The spectrum sharing challenges for enabling large bandwidth mmWave/THz spectrum access above 100 GHz for 6G and other applications

Spectrum above 100 GHz is attractive for applications needing contiguous bandwidths greater than 20 GHz such as alternatives for optical fiber in situations where time urgency or difficult terrain make the low material cost fiber alternative infeasible. But unlike in the lower spectrum, above 100 GHz there is a high density of passive bands due to the presence of many molecular resonances of critical interest to climate scientists and radio astronomers. When the ITU created most of these bands in 2000, at the request of both US and European countries, it also agreed to their requested review of whether carefully controlled sharing of such passive bands was feasible. This webinar will review the technical challenges and potential benefits for sharing such bands subject to ITU quantitative protection goals that are in place. While such sharing is probably not feasible in lower bands, the key differences here are the small wavelengths and resulting small antenna sizes as well as the high atmospheric absorption above 100 GHz and the strong elevation angle dependence that makes terrestrial use with strong control of high elevation angle antenna sidelobes a promising path. The webinar will discuss this and other options as well as the ITU-R for a look at where these discussions are focused now and how one can participate in the deliberations.

Speakers:

Dr. Michael Marcus
Spectrum Solutions LLC

Michael J. Marcus is a native of Boston and received S.B. and Sc.D. degrees in electrical engineering from MIT. Prior to joining the FCC in 1979, he worked at Bell Labs on the theory of telephone switching, served in the U.S. Air Force where he was involved in underground nuclear test detection research, and analyzed electronic warfare issues at the Institute for Defense Analyses.

Josep Miquel Jornet
Associate Professor, Northeastern University

Josep Miquel Jornet is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the director of the Ultrabroadband Nanonetworking (UN) Laboratory, and a member of the Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things and the SMART Center at Northeastern University (NU). He received a Degree in Telecommunication Engineering and a Master of Science in Information and Communication Technologies from Barcelona School of Telecommunications Engineering (ETSETB), Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain, in 2008. From September 2007 to December 2008, he was a visiting researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, under the MIT Sea Grant program. He received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, in August 2013. Between August 2013 and August 2019, he was in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University at Buffalo (UB), The State University of New York (SUNY).