Special issue on THz communications

In wireless communication networks a rapid increase of traffic demand has been observed in conjunction with the development of applications that require rapidly increasing data rates even on a single link. Within the next decade applications will be developed demanding for data rates of several 10 s of Gbit/s. These data rates can be only achieved by either significantly improving spectral efficiencies or by extending the available spectrum to several 10 s of GHz. Such an amount of spectrum is available only beyond 300 GHz, which is called the Terahertz frequency range. In order to develop a system operating beyond 300 GHz at data rates with several 10 s of Gbit/s is a challenging task requiring an interdisciplinary approach incorporating areas like, propagation and channel modeling, antennas, RF transceiver design, appropriate baseband technologies, MAC protocols, etc. A couple of years ago activities in research, standardization and regulation have emerged. Applications of THz communications range from single stand alone and dedicated super high capacity data pipes up to a “THz nano cell„ as a part of integrated cellular multi-layer system.