Impact of Common Reflecting and Absorbing Building Materials on THz Multipath Channels

Abstract

THz band communication has the potential to meet the high data rate demands of many current and future applications. However, before these networks are realized, extensive channel measurements are needed in order to characterize the wireless channel at these frequencies, in order to inform system design and deployment. In the current paper, we present a set of double‐directional channel measurements that are conducted in several relevant indoor and outdoor scenarios. Our aim is to see the effect of common building materials that might be particularly reflective or absorptive (such as energy‐saving glass, window blinds, or metallic reflectors), and how their presence changes the channel characteristics. Among other effects we find that ‐ depending on the considered dynamic range ‐ presence/absence of these materials can increase the required equalizer length by an order of magnitude.

THz Measurements, Antennas, and Simulations: From the Past to the Future

“…In the D2D measurements only the horizontal plane was scanned, while in the microcellular measurements, azimuthal scans were performed for multiple elevation cuts. The same setup was also used for indoor measurements, see [46].…”

Analysis of Wave-Interacting Objects in Indoor and Outdoor Environments at 142 GHz

“…It may be premature to develop a geometry-based model for the sub-THz band, because of lack of sufficient knowledge about wave-interacting objects that produce MPCs to the radio link; it is still an open question, e.g., i) what is a typical material of objects that cause meaningful power contributing to the link, ii) what is a typical size of meaningful objects and finally, iii) how much contribution do various objects make in generating multipath clusters. While the number of MPCs and beams has been discussed at above-100 GHz band, e.g., [5], [14], [15], their understanding of the physical environment is not available. These open questions must be addressed through experiment-based studies of wave propagation.…”

“…These open questions must be addressed through experiment-based studies of wave propagation. As a basic work, several studies reported isolated measurements of waveobject interaction to reveal, e.g., reflection and penetration losses at sub-THz frequencies [3]- [5], [7], [16]- [18]. More sophisticated studies as summarized in Table I identify waveinteracting objects in multipath channels in lower frequency bands [19]- [24], forming a basis for development of geometrybased channel models [12], [19], [25]- [27].…”

“…There is no rigorous study to identify wave-interacting objects, to our knowledge, performed at sub-THz frequencies. Only a few studies discuss wave-object interaction in sub-THz channels, e.g., for an urban environment at 140.5 GHz [28], while the impact of adding reflecting objects in an office environment is studied experimentally at 145.5 GHz [5].…”