Terahertz-Enabled Wireless System for Beyond-5G Ultra-Fast Networks: A Brief Survey

With 5G Phase 1 finalized and 5G Phase 2 recently defined by 3GPP, the mobile communication community is on the verge of deciding what will be the Beyond-5G (B5G) system. B5G is expected to further enhance network performance, for example, by supporting throughput per device up to terabits per second and increasing the frequency range of usable spectral bands significantly. In fact, one of the main pillars of 5G networks has been radio access extension to the millimeter-wave bands. However, new envisioned services, asking for more and more throughput, require the availability of one order of magnitude more spectrum chunks, thus suggesting moving the operations into the THz domain. This move will introduce significant new multidisciplinary research challenges emerging throughout the wireless communication protocol stacks, including the way the mobile network is modeled and deployed. This article, therefore, provides a brief survey of the challenges and opportunities of THz band operation in wireless communication, along with some potential applications and future research directions.