Technical Advancements Toward RIS-Assisted NTN-Based THz Communication for 6G and Beyond

The world is experiencing an explosion in demand for ultra-high data rates with far greater expectations in the next few years. These expectations, given the bandwidth-demanding applications such as augmented and virtual reality and other beyond-5G applications, motivate the exploration of higher-fr...

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Main Authors: Oluwatosin Ahmed Amodu, Rosdiadee Nordin, Nor Fadzilah Abdullah, Sherif Adeshina Busari, Asma' Abu-Samah, Ifiok Otung, Muhammad Ali, Mehran Behjati
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2024-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
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Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10776962/
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author Oluwatosin Ahmed Amodu
Rosdiadee Nordin
Nor Fadzilah Abdullah
Sherif Adeshina Busari
Asma' Abu-Samah
Ifiok Otung
Muhammad Ali
Mehran Behjati
author_facet Oluwatosin Ahmed Amodu
Rosdiadee Nordin
Nor Fadzilah Abdullah
Sherif Adeshina Busari
Asma' Abu-Samah
Ifiok Otung
Muhammad Ali
Mehran Behjati
author_sort Oluwatosin Ahmed Amodu
collection DOAJ
description The world is experiencing an explosion in demand for ultra-high data rates with far greater expectations in the next few years. These expectations, given the bandwidth-demanding applications such as augmented and virtual reality and other beyond-5G applications, motivate the exploration of higher-frequency communication in the terahertz (THz) bands. However, THz communication is faced with many technical challenges, primarily due to the high susceptibility to blockages that limit its applications. Here, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) provide alternative paths to circumvent such blockage effects and ensure reliable, spectral, and energy-efficient communication, thus advancing the THz-RIS technology concept. However, the ambitious targets of ubiquitous and global connectivity can only be satisfied by many technologies extending to multiple domains, from terrestrial networks to non-terrestrial network (NTN) domains. The use of airborne and spaceborne networks is considered a potential solution for addressing these challenges due to their dynamism, coverage, and ability to leverage their altitude for achieving line-of-sight communication for enhanced signal quality and network performance. Therefore, unmanned aerial vehicles, high-altitude platform stations, and satellites are poised to use flying THz-based RISs to improve air-to-ground and space-to-ground communication reliability while exploiting novel RIS architectures, techniques and enablers to address the issues regarding the propagation conditions, hardware limitations, network complexity and system performance. The aim in this paper is to present the discussion and a survey on the technical advances on THz-RIS NTNs, in addition to outlining potential applications, architectural variants, influencing properties, as well as its prospects, associated challenges, open issues and future directions towards high-data rate THz-RIS NTN communication for 6G and beyond.
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issn 2169-3536
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publishDate 2024-01-01
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spelling doaj-art-86fb2fd4d6a24098949b6b37f217623c2024-12-28T00:01:48ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362024-01-011218315318318110.1109/ACCESS.2024.351149410776962Technical Advancements Toward RIS-Assisted NTN-Based THz Communication for 6G and BeyondOluwatosin Ahmed Amodu0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4078-6066Rosdiadee Nordin1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9254-2023Nor Fadzilah Abdullah2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6593-5603Sherif Adeshina Busari3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4722-4218Asma' Abu-Samah4https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8514-1459Ifiok Otung5https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1442-3816Muhammad Ali6https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3842-9593Mehran Behjati7https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8380-057XDepartment of Electrical, Electronic, and Systems Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Bangi, MalaysiaDepartment of Engineering, School of Engineering and Technology, Sunway University, Bandar Sunway, Selangor, MalaysiaDepartment of Electrical, Electronic, and Systems Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Bangi, MalaysiaBradford-Renduchintala Centre for Space AI, University of Bradford, Bradford, U.K.Department of Electrical, Electronic, and Systems Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Bangi, MalaysiaBradford-Renduchintala Centre for Space AI, University of Bradford, Bradford, U.K.Bradford-Renduchintala Centre for Space AI, University of Bradford, Bradford, U.K.Department of Computing and Information Systems, School of Engineering and Technology, Sunway University, Bandar Sunway, Selangor, MalaysiaThe world is experiencing an explosion in demand for ultra-high data rates with far greater expectations in the next few years. These expectations, given the bandwidth-demanding applications such as augmented and virtual reality and other beyond-5G applications, motivate the exploration of higher-frequency communication in the terahertz (THz) bands. However, THz communication is faced with many technical challenges, primarily due to the high susceptibility to blockages that limit its applications. Here, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) provide alternative paths to circumvent such blockage effects and ensure reliable, spectral, and energy-efficient communication, thus advancing the THz-RIS technology concept. However, the ambitious targets of ubiquitous and global connectivity can only be satisfied by many technologies extending to multiple domains, from terrestrial networks to non-terrestrial network (NTN) domains. The use of airborne and spaceborne networks is considered a potential solution for addressing these challenges due to their dynamism, coverage, and ability to leverage their altitude for achieving line-of-sight communication for enhanced signal quality and network performance. Therefore, unmanned aerial vehicles, high-altitude platform stations, and satellites are poised to use flying THz-based RISs to improve air-to-ground and space-to-ground communication reliability while exploiting novel RIS architectures, techniques and enablers to address the issues regarding the propagation conditions, hardware limitations, network complexity and system performance. The aim in this paper is to present the discussion and a survey on the technical advances on THz-RIS NTNs, in addition to outlining potential applications, architectural variants, influencing properties, as well as its prospects, associated challenges, open issues and future directions towards high-data rate THz-RIS NTN communication for 6G and beyond.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10776962/B5G6GdronesUAVTHzreconfigurable intelligent surfaces
spellingShingle Oluwatosin Ahmed Amodu
Rosdiadee Nordin
Nor Fadzilah Abdullah
Sherif Adeshina Busari
Asma' Abu-Samah
Ifiok Otung
Muhammad Ali
Mehran Behjati
Technical Advancements Toward RIS-Assisted NTN-Based THz Communication for 6G and Beyond
IEEE Access
B5G
6G
drones
UAV
THz
reconfigurable intelligent surfaces
title Technical Advancements Toward RIS-Assisted NTN-Based THz Communication for 6G and Beyond
title_full Technical Advancements Toward RIS-Assisted NTN-Based THz Communication for 6G and Beyond
title_fullStr Technical Advancements Toward RIS-Assisted NTN-Based THz Communication for 6G and Beyond
title_full_unstemmed Technical Advancements Toward RIS-Assisted NTN-Based THz Communication for 6G and Beyond
title_short Technical Advancements Toward RIS-Assisted NTN-Based THz Communication for 6G and Beyond
title_sort technical advancements toward ris assisted ntn based thz communication for 6g and beyond
topic B5G
6G
drones
UAV
THz
reconfigurable intelligent surfaces
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10776962/
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