Intelligent surfaces (ISs) have emerged as a key technology to empower a wide range of appealing applications for wireless networks, due to their low cost, high energy efficiency, flexibility of deployment and capability of constructing favorable wireless channels/radio environments. Moreover, the recent advent of several new IS architectures further expanded their electromagnetic functionalities from passive reflection to active amplification, simultaneous reflection and refraction, as well as holographic beamforming. However, the research on ISs is still in rapid progress and there have been recent technological advances in ISs and their emerging applications that are worthy of a timely review. Thus, we provide in this paper a comprehensive survey on the recent development and advances of ISs aided wireless networks. Specifically, we start with an overview on the anticipated use cases of ISs in future wireless networks such as 6G, followed by a summary of the recent standardization activities related to ISs. Then, the main design issues of the commonly adopted reflection-based IS and their state-of-the-art solutions are presented in detail, including reflection optimization, deployment, signal modulation, wireless sensing, and integrated sensing and communications. Finally, recent progress and new challenges in advanced IS architectures are discussed to inspire futrue research.

翻译：智能表面（ISs）因其低成本、高能效、部署灵活以及能够构建有利无线信道/无线电环境的能力，已成为赋能无线网络广泛应用的关键技术。此外，近期多种新型智能表面架构的出现，进一步将其电磁功能从被动反射扩展至主动放大、同步反射与折射，以及全息波束赋形。然而，智能表面研究仍处于快速发展阶段，近期在智能表面技术及其新兴应用方面取得了值得及时回顾的进展。因此，本文对智能表面辅助无线网络的最新发展及进展进行了全面综述。具体而言，我们首先概述了智能表面在6G等未来无线网络中的预期应用场景，随后总结了近期与智能表面相关的标准化活动。接着，详细阐述了广泛采用的反射型智能表面的主要设计问题及其最新解决方案，包括反射优化、部署、信号调制、无线感知以及感知与通信一体化。最后，讨论了先进智能表面架构的最新进展与新挑战，以启发未来研究。