Engineers figured out how to use 'curvy' light beams to toss wireless signals right around the side of a building.
arXiv · March 17, 2026 · 2603.13866
The Takeaway
Most people are taught that light only travels in straight lines, which is why walls and corners are such a problem for high-speed wireless signals. By engineering beams that naturally bend as they move, researchers have found a way to literally steer data around corners, potentially solving one of the biggest connectivity issues for future 6G networks.
From the abstract
Terahertz (THz) communication can offer terabit-per-second rates in future wireless systems, thanks to the ultra-wide bandwidths, but require large antenna arrays. As antenna apertures expand and we enter the near-field scenarios, the conventional binary classification of communication links as either Line-of-Sight (LoS) or Non-Line-of-Sight (NLoS) becomes insufficient. Instead, quasi-LoS scenarios, where the LoS path is partially obstructed, are increasingly prevalent, posing significant challe