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

Area of Science:

• Wireless communication engineering
• Electromagnetic wave propagation
• Channel characterization

Background:

• Terahertz (THz) band communication offers high data rates crucial for future applications.
• Accurate wireless channel characterization at THz frequencies is essential for system design and deployment.
• Understanding the impact of building materials on THz propagation is a key challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conduct double-directional channel measurements in various indoor and outdoor environments.
• To investigate the influence of common building materials (e.g., energy-saving glass, blinds, metallic reflectors) on THz channel characteristics.
• To quantify the impact of these materials on system design parameters like equalizer length.

Main Methods:

• Performed extensive double-directional channel measurements.
• Utilized diverse indoor and outdoor scenarios.
• Focused on analyzing the effects of specific building materials on signal propagation.

Main Results:

• Building materials significantly alter THz wireless channel characteristics.
• The presence or absence of materials like energy-saving glass and metallic reflectors can drastically change channel properties.
• Required equalizer length can increase by an order of magnitude due to these material effects, depending on the dynamic range.

Conclusions:

• Channel measurements are vital for realizing THz communication networks.
• Building materials pose a significant challenge to THz system design due to their reflective and absorptive properties.
• Accurate channel modeling considering material impacts is necessary for reliable THz system deployment.