220 GHz RIS-Aided Multi-user Terahertz Communication System: Prototype Design and Over-the-Air Experimental Trials

TL;DR

This paper presents the design and experimental validation of a 220 GHz RIS-assisted multi-user THz communication system, demonstrating significant power gains and high data rates through prototype implementation and real-time beamforming.

Contribution

It introduces a liquid crystal-based RIS at 220 GHz, a novel beamforming method with power feedback, and an OFDM resource allocation scheme for multi-user THz communication, validated through over-the-air experiments.

Findings

Received power gain of at least 10 dB with RIS in single-beam mode

Achieved system data rate of 2.341 Gbps with 3 users

Demonstrated successful image transmission with improved signal quality

Abstract

Terahertz (THz) communication technology is regarded as a promising enabler for achieving ultra-high data rate transmission in next-generation communication systems. To mitigate the high path loss in THz systems, the transmitting beams are typically narrow and highly directional, which makes it difficult for a single beam to serve multiple users simultaneously. To address this challenge, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS), which can dynamically manipulate the wireless propagation environment, have been integrated into THz communication systems to extend coverage. Existing works mostly remain theoretical analysis and simulation, while prototype validation of RIS-assisted THz communication systems is scarce. In this paper, we designed a liquid crystal-based RIS operating at 220 GHz supporting both single-user and multi-user communication scenarios, followed by a RIS-aided THz communication system prototype. To enhance the system performance, we developed a beamforming method including a real-time power feedback control, which is compatible with both single-beam and multibeam modes. To support simultaneous multi-user transmission, we designed an OFDM-based resource allocation scheme. In our experiments, the received power gain with RIS is no less than 10 dB in the single-beam mode, and no less than 5 dB in the multi-beam mode. With the assistance of RIS, the achievable rate of the system could reach 2.341 Gbps with 3 users sharing 400 MHz bandwidth and the bit error rate (BER) of the system decreased sharply. Finally, an image transmission experiment was conducted to vividly show that the receiver could recover the transmitted information correctly with the help of RIS. The experimental results also demonstrated that the received signal quality was enhanced through power feedback adjustments.