechanical antennas (Piezo-MAs). By capitalizing on the propagation attributes of medium-frequency radios emitted from Piezo-MAs, MeAnt promises communication across diverse environments such as air, water, soil, concrete, and even biological tissue, all while maintaining a compact antenna footprint. Moreover, in light of challenges such as potential interference from AM broadcasts and the intrinsic unidirectional nature of Piezo-MAs, we have developed a finely crafted full-stack communication protocol. Comprehensive tests underscore the system's proficiency, demonstrating a penetration depth of up to 10 m in cross-medium environments and realizing a throughput of 8.7 kbps.