ABSTRACT
The current advancements in the field of smart devices provide feasibility to the Internet of Things, which offers connectivity of the physical world with a sophisticated information processing world. With these technological advances, the utopian vision of smart cities providing improved quality life to the whole spectrum of human civilization appears a close reality. These smart devices require many information transactions to meet society’s expectations, which has exponentially growing communication demands. Observing the potential of the terahertz band in terms of providing data rates in the range of terabits per second (Tbps), Terahertz-based high-speed communication zone (THiSCoZ) can be envisioned as short-distance communication zone providing ultrafast connectivity between smart devices. THiSCoZ presents a promising solution to the last mile problem. However, there are numerous challenges related to the terahertz band, for example, absorption loss limiting the communication coverage, which should be appropriately handled through the design and development of communication systems. After providing introduction and motivation to the terahertz band’s utilization, this chapter provides a brief survey of the current research advancements promising the feasibility of the zones. Issues in channel modeling and the requirements of designing suitable modulation and coding schemes are discussed, followed by a discussion on signal processing challenges associated with energy-efficient communication. After considering the feasibility of cooperative communication for coverage and performance enhancement, we conclude this chapter by sharing open research directions that need further investigations for the realization of energy-efficient ThiSCoZ.
