User Association and Multi-Connectivity Strategies in Joint Terahertz and Millimeter Wave 6G Systems

Terahertz (THz) wireless access is considered as a next step towards 6G cellular systems. By utilizing even higher frequency bands than 5G millimeter wave (mmWave) New Radio (NR), they will operate over extreme bandwidth delivering unprecedented rates at the access interface. However, by relying upon pencil-wide beams, these systems will not only inherit mmWave propagation challenges such as blockage phenomenon but introduce their own issues associated with micromobility of user equipment (UE). In this paper, we analyze and compare user association schemes and multi-connectivity strategies for joint 6G THz/mmWave deployments. Differently, from stochastic geometry studies, we develop a unified analytically tractable framework that simultaneously accounts for specifics of THz and mmWave radio part design and traffic service specifics at mmWave and THz base stations (BS). Our results show that (i) for negligible blockers density, lambda(B) <= 0.1 bl./m(2), the operator needs to enlarge the coverage of THz BS by accepting sessions that experience outage in case of blockage (ii) for lambda(B) > 0.1 bl./m(2), only those sessions that does not experience outage in case of blockage need to be accepted at THz BS, (iii) THz/mmWave multi-connectivity improves the ongoing session loss probability by 0.1-0.4 depending on the system parameters.

Automated summary

This paper analyzes and compares user association schemes and multi-connectivity strategies for joint 6G THz/mmWave deployments, and develops a unified analytically tractable framework. The results show the impact of blockage phenomenon and the benefits of THz/mmWave multi-connectivity.