Combating the Distance Problem in the Millimeter Wave and Terahertz Frequency Bands

In the millimeter wave (30-300 GHz) and Terahertz (0.1-10 THz) frequency bands, high spreading loss and molecular absorption often limit the signal transmission distance and coverage range. In this paper, four directions to tackle the crucial problem of distance limitation are investigated, namely, a physical layer distance-aware design, ultra-massive MIMO communication, reflectarrays, and intelligent surfaces. Additionally, the potential joint design of these technologies is proposed to combine the benefits and possibly further extend the communication distance. Qualitative analyses and quantitative simulations are provided to illustrate the benefits of the proposed techniques and demonstrate the feasibility of mm-wave and THz band communications up to 100 meters in both line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight areas.