Towards THz Communications -Status in Research, Standardization and Regulation

Abstract In the most recent years, wireless communication networks have been facing a rapidly increasing demand for mobile traffic along with the evolvement of applications that require data rates of several 10s of Gbit/s. In order to enable the transmission of such high data rates, two approaches are possible in principle. The first one is aiming at systems operating with moderate bandwidths at 60 GHz, for example, where 7 GHz spectrum is dedicated to mobile services worldwide. However, in order to reach the targeted date rates, systems with high spectral efficiencies beyond 10 bit/s/Hz have to be developed, which will be very challenging. A second approach adopts moderate spectral efficiencies and requires ultra high bandwidths beyond 20 GHz. Such an amount of unregulated spectrum can be identified only in the THz frequency range, i.e. beyond 300 GHz. Systems operated at those frequencies are referred to as THz communication systems. The technology enabling small integrated transceivers with highly directive, steerable antennas becomes the key challenges at THz frequencies in face of the very high path losses. This paper gives an overview over THz communications, summarizing current research projects, spectrum regulations and ongoing standardization activities

one6G white paper, 6G technology overview:Second Edition, November 2022

6G is supposed to address the demands for consumption of mobile networking services in 2030 and beyond. These are characterized by a variety of diverse, often conflicting requirements, from technical ones such as extremely high data rates, unprecedented scale of communicating devices, high coverage, low communicating latency, flexibility of extension, etc., to non-technical ones such as enabling sustainable growth of the society as a whole, e.g., through energy efficiency of deployed networks. On the one hand, 6G is expected to fulfil all these individual requirements, extending thus the limits set by the previous generations of mobile networks (e.g., ten times lower latencies, or hundred times higher data rates than in 5G). On the other hand, 6G should also enable use cases characterized by combinations of these requirements never seen before, e.g., both extremely high data rates and extremely low communication latency). In this white paper, we give an overview of the key enabling technologies that constitute the pillars for the evolution towards 6G. They include: terahertz frequencies (Section 1), 6G radio access (Section 2), next generation MIMO (Section 3), integrated sensing and communication (Section 4), distributed and federated artificial intelligence (Section 5), intelligent user plane (Section 6) and flexible programmable infrastructures (Section 7). For each enabling technology, we first give the background on how and why the technology is relevant to 6G, backed up by a number of relevant use cases. After that, we describe the technology in detail, outline the key problems and difficulties, and give a comprehensive overview of the state of the art in that technology. 6G is, however, not limited to these seven technologies. They merely present our current understanding of the technological environment in which 6G is being born. Future versions of this white paper may include other relevant technologies too, as well as discuss how these technologies can be glued together in a coherent system