Towards Intelligent Reflecting Surface Empowered 6G Terahertz Communications: A Survey  

作　　者：Zhi Chen Xinying Ma Chong Han Qiye Wen 

机构地区：[1]University of Electronic Science and Technology of China(UESTC),Chengdu 611731,China [2]Shanghai Jiao Tong University,Shanghai 200240,China

出　　处：《China Communications》2021年第5期93-119,共27页中国通信（英文版）

基　　金：supported by the National Key Research and Development Project of China under Grant 2018YFB1801500;supported in part by The National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 6162780166 and Grant 61831012.

摘　　要：Terahertz(THz)communications have been widely envisioned as a promising enabler to provide adequate bandwidth and achieve ultra-high data rates for sixth generation(6G)wireless networks.In order to mitigate blockage vulnerability caused by serious propagation attenuation and poor diffraction of THz waves,an intelligent reflecting surface(IRS),which manipulates the propagation of incident electromagnetic waves in a programmable manner by adjusting the phase shifts of passive reflecting elements,is proposed to create smart radio environments,improve spectrum efficiency and enhance coverage capability.Firstly,some prospective application scenarios driven by the IRS empowered THz communications are introduced,including wireless mobile communications,secure communications,unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)scenario,mobile edge computing(MEC)scenario and THz localization scenario.Then,we discuss the enabling technologies employed by the IRS empowered THz system,involving hardware design,channel estimation,capacity optimization,beam control,resource allocation and robustness design.Moreover,the arising challenges and open problems encountered in the future IRS empowered THz communications are also highlighted.Concretely,these emerging problems possibly originate from channel modeling,new material exploration,experimental IRS testbeds and intensive deployment.Ultimately,the combination of THz communications and IRS is capable of accelerating the development of 6G wireless networks.

关 键 词：terahertz(THz)communications intelligent reflecting surface(IRS) sixth generation(6G) application scenarios enabling technologies emerging challenges. 

分 类 号：TN929.5[电子电信—通信与信息系统]