MAC Protocols For Terahertz Communication Networks Based On Multi-beam Antennas

Terahertz(THz)communication is envisioned as one of the key technologies to achieve Terabit-per-second(Tbps)wireless data transmission speed.However,the communication distance in THz communication networks is constrained by the severe path loss in THz frequencies and the limited transmission power,which leads to the use of beamforming antennas and the study of the media access control(MAC)protocol in the THz band.Meanwhile,the directional transmission through narrow beams and the peculiarity of the terahertz channel have increased the difficulty of MAC protocol design in such extremely high frequency bands.In order to overcome the shortcomings of the traditional single-beam MAC protocol,and at the same time make full use of the transmission power of each THz transceiver,an in-depth study upon the characteristics of the existing THz MAC protocol,multi-beam antenna technology and resource adaptive utilization method is presented in this paper.Based on these extensive researches,a multi-beam on-demand power allocation MAC protocol for the purpose of realizing multiple-input multiple-output(MIMO)in wireless THz communication networks is proposed.Then,two THz mobile network models suitable for the multi-beam MAC protocol were designed,and their specific performance was evaluated in various aspects through simulation experiments.This paper focuses on the self-adaptive utilization of resources and multi-connection communication,which presented an in-depth study on the MAC protocol for THz communication networks.Main contributions are as follows:1.In order to achieve MIMO communication in the THz band,a multi-beam terahertz transceiver model is proposed based on the advanced multi-beam antenna technology.Meanwhile,in order to fully utilize the limited power of a single THz transceiver,supporting multiple concurrent data transmission in several directions,a distance-aware power allocation strategy is proposed.To make up for the shortcomings of the existing MAC protocols,a multi-beam on-demand power allocation MAC protocol is the proposed,combining the multi-beam THz transceiver design with the distance-aware power allocation strategy.Through simulation experiments,the relationship between throughput and signal-to-noise ratio threshold and average node distance are obtained.Compared with the traditional single-beam MAC protocol,the proposed multi-beam MAC protocol greatly improves the THz channel utilization and network throughput to a greater extent.2.Considering the node mobility in real application scenarios,according to the different relative movement modes between the access point(AP)and user equipment(UE),two mobile THz communication network models targeted at indoor inspection scenario based on the proposed MAC protocol are designed:the network models when UE moves linearly relative to APs and when UE moves circularly relative to the AP.Next,the feasibility of the proposed MAC protocol in the above two mobile scenarios is confirmed.And through simulation experiments,the performance influencing factors of these two mobile network models are studied respectively.Finally,concluded from the simulation results,there is a certain trade-off relationship between the density of APs and network throughput in the actual network layout.And it's necessary to comprehensively consider the specific network layout plan based on the budget and the moving speed of UE.The conclusion provides a reference for the future design of THz communication implementation schemes.