Prof. Alexiou: Directional Terahertz Wireless Communications: a game changer for 6G

Overview

Abstract

The exploitation of the THz band is expected to catalyze 6G systems, as a “virtual fiber” solution to wireless backhaul and fronthaul, ultra-fast short-range access and adhoc/mobile connectivity. Nevertheless, the utilization of THz wireless technologies comes with several challenges, mainly associated with the very high propagation losses and high blockage probability in the THz regime, which require the utilization of high-gain directional antennas with strict beam alignment requirements, and blockage avoidance based medium access and resource allocation.

In this talk, we first discuss critical usage scenarios and significant technology pillars defining the THz Wireless system concept. Then, a quantitative assessment of intelligent pencil beamforming wireless access technologies is presented, along with the impact of beam misalignment and blockage. Finally, the benefits of reconfigurable intelligent surfaces are reported and their expected role in future THz wireless systems is discussed.

Brief Biography

Angeliki Alexiou is a professor of Broadband Communications Systems at the department of Digital Systems, ICT School, University of Piraeus, Greece. She received the Diploma in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens in 1994 and the PhD in Electrical Engineering from Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of London in 2000. Since May 2009 she has been a faculty member at the Department of Digital Systems, where she conducts research and teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Broadband Communications and Advanced Wireless Technologies. Prior to this appointment she was with Bell Laboratories, Wireless Research, Lucent Technologies, (later Alcatel-Lucent, now NOKIA), in Swindon, UK, first as a member of technical staff (January 1999-February 2006) and later as a Technical Manager (March 2006-April 2009). Professor Alexiou is a co-recipient of Bell Labs President’s Gold Award in 2002 for contributions to Bell Labs Layered Space-Time (BLAST) project and the Central Bell Labs Teamwork Award in 2004 for role model teamwork and technical achievements in the IST FITNESS project. Professor Alexiou is the Chair of the Working Group on Radio Communication Technologies and of the Working Group on High Frequencies Radio Technologies of the Wireless World Research Forum. She is a member of the IEEE, Core member of the IEEE ComSoc SIG on TeraHertz Communications, member of the IEEE SP Society SAM TC, member of ETSI RIS ISG and member of the Technical Chamber of Greece. Her current research interests include radio interface for 6G systems, MIMO and THz wireless technologies, Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces, cooperation and coordination for Ultra Dense wireless networks, ‘cell-less’ architectures and machine learning for wireless systems. She is the project coordinator of the H2020 TERRANOVA project (ict-terranova.eu) and the technical manager of H2020 ARIADNE project (ict-ariadne.eu).