A Preliminary Assessment of Midhaul Links at 140 GHz using Ray-Tracing

2026-05-26

AI Summary

This study addresses the growing demand for multi-gigabit-per-second midhaul links in 5G and beyond networks by presenting the first systematic evaluation of the 140 GHz terahertz band under a disaggregated CU-DU architecture. Focusing on urban scenarios, the authors employ ray-tracing-based channel modeling combined with 3GPP high-layer functional split Option 2 to optimize the number of centralized units (CUs) required to serve all distributed units (DUs). The analysis further examines peak link data rates under different functional split strategies. Results demonstrate that, under Option 2, wireless midhaul links operating at 140 GHz can effectively meet stringent high-data-rate requirements, thereby confirming the practical deployment potential of terahertz frequencies for future mobile network architectures.

Abstract

The ever-growing demand for mobile data necessitates a transport network architecture that can withstand the 5G-and-beyond multi-Gbps traffic requirements. To cater for such unprecedented demand, studies are being conducted to incorporate TeraHertz (THz) communications in future mobile networks. In this paper, we consider an urban environment and evaluate the feasibility of THz wireless midhaul links for the transport networks between the Central Units (CU) and Distributed Units (DU) in a disaggregated 5G network architecture with functional splits. Our goal is to study the feasibility of midhaul links at 140 GHz by minimizing the number of required CUs to serve all the DUs. To this end, we define several policies for selecting CU and DU nodes in order to determine the peak data rate that can be supported over each link between a CU and DU. Our numerical results based on ray-tracing suggest that wireless links at 140 GHz with 3GPP option 2 as High Layer Split (HLS) represents a promising technology for midhaul transport networks.

Problem

• midhaul
• 140 GHz
• THz communications
• 5G
• ray-tracing

Innovation

• 140 GHz
• THz communications
• midhaul
• ray-tracing
• functional split