MRA-MAC: A Multi-Radio Assisted Medium Access Control in Terahertz Communication Networks

Terahertz (THz) communication is envisioned as one of the key technologies to satisfy the increasing demand for higher-speed wireless communication networks. Thanks to the very small wavelengths at THz frequencies, the very large antenna array can be equipped to enable beamforming, which can effectively overcome the very high path loss and improve the communication distance. However, directional transmissions, as well as the peculiarities of the THz channel and physical layer, increase the difficulties of medium access control (MAC) design. In this paper, a multi-radio assisted (MRA-MAC) protocol in the distributed THz network is proposed and analyzed. The key idea is to enable 2.4/5 GHz omni-directional radio for control signaling and THz beamforming for data transmissions. A flowchart of the protocol and detailed operations are presented. Based on the models of THz pulse waveform and the THz channel with beamforming, the delay, the outage probability, and the network throughput are analytically investigated, supported by extensive simulation and numerical evaluations.