{"ID":2921752,"CreatedAt":"2026-06-02T02:42:49.606572591Z","UpdatedAt":"2026-06-03T05:56:00.181519634Z","DeletedAt":null,"paper_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.01263","arxiv_id":"2606.01263","title":"Beyond the RF Paradigm: Rydberg Atomic Receivers for Next-Generation IoT","abstract":"Next-generation Internet-of-Things (IoT) is evolving toward a ubiquitous, ultra-low-power, and multi-band heterogeneous networking paradigm that seamlessly integrates terrestrial, non-terrestrial, and ambient devices. This vision places unprecedented demands on conventional radio frequency (RF) receivers, whose fundamental bottlenecks in sensitivity, power consumption, coverage, and multi-band operation are rooted in the RF antenna. To tackle these issues, we show that the quantum properties of Rydberg atomic quantum receivers (RAQRs), including ultra-high sensitivity, broad frequency agility, and diverse reception modalities, provide a physically distinct receiver-side path that replaces the conventional antenna-and-low-noise-amplifier chain. Using LoRa, narrowband IoT, and ambient IoT as case studies, this article shows that RAQRs deliver significant gains in weak-uplink, low-power, and battery-free regimes. A stochastic-geometry analysis in cellular and cell-free architectures then maps these device-level gains onto network coverage, where the RAQR retains roughly a 4 dB half-coverage advantage over the RF receiver in sparse deployments at \\(λ\\sim 10^{-5}~{\\mathrm m}^{-2}\\), with the gain eroded as device density grows. The open challenges are presented to stand between current RAQR prototypes and deployable IoT infrastructure.","short_abstract":"Next-generation Internet-of-Things (IoT) is evolving toward a ubiquitous, ultra-low-power, and multi-band heterogeneous networking paradigm that seamlessly integrates terrestrial, non-terrestrial, and ambient devices. This vision places unprecedented demands on conventional radio frequency (RF) receivers, whose fundame...","url_abs":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.01263","url_pdf":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2606.01263v1","authors":"[\"Qihao Peng\",\"Qu Luo\",\"Dongnan Xia\",\"Zhehua Zhang\",\"Zeyan Zhang\",\"Jizhou Wu\",\"Kezhi Wang\",\"Cunhua Pan\",\"Maged Elkashlan\",\"Pei Xiao\",\"Derrick Wing Kwan Ng\",\"Trung Q. Duong\",\"George K. Karagiannidis\",\"Jiangzhou Wang\"]","published":"2026-05-31T14:29:20Z","proceeding":"eess.SP","tasks":"[\"eess.SP\"]","methods":"[\"LoRA\"]","has_code":false}