An Overview of Signal Processing Techniques for Terahertz Communications

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent signal processing techniques for Terahertz communications, focusing on waveform design, beamforming, channel estimation, and emerging applications like sensing and localization, to support future high-frequency wireless systems.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of THz-specific signal processing methods, emphasizing recent advances in UM-MIMO and reconfigurable surfaces for overcoming high-frequency challenges.

Findings

Advances in THz transceiver technologies are enabling new communication methods.

Signal processing techniques are crucial for overcoming distance and hardware limitations at THz frequencies.

The paper highlights the importance of waveform design, beamforming, and channel estimation in THz systems.

Abstract

Terahertz (THz)-band communications are a key enabler for future-generation wireless communications systems that promise to integrate a wide range of data-demanding applications. Recent advances in photonic, electronic, and plasmonic technologies are closing the gap in THz transceiver design. Consequently, prospect THz signal generation, modulation, and radiation methods are converging, and corresponding channel model, noise, and hardware-impairment notions are emerging. Such progress establishes a foundation for well-grounded research into THz-specific signal processing techniques for wireless communications. This tutorial overviews these techniques, emphasizing ultra-massive multiple-input multiple-output (UM-MIMO) systems and reconfigurable intelligent surfaces, vital for overcoming the distance problem at very high frequencies. We focus on the classical problems of waveform design and modulation, beamforming and precoding, index modulation, channel estimation, channel coding, and data detection. We also motivate signal processing techniques for THz sensing and localization.