Live Streaming of the Uncompressed HD and 4K Videos Using Terahertz Wireless Links

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Abstract— Taming the Terahertz waves (100 GHz-10 THz) is considered the next frontier in wireless communications. While components for the ultra-high bandwidth Terahertz wireless communications were in rapid development over the past several years, however, their commercial availability is still lacking. Nevertheless, as we demonstrate in this paper, due to recent advances in the microwave and infrared photonics hardware, it is now possible to assemble high performance hybrid THz communication systems for real-life applications. As an example, in this work, we present design and performance evaluation of the photonics-based Terahertz wireless communication system for the transmission of uncompressed 4K video feed that is built using all commercially available system components. In particular, two independent tunable lasers operating in the infrared C-band are used as a source for generating the Terahertz carrier wave using frequency difference generation in a photomixer. One of the IR laser beams carries the data which is intensity modulated using the LiNbO3 electro-optic modulator. A zero bias Schottky detector is used as the detector and demodulator of the data stream followed by the high-gain and low-noise pre-amplifier. The Terahertz carrier frequency is fixed at 138 GHz and the system is characterized by measuring the bit error rate for the pseudo random bit sequences at 5.5 Gbps. By optimizing the link geometry and decision parameters, an error- free (BER<10-10) transmission at a link distance of 1m is achieved. Finally, we detail integration of a professional 4K camera into the THz communication link, and demonstrate live streaming of the uncompressed HD and 4K video followed by analysis of the link quality.

Index Terms— 4K video, Broadband communication, Digital multimedia broadcasting, High definition video, Streaming media, Terahertz communications

K. Nallappan is with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Department of Engineering Physics, Polytechnique Montréal, Québec, H3T 1J4 Canada (email: kathirvel.nallappan@polymtl.ca). H.Guerboukha, and M.Skorobogatiy are with the Department of Engineering Physics, Polytechnique Montréal, Québec, H3T 1J4 Canada (email: hichem.guerboukha@polymtl.ca & maksim.skorobogatiy@polymtl.ca).
C. Nerguizian is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Polytechnique Montréal, Québec, H3T 1J4 Canada
(email: chahe.nerguizian@polymtl.ca).

This work was supported by the Canada Research Chair I program and the 

Canada Foundation for Innovations grant (Project No: 34633) in Ubiquitous THz Photonics of Prof. Maksim Skorobogatiy. I. INTRODUCTION HE internet protocol data traffic is continuing its exponential increase and is expected to reach over 278 Exabytes per month by 2021 [1]. Similarly, the ever- increasing wireless communications data rate in the commercial markets is expected to be 100 Gbps within the next 10 years [2]. To meet the bandwidth demand, a shift towards higher carrier frequencies has been considered as a solution [3-5]. The terahertz (THz) frequency band (Frequency:100 GHz to 10 THz, Wavelength: 3 mm to 30 µm) is seen by many as the next frontier in wireless communications [6, 7]. Most recently, the long distance (>2 Km) wireless links operating in the THz band with a carrier frequency of 120 GHz were reported providing data rates of 10 Gbps and 20 Gbps using amplitude shift keying (ASK) and quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) respectively [8-11].
At the same time, maturing the THz wireless communication technologies from laboratories into commercial applications is facing multiple challenges. Two major technologies exist in establishing THz wireless communication links: electronics-based frequency multiplier chains and photonics-based frequency difference generation [12]. Electronics-based approaches offer high powers (thus longer link distances), but at lower carrier-wave frequencies (<100 GHz), thus limiting the communication data rates. On the other hand, photonics systems suffer from lower power budgets due to inefficiency in optical to THz conversion, but offer potentially higher data rates at much higher carrier frequencies (>100GHz) [12].
From the prospective of telecommunication applications, one of the key advantages offered by infrared (IR) photonics is its ability to interface directly with the already existing fiber- based network equipment [12, 13]. Therefore, integration of the optics-based THz wireless transmitters with existing IR photonics networks can be done in a seamless fashion. Additionally, high tunability of the THz carrier frequency (between 20 GHz - 3.8 THz [14-16]) is easily achievable using photomixing, thus higher carrier frequencies and, hence, higher d

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