Waveform Comparison under Hardware Limitations for 6G Sub-THz Communications

Sub-Terahertz (sub-THz) communication is a key enabling technology to deliver ultra-high rates up to Terabit/s - one of 6G envisioned goals. It is an open problem how the physical layer of an access network should be implemented for exploiting the wide bandwidth in this high frequency range and at the same time being capable to deliver the targeted data rate and coverage. In this paper, based on simulation findings, we analyze the performance of different single- and multi-carrier transmission concepts in sub-THz range under hardware impairments and limitations, both from a NR upscaling perspective and where it is best to deviate from the straightforward upscaling into a new design. Hence we focus on the signal peak amplitude characteristics, the phase noise of the local oscillators and the quantization effect of the analog-to-digital-converter. Insights drawn from the analysis are considered to make proposals on the signaling concepts for a practical access network in the sub-THz range.