3D Beam Training in Terahertz Communication: A Quadruple-UPA Architecture

TL;DR

This paper introduces a quadruple-UPA architecture and a fast 3D beam training method for terahertz communication, improving coverage and reducing training complexity despite severe path loss.

Contribution

It proposes a novel hierarchical codebook and a 3D beam training procedure tailored for wide coverage in THz communication.

Findings

Effective beam training reduces training time

Hierarchical codebook improves angle estimation accuracy

Numerical results validate scheme effectiveness

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a quadruple-UPA architecture for realizing the beamforming with wide coverage in terahertz (THz) communication. Considering the severe path loss suffered in the THz wave propagation, the pilot signals of conventional channel estimation strategies may not be effectively detected. In sight of this, we propose a fast 3D beam training strategy to jointly realize the angle estimation and the beamforming. Specifically, we first develop a novel hierarchical codebook that predefines some codewords (including narrow beams and wide beams) stage by stage. The narrow beams are designed as the beamforming solution candidates, whereas the wide beams are designed for reducing the training complexity. Then, we propose a 3D beam training procedure to find the optimal beamforming solution, i.e., the optimal narrow-beam pair, in a fast manner. Numerical results are presented to validate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.