Sub-terahertz Communications and Sensing in 6G and beyond Wireless Networks

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, the mobile communication industry has become interested in the application of terahertz (THz)/sub-THz in sixth-generation (6G) wireless communications. The International Telecommunication Union Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) Study Group 5 (SG 5) Working Party 5D (WP 5D) has continued to conduct a feasibility study of the potential THz frequency spectra in the IMT-2030 (6G) vision group in the early 2020s, and the North American industrial initiative of Next G Alliance has found that THz is a potential candidate for radio technology in its own white paper on 6G technology. Moreover, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) has also launched the Industry Specification Group (ISG) as a pre-standardization activity for THz radio transmission in December 2022, and the channel study for the potential THz communication spectrum was proposed in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Release-19. The utilization of such a high-frequency spectrum is motivated by the realization of ultra-high data rate transmissions via the use of a multi-gigahertz-level wide bandwidth, which is related to the 6G key performance indicator (KPI) of the peak data rate; this is set to a rate that is at least five times higher than that of fifth-generation communications (5G). The extreme ability of THz to support the data rate could enable a hyper-immersive multimedia application for UHD-XR and the metaverse access devices, as well as more sophisticated AI/ML applications based on more precise perceptive awareness; these are mainly provided in the indoor and outdoor dense hot-spot environments. The other technical motivations are as follows: (1) a very high precision sensing capability, especially for joint communication and sensing scenarios considered in the context of 6G, and (2) a wireless backhaul/fronthaul that requires very high throughput provisioning, in both mobile and fixed or nomadic scenarios.

Topics of Interest for the journal (including, but not limited to):

• Sub-THz wireless transceiver architecture and prototyping
• Radio (wireless) channel measurement and electromagnetic wave propagation in sub-THz bands
• mmWave and sub-THz channel sounding and wireless channel measurements
• Sub-THz wireless sensing, both mono-static, bi-static and multi-static approaches
• Sub-THz wireless networks for joint communication and sensing applications
• Antennas and antenna arrays for sub-THz band
• Phased-arrays and analog beamforming in sub-THz bands
• Photonic (laser-based) Sub-THz signals generation and photonic wireless transceivers
• Sub-THz in wireless standards and regulation
• RF, Millimeter-wave and Sub-THz Integrated Circuit Front ends

Dr. Ramez Askar
Dr. Jae Hoon Chung
Dr. Michael Peter
Guest Editors

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• 6G
• sub-THz
• joint communication and sensing
• sub-THz wireless transceiver
• sub-THz wave propagation