220 GHz Urban Microcell Channel Measurement and Characterization on a University Campus

TL;DR

This study conducts 220 GHz channel measurements in an urban microcell environment on a university campus, providing detailed characterization of propagation, loss, and multipath effects to aid future THz communication system design.

Contribution

First comprehensive 220 GHz UMi channel measurement campaign with detailed analysis of path loss, fading, and multipath characteristics, revealing sparsity and weak multipath effects in THz bands.

Findings

Average foliage loss of 16.7 dB observed.

K-factor around 17.5 dB in LoS, indicating weak multipath.

Approximately 2.5 clusters on average, showing strong sparsity.

Abstract

Owning abundant bandwidth resources, the Terahertz (THz) band (0.1-10~THz) is envisioned as a key technology to realize ultra-high-speed communications in 6G and beyond wireless networks. To realize reliable THz communications in urban microcell (UMi) environments, propagation analysis and channel characterization are still insufficient. In this paper, channel measurement campaigns are conducted in a UMi scenario at 220~GHz, using a correlation-based time domain channel sounder. 24 positions are measured along a road on the university campus, with distances ranging from 34~m to 410~m. Based on the measurement results, the spatial consistency and interaction of THz waves to the surrounding environments are analyzed. Moreover, the additional loss due to foliage blockage is calculated and an average value of 16.7~dB is observed. Furthermore, a full portrait of channel characteristics, including path loss, shadow fading, K-factor, delay and angular spreads, as well as cluster parameters, is calculated and analyzed. Specifically, an average K-factor value of 17.5 dB is measured in the line-of-sight (LoS) case, which is nearly two times larger than the extrapolated values from the 3GPP standard, revealing weak multipath effects in the THz band. Additionally, 2.5 clusters on average are observed in the LoS case, around one fifth of what is defined in the 3GPP model, which uncovers the strong sparsity in THz UMi. The results and analysis in this work can offer guidance for system design for future THz UMi networks.