TeraHertz end-to-end wireless systems supporting ultra high data Rate applications

Project Information

ThoR

Grant agreement ID: 814523

DOI

10.3030/814523

Project closed

EC signature date 28 June 2018

Start date 1 July 2018

End date 30 June 2022

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Total cost

€ 1 498 877,50

EU contribution

€ 1 498 877,50

Coordinated by

TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET BRAUNSCHWEIG
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - ThoR (TeraHertz end-to-end wireless systems supporting ultra high data Rate applications)

Reporting period: 2020-07-01 to 2022-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Data traffic densities of several Tbps/km2 are already predicted for 5G networks. To service a fully mobile and connected society networks beyond 5G must undergo tremendous growth in connectivity, data traffic density and volume as well as the required multi-level ultra-densification. The ThoR project will provide technical solutions for the backhauling/fronthauling of this traffic. The ThoR consortium brings together the leading Japanese and European players from industry, R&D and academia, whose prior work defines the state-of-the-art in high data rate long range point-to-point THz links. This team has been instrumental in defining and implementing the new IEEE 802.15.3d Standard “100 Gbps Wireless Switched Point-to-Point Physical Layer.” ThoR’s technical concept builds on this standard, in a striking and innovative combination using state-of-the-art chip sets and modems operating in the standardized 60 and 70 GHz bands, which are aggregated on a bit-transparent high performance 300 GHz RF wireless link offering >100 Gbps real-time data rate capacity. ThoR has aplied European and Japanese state-of-the-art photonic and electronic technologies to build an ultra-high bandwidth, high dynamic range transceiver operating at 300 GHz combined with state-of-the-art digital signal processing units in two world-first demonstrations:

- more than 100 Gbps P2P link over 1 km at 300 GHz using pseudo data in indoor and outdoor controlled environments
- more than 40 Gbps P2P link over 1 km at 300 GHz using emulated real data in a live operational communication network.

This will require an innovative combination of specific THz PHY technology advances: photonic millimeter-wave generation in E-band used to drive wideband up/down-conversion into THz bands, combined with solid-state and Travelling Wave Tube amplifiers to enable long range operation. Using this concept, ThoR will enable the required multi-frequency and channel aggregation towards the new IEEE 802.15.3d Standard. The success of ThoR will represent the first operational use of THz frequencies in ICT and this influential and powerful consortium will directly influence and shape the frequency regulation activities beyond 275 GHz through agenda item 1.15 of WRC 2019.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

ThoR has demonstrated that it has identified a novel, scalable and practical architecture for 300 GHz links and has established a new state-of-the-art in this area of THz communication.

ThoR simulations have led to significant advances in the understanding of THz links in the real world, and have contributed to a number of standardisation developments

The project has worked towards a wide dissemination and exploitation of it's results:
• The project has been widely represented at international conferences, workshops and exhibitions
o Two dedicated ThoR workshops hosted by the EU and Japanese coordinators:
Japan ThoR workshop held 20-Sep-2019 at Waseda University
EU ThoR final workshop and demo held 29-30 Jun-2022 at TU Braunschweig
• Video showing demo produced
o Three dedicated ThoR sessions at international workshops
o 42 papers presented at 24 international conferences
Four further papers to be presented after the project period
o Representation at four major trade shows and exhibitions
o ~40 other presentations at various meetings, workshops and standards committees
ThoR contributions to standards has been highly influential: see D7.13.
• Three books on aspects of THz communications have been edited by the two ThoR coordinators
o These each include several chapters from the consortium partners
• Twelve refereed journal papers were published during the project
o This includes “Best Paper of the Year” prize winners from two different journals
• A range of dissemination resources have been prepared:
o Six newsletters issued
o Mailing list of >100 THz comms industrial and academic researchers
• ThoR has been a leading member of the B5G Cluster

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

On 29-30 Jun-2022, the ThoR backhaul link was demonstrated as part of a public workshop at TUBS (see D7.8). This final ThoR demonstration successfully showed for the first time a fully network-integrated, bit-transparent, bidirectional THz long-range point-to-point wireless link operating in compliance with the IEEE802.15.3d standard and under real-world outdoor conditions.
o A bidirectional real data connection between TUBS’ IT centre and the Oker high-rise building over 160 m with data rates of 2×20 Gbps net at a bandwidth of 2×8.64 GHz using FDD modems.
o The operation of the IEEE 802.15.3 standard was shown using TDD modems.
o This represents a world first and a new state-of-the-art for THz wireless communication.
• On 19-Jul-2022 in final testing at ULILLE, the ThoR modules were used in a 645 m bidirectional 5 Gbps (QAM-16), i.e. achieving a total of 10 Gbps throughput.
• These successful demos of the scalable ThoR approach show that even higher data rates can be realised.

Note that the ThoR system concept is scalable to support the full data rate of up to 315 Gbps compliant with the IEEE 802.15.3d standard, which will be shown by software simulation (referred to as DEMO-4) taking into account the measured characteristics of the hardware developed and used in the project.
In DEMO-4, the scalability of IEEE Standard 802.15.3d was proven by taking into account the experimentally obtained characteristics of the wireless communication system including RF impairments.
• Two scenarios were examined, both located in Berlin:
o Backhaul network scenario: The overall network performance was analysed for a channel bandwidth of 4.32 GHz and 51.84 GHz for normal and extreme weather conditions.
o Relay scenario: To show the scalability of the multi-carrier concept (used in the ThoR hardware demo), a simulation of up to 24 subcarriers were transmitted in parallel over the THz backhaul channel showing only a minor impact on the global performance.


ThoR has contributed to assure, that the required spectrum beyond 275 GHz will be available by actively contributing to the process towards agenda item 1.15 of the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) taking place in November 2019 and by developing interference mitigation techniques, which are able to fulfil the operational constraints potentially defined at WRC 2019. The fulfilment of this objective requires the development of propagation models for 300 GHz links as well as planning rules for 200 Gbps+ wireless P2P links at 300 GHz. These goals hav been fuly achieved. Throughout the project, the ThoR consortium (in particular TUBS, HRCP and WUT) have made significant contributions to international standardisation

Application of THz backhaul links in future cellular networks