To support the massive data rates demanded by next-generation digital technology, wireless communication systems will need to operate in the terahertz frequency bands, where bandwidth is large and atmospheric temporal dispersion can alter the received value of communication symbols. We present a method, based on prior spectroscopic characterizations of the atmosphere, of calculating the deterministic effects of atmospheric dispersion in terahertz communication, and explore the interaction of dispersion with thermal noise. We also present findings indicating that, due to atmospheric dispersion, traditional narrowband models cannot be used to accurately describe the performance of wireless communication systems at terahertz frequencies.
The terahertz spectrum is often seen as the potential future for communication systems due to its large available bandwidth and spectrum availability. Line of sight communications will prove challenging due to a variety of reasons for indoor scenarios including signal loss at walls. Textured, reflective paints were made and measured to test their reflectivity improvement using terahertz time domain spectroscopy. For textured surfaces, the measured results indicated multipath fading and temporal dispersion. This effect was then modeled and investigated in simulations to determine the overall paint/texture effects on wireless communication performance.
In ultra-wideband or impulse radio terahertz wireless communication, the atmosphere reshapes terahertz pulses via group velocity dispersion, a result of the frequency-dependent refractivity of air. Without correction, this can significantly degrade the achievable data transmission rate. We present realistic studies of the effects of dispersion over various wireless terahertz links, illustrating how future ultra-wideband links may be limited not by loss, but by inter-symbol interference, stemming from group velocity dispersion. These results show how typical dispersion management approaches are not valid in this case. We also present a novel method for reversing atmospheric group velocity dispersion in terahertz links in the 0.2-0.3 THz atmospheric window using a cohort of stratified media reflectors. To our knowledge, this effort is the first of its kind. Analytical and numerical simulations predict this entirely passive approach can achieve up to 99% of the theoretically possible compensation, while maintaining a power efficiency of greater than 98% across a 100 GHz bandwidth. Finally, we present a prototype reflector that was constructed and experimentally validated our simulations.
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