Terahertz (THz) communications have emerged as a promising candidate to support the heavy data traffic and exploding network capacity in the future 6G wireless networks. However, THz communications are facing many challenges for practical implementation, such as propagation loss, signal blockage, and hardware cost. In this article, an emerging paradigm of intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) assisted THz communications is analyzed, to address the above issues, by leveraging the joint active and passive beamforming to enhance the communication quality and reduce overheads. Aiming at practical implementation, an overview of the currently available approaches of realizing THz active/passive beam steering at transmitter and IRS is presented. Based on these approaches, a beam training strategy for establishing joint beamforming is then investigated in THz communications. Moreover, various emerging and appealing 6G scenarios that integrate IRS into THz communications are envisioned. Open challenges and future research directions for this new paradigm are finally highlighted.
翻译:Terahertz(Thz)通信已成为支持未来6G无线网络大量数据传输和爆炸网络能力的一个大有希望的候选方,然而,Thz通信在实际实施方面正面临许多挑战,如传播损失、信号阻塞和硬件成本等。在本篇文章中,分析了一个新的智能反映表面(IRS)辅助Thz通信的范例,以解决上述问题,办法是利用联合主动和被动的组合来提高通信质量和减少管理费用。为了实际实施,概述了目前在发射机和IRS上实现Thz主动/被动波束导航的现有方法。根据这些方法,在Thz通信中调查了建立联合波束化的全方位培训战略。此外,还设想了将IRS纳入Thz通信的各种新出现的和具有吸引力的6G情景。最后,重点介绍了关于这一新模式的公开挑战和未来研究方向。