A Real-Time Ultra-broadband Software-Defined Radio Platform for Terahertz Communications

Wireless communication in the terahertz band (100 GHz to 10 THz) is envisioned as a critical building block of 6G wireless systems, due to the very large available channel bandwidth above 100 GHz. Thanks to the narrowing of the so-called terahertz technology gap, several platforms for experimental terahertz communication research have been recently developed. However, these are mostly channel sounding or physical layer testbeds that rely on off-line signal processing. In order to research and develop upper networking layers, it is necessary to have a real-time platform that can process bandwidths of at least a few gigahertz. In this paper, a software-defined radio platform that is able to operate in real-time with up to 8 GHz of bandwidth at 130 GHz is demonstrated for the first time.