Propagation Measurement at 340 GHz

Terahertz communications have attracted many interests in both academic and industrial communities due to the advantages of wide bandwidth and low latency. But for realistic deployment of such application, there still exist many technique challenges, one of which is the lack of clear knowledge on the terahertz wireless channel. In this paper, we investigate the characteristics of the wireless channel at 340 GHz with the TX/RX separation of about 730 m. Firstly; the blocking effects of some household materials on the terahertz wireless channel at 340 GHz are carefully observed and demonstrated experimentally. Besides, it is found that the intermediate-frequency (IF) signal of the 340 GHz receiver fluctuates violently with the variance of the weather condition in a short period of time, which manifests that the wireless channel at 340 GHz is very sensitive to the weather condition. This is the first time that the blocking effects and propagation fluctuations of the 340 GHz long-distance (> 500 m) propagation scenario are observed and demonstrated through experiments. It is obvious that in the complex and changeable weather condition, the 340 GHz long-distance communication is a time-consuming, labor-consuming, and unreliable solution for both military and civilian applications. Through these experiments, the practical suggestions for the deployment of 340 GHz long-distance wireless applications are provided.