Nanotechnologies promise new solutions for several applications in the biomedical, industrial and military fields. At the nanoscale, a nanomachine is considered as the most basic functional unit which is able to perform very simple tasks. Communication among nanomachines will allow them to accomplish more complex functions in a distributed manner. In this paper, the state of the art in molecular electronics is reviewed to motivate the study of the Terahertz Band (0.1-10.0 THz) for electromagnetic (EM) communication among nano-devices. A new propagation model for EM communications in the Terahertz Band is developed based on radiative transfer theory and in light of molecular absorption. This model accounts for the total path loss and the molecular absorption noise that a wave in the Terahertz Band suffers when propagating over very short distances. Finally, the channel capacity of the Terahertz Band is investigated by using this model for different power allocation schemes, including a scheme based on the transmission of femtosecond-long pulses. The results show that for very short transmission distances, in the order of several tens of millimeters, the Terahertz channel supports very large bit-rates, up to few terabits per second, which enables a radically different communication paradigm for nanonetworks.
Terahertz (THz) band communications are envisioned as a key technology for 6G and Beyond. As a fundamental wireless infrastructure, THz communication can boost abundant promising applications. In 2014, our team published two comprehensive roadmaps for the development and progress of THz communication networks [1], [2], which helped the research community to start research on this subject afterwards. The topic of THz communications became very important and appealing to the research community due to 6G wireless systems design and development in recent years. Many papers are getting published covering different aspects of wireless systems using the THz band. With this paper, our aim is looking back to the last decade and revisiting the old problems and pointing out what has been achieved in the research community so far. Furthermore, in this paper, open challenges and new research directions still to be investigated for the THz band communication systems are presented, by covering diverse topics ranging from devices, channel behavior, communication and networking, to physical testbeds and demonstration systems. The key aspects presented in this paper will enable THz communications as a pillar of 6G and Beyond wireless systems in the next decade.
Nanotechnology promises new solutions for many applications in the biomedical, industrial and military fields as well as in consumer and industrial goods. The interconnection of nanoscale devices with existing communication networks and ultimately the Internet defines a new networking paradigm that is further referred to as the Internet of Nano-Things. Within this context, this paper discusses the state of the art in electromagnetic communication among nanoscale devices. An in-depth view is provided from the communication and information theoretic perspective, by highlighting the major research challenges in terms of channel modeling, information encoding and protocols for nanonetworks and the Internet of Nano-Things.