6G transmission will be at frequencies below 1000 hertz, or below THz. Sub-THz typically encompasses the frequency range from 100 to 300 GHz. Within this range, frequencies between 100 GHz and 300 GHz are of great interest worldwide.

Access to much higher bandwidths will enable very high-performance short-range communication combined with an environmental sense for object detection or next-generation gesture recognition down to millimeter resolution.

For these reasons, Rohde and Schwarz is undertaking in-depth studies of the specific conditions in the electromagnetic bands at this frequency. In addition, it has also devoted efforts to channel sounding measurements between 100 and 300 GHz.

The company’s findings have contributed to the ITU-R Working Party 5D (W5PD) report, “Technical Feasibility of IMT in Bands above 100 GHz” with the objective of studying and providing information on the technical feasibility of cellular mobile technologies in bands above 92 GHz. IMT stands for International Mobile Telecommunications Standards.

The report will be consulted at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) World Radiocommunication Conference 2023 (WRC23), where additional frequency bands above 100 GHz are scheduled to be discussed and their allocation considered at the subsequent WRC27. The current 3GPP channel model is only validated up to 100 GHz. A crucial first step for the 6G standardization process is to extend this channel model to higher frequencies.