TERAWAY

Terahertz technology for ultra-broadband and ultra-wideband operation of backhaul and fronthaul links in systems with SDN management of network and radio resources

[November 2019 – October 2022]

PCRL coordinated the TERAWAY Project. TERAWAY was an H2020 5GPPP Phase III project funded by the European Union, designed as a technology-intensive initiative aiming to develop a disruptive generation of THz transceivers for high-capacity backhaul (BH) and fronthaul (FH) links in 5G networks.

Leveraging optical concepts and photonic integration techniques, TERAWAY developed a common technology base for generating, emitting, and detecting wireless signals with selectable symbol rates and bandwidths of up to 25.92 GHz. These signals covered an ultra-wide range of carrier frequencies, spanning the W-band (92-114.5 GHz), D-band (130-174.8 GHz), and THz band (252-322 GHz). In doing so, TERAWAY pioneered the organization of spectral resources within these bands into a common pool of radio resources that could be flexibly coordinated and utilized.

By employing photonics, the project enabled the development of multi-channel transceivers with wireless signal amplification in the optical domain and multi-beam optical beamforming, significantly enhancing the directivity of each wireless beam. In parallel, to maximize the potential of THz technology and facilitate its commercial uptake, TERAWAY developed a new software-defined networking (SDN) controller and an extended control hierarchy. This allowed for seamless network and radio resource management, improving network performance and energy efficiency while supporting network slicing for heterogeneous services.

At the end of its development, TERAWAY delivered a groundbreaking set of transceiver modules, including 4-channel modules operating from 92 to 322 GHz, capable of offering a total data rate of 241 Gb/s, achieving a transmission reach of over 400 meters in the THz band (and several kilometers in lower bands). These modules featured four independently steerable wireless beams, enabling BH and FH connections between fixed terrestrial and moving network nodes.

The TERAWAY transceivers were evaluated at the 5G demo site of AALTO and NOKIA in Finland, under an application scenario focused on providing communication and surveillance coverage for outdoor mega-events using heavy-duty drones as moving nodes.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under GA No 871668 and it is an initiative of the Photonics Public Private Partnership

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