Next Generation Terahertz Communications: A Rendezvous of Sensing, Imaging, and Localization

By Hadi Sarieddeen, Nasir Saeed, Tareq Y. Al-Naffouri, Mohamed-Slim Alouini. IEEE Communications Magazine, 2019

353 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Terahertz (THz)-band communications are celebrated as a key enabling technology for next-generation wireless systems that promises to integrate a wide range of data-demanding and delay-sensitive applications. Following recent advancements in optical, electronic, and plasmonic transceiver design, integrated, adaptive, and efficient THz systems are no longer far-fetched. In this article, we present a progressive vision of how the traditional "THz gap" will transform into a "THz rush" over the next few years. We posit that the breakthrough the THz band will introduce will not be solely driven by achievable high data rates, but more profoundly by the interaction between THz sensing, imaging, and localization applications. We first detail the peculiarities of each of these applications at the THz band. Then we illustrate how their coalescence results in enhanced environment-aware system performance in beyond-5G use cases. We further discuss the implementation aspects of this merging of applications in the context of shared and dedicated resource allocation, highlighting the role of machine learning.

Subfields: Biomedical Engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e1f347877bd7ef6f76deb452fd61fcd63fca02e8

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Citations in the corpus

Convergent Communication, Sensing and Localization in 6G Systems: An Overview of Technologies, Opportunities and Challenges (2021, background): “This is in line with the concept of leveraging the knowledge of the environment for enhanced communications, sensing, imaging, and localization applications [38].”
An Overview of Signal Processing Techniques for Terahertz Communications (2020, methodology): “chemical materials have been exploited in a variety of sensing and imaging applications [20], [26], [317]–[322] such as quality control, food safety, and security.”
Terahertz Band: The Last Piece of RF Spectrum Puzzle for Communication Systems (2019, background): “In addition, active large intelligent surfaces can also serve as distributed THz access points or signal repeaters [298].”
Integrated Sensing and Communications: Recent Advances and Ten Open Challenges (2023, background): “On the other hand, the millimeter wave (mmWave) and terahertz (THz) bands envisaged for next-generation networks could also be exploited for sensing in future cellular networks [38], [39], [40], [41], [42], [43].”
Survey on 6G Frontiers: Trends, Applications, Requirements, Technologies and Future Research (2021, background): “In addition, the work in [166] deliberately supported that the THz communications can attain high data rates through VLC.”
CubeSat Communications: Recent Advances and Future Challenges (2019, background): “One interesting research area is the integration of CubeSats communications with next-generation wireless networks, including 5G and beyond [140], [141].”
Seven Defining Features of Terahertz (THz) Wireless Systems: A Fellowship of Communication and Sensing (2021, background): “[2] and [12]) recognize the importance of the THz sensing”
Multi-Hop RIS-Empowered Terahertz Communications: A DRL-Based Hybrid Beamforming Design (2021, background): “Specifically, [1], [4], [6], [7] presented some promising visions and potential applications leveraging the advances of”
5G-Advanced Toward 6G: Past, Present, and Future (2023, neutral): “with range and Doppler information [84].”
Terahertz Band Communication: An Old Problem Revisited and Research Directions for the Next Decade (2021, background): “With the ultra-broad bandwidth of the THz band, the localization performance is expected to reach 50 centimeter outdoor, 1 centimeter indoor, as well as 1–3 mm imaging resolution [204], [205].”
Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces for Localization: Position and Orientation Error Bounds (2020, background): “represent a key solution, allowing to enhance not only wireless communications but also imaging- and localization-based applications thanks to the augmented ambient awareness [4]– [6].”