Coverage Analysis of Joint Localization and Communication in THz Systems with 3D Arrays

As a key enabler of Terahertz (THz)-based wireless technologies, large-scale multiple-input-multiple-output systems are well known for their advantages in both communication and localization. Contrary to existing works that mostly focus on planar arrays, this paper first explores the potential of three-dimensional (3D) spatial array structures in joint localization and communication coverage enhancement. We consider a THz-band wireless system where a user is equipped with a 3D array receiving downlink far-field signals from multiple base stations with known positions and orientations over Rician fading channels. First, we derive the constrained Cramér-Rao bound (CCRB) for the localization (i.e., position and orientation estimation) performance, based on which we define the localization coverage metrics. Then, we derive the communication key performance indicators (KPIs) including instantaneous signal-to-noise ratio, outage probability, and ergodic capacity, and define the corresponding coverage metrics. To facilitate localization applications using 3D arrays, a maximum likelihood-based algorithm for joint user equipment (UE) position and orientation estimation is proposed, which is initialized by a least squares-based solution. Our numerical results show that the 3D array configuration offers overall higher coverage than the planar array w.r.t. both localization and communication KPIs, although with minor performance loss in certain UE positions and orientations. The proposed localization algorithm is also verified to be efficient in simulations as it attains the derived CCRB.