Movable-Antenna Empowered Backscatter ISAC: Toward Geometry-Adaptive, Low-Power Networks

Abstract: Backscatter-based integrated sensing and communication (B-ISAC) elevates passive tags into information-bearing scatterers, offering an ultra-low-power path toward dual-function wireless systems. However, this promise is fundamentally undermined by a cascaded backscattering link that suffers from severe double fading and is exquisitely sensitive to geometric misalignment. This article tackles this geometric bottleneck by integrating movable antenna systems (MAS) at the transceiver side. MAS provides real-time, controllable spatial degrees of freedom through sub-wavelength antenna repositioning, enabling active reconfiguration of the cascaded channel without modifying passive tags or consuming additional spectrum. We position this solution within a unified ISAC-backscatter communication-B-ISAC evolution, describe the resulting MAS-assisted B-ISAC architecture and operating principles, and demonstrate its system-level gains through comparative analysis and numerical results. Finally, we showcase the potential of this geometry-adaptive paradigm across key IoT application scenarios, pointing toward future motion-aware wireless networks.