TeraMIMO: A Channel Simulator for Wideband Ultra-Massive MIMO Terahertz Communications

Abstract

Following recent advances in terahertz (THz) technology, there is a consensus among multiple research initiatives on the essential role of THz communications in the sixth generation of wireless communication systems and beyond. Aiming at catalyzing THz communications research, we propose TeraMIMO, an accurate MATLAB simulator of statistical THz channels. We simulate ultra-massive multiple-input multipleoutput antenna configurations as critical infrastructure enablers that overcome the limitation in THz communications distances. We consider both line-of-sight and multipath components and propose frequency-and delay-domain implementations for singleand multi-carrier paradigms in both time-invariant and timevariant scenarios. We implement exhaustive molecular absorption computations based on radiative transfer theory alongside alternative sub-THz approximations. We further model THz-specific constraints, including wideband beam split effects, spherical wave propagation, and misalignment fading. We verify TeraMIMO by analogy with measurement-based channel models in the literature, and we introduce a graphical user interface.

TeraHertz Band Communication: An Old Problem Revisited and Research Directions for the Next Decade

“…Adhoc channel solvers that build on experimentally-measured data have been utilized to explore the performance of different specific scenarios, including THz backhaul links at 300 GHz [280] or multimedia kiosks [281]. While many of the existing platforms are for single channel simulators, TeraMIMO [282] has been recently developed to simulate UM MIMO channels in 3D scenarios, capturing the properties described in Sec. V. Other simulation platforms, such as [283], are being developed with the aim of not only simulating the channel, but also testing certain physical layer solutions.…”