Integrating Movable Antennas and Intelligent Reflecting Surfaces (MA-IRS): Fundamentals, Practical Solutions, and Opportunities

Abstract: Movable antennas (MAs) and intelligent reflecting surfaces (IRSs) enable active antenna repositioning and passive phase-shift tuning for channel reconfiguration, respectively. Integrating MAs and IRSs boosts spatial degrees of freedom, significantly enhancing wireless network capacity, coverage, and reliability. In this article, we first present the fundamentals of MA-IRS integration, involving clarifying the key design issues, revealing performance gain, and identifying the conditions where MA-IRS synergy persists. Then, we examine practical challenges and propose pragmatic design solutions, including optimization schemes, hardware architectures, deployment strategies, and robust designs for hardware impairments and mobility management. In addition, we highlight how MA-IRS architectures uniquely support advanced integrated sensing and communication, enhancing sensing performance and dual-functional flexibility. Overall, MA-IRS integration emerges as a compelling approach toward next-generation reconfigurable wireless systems.