Office Room Channel Modeling and Object Attenuation at Sub-THz Frequencies

Abstract

Large bandwidths are needed to meet the high-throughput requirements of future wireless communication systems. These larger bandwidths are available at mmWave and sub-THz frequencies, such as the V-band ranging from 50 to 75 GHz and the D-band ranging from 110 to 170 GHz. In this paper, we present channel measurements in an office environment, covering the full D-band. Line-of-Sight (LOS) path loss (PL) is modeled as a function of frequency and distance. Both a single-frequency floating-intercept and multi-frequency alpha-beta-gamma model provide a good fit to the measured LOS PL data. Attenuation due to blockage of the LOS path by various desk objects, such as computer peripherals and cables, is determined, as well as attenuation due to plant obstructions. Attenuation due to an obstructed LOS path ranges from 3 dB for a single universal serial bus (USB) cable, and up to 25 dB for a laptop power supply, computer mouse, computer monitor, or plant. Because of a higher diffraction angle, the measured attenuation is higher when the distance between the antennas decreases. We measure diffraction around a computer monitor for dual polarization and verify whether communication via the reflected non Line-of-Sight path makes high-throughput wireless communication possible when the LOS path is blocked.