Random Access Protocols for Cell-Free Wireless Network Exploiting Statistical Behavior of THz Signal Propagation

Abstract: The current body of research on terahertz (THz) wireless communications predominantly focuses on its application for single-user backhaul/fronthaul connectivity at sub-THz frequencies. First, we develop a generalized statistical model for signal propagation at THz frequencies encompassing physical layer impairments, including random path-loss with Gamma distribution for the molecular absorption coefficient, short-term fading characterized by the $\alpha$-$\eta$-$\kappa$-$\mu$ distribution, antenna misalignment errors, and transceiver hardware impairments. Next, we propose random access protocols for a cell-free wireless network, ensuring successful transmission for multiple users with limited delay and energy loss, exploiting the combined effect of random atmospheric absorption, non-linearity of fading, hardware impairments, and antenna misalignment errors. We consider two schemes: a fixed transmission probability (FTP) scheme where the transmission probability (TP) of each user is updated at the beginning of the data transmission and an adaptive transmission probability (ATP) scheme where the TP is updated with each successful reception of the data. We analyze the performance of both protocols using delay, energy consumption, and outage probability with scaling laws for the transmission of a data frame consisting of a single packet from users at a predefined quality of service (QoS).