Performance of Dual-Hop Relaying for THz-RF Wireless Link

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the performance of dual-hop THz-RF wireless links for backhaul, deriving new analytical expressions and demonstrating a 25% increase in spectral efficiency with relaying.

Contribution

It introduces a novel closed-form CDF for the THz link considering pointing errors and non-integer parameters, advancing the analytical modeling of THz-RF relaying systems.

Findings

Relaying improves spectral efficiency by approximately 25%.

Derived a new closed-form CDF for the THz link with pointing errors.

Analytical and simulation results confirm the viability of THz-RF relaying for backhaul.

Abstract

The use of Terahertz (THz) frequency bands for data transmissions between the core network and an access point can be promising for next generation wireless systems. In this paper, we analyze the performance of a dual-hop relaying for THz-RF wireless link for backhaul applications. Considering the $\alpha-\mu$ fading channel and a statistical model of pointing errors, we derive a novel closed-form expression of the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for the THz link, which is also valid for non-integer values of $\mu$. Using the CDF, we derive analytical expressions of the end-to-end SNR and lower bound on ergodic capacity of a decode-and-forward (DF) assisted THz-RF relaying in terms of system parameters. Using analytical results of the direct link and computer simulations, we demonstrate that the THz-RF relaying is a viable technology for wireless backhaul, providing a significant increase of almost $25 \%$ in the spectral efficiency, compared to the direct transmissions.