Short-Range Ultra-Broadband Terahertz Communications: Concepts and Perspectives

We propose the concept of ultra-broadband terahertz communication, based on directed non-line-of-sight (NLOS) transmissions. Potential applications of such a system supporting multi-gigabit data rates are given, and put into the context of currently emerging WLANs/WPANs. The technology and propagation constraints serve as boundary conditions for the determination of the required antenna gain to support ultra-broadband communication. Resulting high-gain antenna requirements will necessitate highly directed transmissions. We propose the use of omni-directional dielectric mirrors to support directed NLOS paths. Their performance is investigated with ray-tracing simulations of a terahertz propagation channel in a dynamic office environment, which is calibrated with measured building-material and mirror parameters. We demonstrate that a directed NLOS path scheme will make a terahertz communication system robust to shadowing. Furthermore, we show that dielectric mirrors covering only parts of the walls will significantly enhance the signal coverage in a typical indoor scenario.

1. Introduction

In recent years there has been an unprecedented growth in the development and deployment of wireless communication systems. The flexibility of wireless communications gives rise to a multitude of potential applications in our society, which is becoming increasingly dependent on information transmission and processing. The interest in short-range wireless communications is accompanied by an increasing need for higher data rates, as numerous new multimedia broad-bandwidth demanding applications proliferate at a great pace.