Cooperative THz communication for UAVs in 6G and beyond

Abstract

One of the key components of any smart city is considered to be its intelligent transportation systems (ITSs). Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are envisioned in several ITS application fields because of their autonomous operation, mobility, communication/processing capabilities, and other factors. In this paper, cooperative terahertz (THz) communication is proposed for flying ad hoc networks (FANETs), which is a particular kind of network made up of a collection of small UAVs linked in an ad hoc fashion and working together to accomplish high-level objectives. The frequency spectrum for wireless communication has been expanding continuously in order to meet the demand for bandwidth. For the forthcoming 6G and beyond, communications in the THz range will be vital, similar to how mmWave-band communications are currently influencing the 5G of wireless mobile communications. The finite state machine (FSM) of the proposed cooperative communication system for THz band is presented. A Markov chain model-based analytical study is carried out, which derives relationships among parameters. Furthermore, numerical results are provided to support the analytical study.