With the explosive growth of mobile data demand, the fifth generation (5G) mobile network would exploit the enormous amount of spectrum in the millimeter wave (mmWave) bands to greatly increase communication capacity. There are fundamental differences between mmWave communications and existing other communication systems, in terms of high propagation loss, directivity, and sensitivity to blockage. These characteristics of mmWave communications pose several challenges to fully exploit the potential of mmWave communications, including integrated circuits and system design, interference management, spatial reuse, anti-blockage, and dynamics control. To address these challenges, we carry out a survey of existing solutions and standards, and propose design guidelines in architectures and protocols for mmWave communications. We also discuss the potential applications of mmWave communications in the 5G network, including the small cell access, the cellular access, and the wireless backhaul. Finally, we discuss relevant open research issues including the new physical layer technology, software-defined network architecture, measurements of network state information, efficient control mechanisms, and heterogeneous networking, which should be further investigated to facilitate the deployment of mmWave communication systems in the future 5G networks.

A survey of millimeter wave communications (mmWave) for 5G: opportunities and challenges

Millimeter wave (mmWave) communications have recently attracted large research interest, since the huge available bandwidth can potentially lead to the rates of multiple gigabit per second per user Though mmWave can be readily used in stationary scenarios, such as indoor hotspots or backhaul, it is challenging to use mmWave in mobile networks, where the transmitting/receiving nodes may be moving, channels may have a complicated structure, and the coordination among multiple nodes is difficult To fully exploit the high potential rates of mmWave in mobile networks, lots of technical problems must be addressed This paper presents a comprehensive survey of mmWave communications for future mobile networks (5G and beyond) We first summarize the recent channel measurement campaigns and modeling results Then, we discuss in detail recent progresses in multiple input multiple output transceiver design for mmWave communications After that, we provide an overview of the solution for multiple access and backhauling, followed by the analysis of coverage and connectivity Finally, the progresses in the standardization and deployment of mmWave for mobile networks are discussed

Millimeter Wave Communications for Future Mobile Networks

A growing number of mobile computing applications are centered around the user's location. The notion of location is broad, ranging from physical coordinates (latitude/longitude) to logical labels (like Starbucks, McDonalds). While extensive research has been performed in physical localization, there have been few attempts in recognizing logical locations. This paper argues that the increasing number of sensors on mobile phones presents new opportunities for logical localization. We postulate that ambient sound, light, and color in a place convey a photo-acoustic signature that can be sensed by the phone's camera and microphone. In-built accelerometers in some phones may also be useful in inferring broad classes of user-motion, often dictated by the nature of the place. By combining these optical, acoustic, and motion attributes, it may be feasible to construct an identifiable fingerprint for logical localization. Hence, users in adjacent stores can be separated logically, even when their physical positions are extremely close. We propose SurroundSense, a mobile phone based system that explores logical localization via ambience fingerprinting. Evaluation results from 51 different stores show that SurroundSense can achieve an average accuracy of 87% when all sensing modalities are employed. We believe this is an encouraging result, opening new possibilities in indoor localization.

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SurroundSense: mobile phone localization via ambience fingerprinting

The present invention is designed to provide a user terminal, a radio base station and a radio communication method of novel structures that can achieve a good communication environment. A radio base station non-orthogonal-multiplexes downlink signals for a plurality of user terminals over a given radio resource, a user terminal having received the downlink signals for the plurality of user terminals decodes downlink signal for another user terminal, judges whether or not the downlink signal for the other user terminal has been successfully received, based on the decoding result of the downlink signal, reports a judgement result as to whether or not the downlink signal for the other user terminal has been successfully received and a judgement result as to whether or not a downlink signal for the user terminal has been successfully received, to the radio base station, and then the radio base station executes retransmission control of downlink signals based on reports from the user terminal.

User terminal, radio base station and radio communication method

The remarkable growth of wireless data traffic in recent times has driven the need to explore suitable regions in the radio spectrum to meet the projected requirements. In pursuance of this, millimeter wave communications have received considerable attention in the research fraternity. Due to the high path and penetration losses at millimeter wavelengths, antenna beamforming assumes a pivotal role in establishing and maintaining a robust communication link. Beamforming for millimeter wave communications poses a multitude of diverse challenges due to the large channel bandwidth, unique channel characteristics, and hardware constraints. In this paper, we track the evolution and advancements in antenna beamforming for millimeter wave communications in the context of the distinct requirements for indoor and outdoor communication scenarios. We expand the scope of discussion by including the developments in radio frequency system design and implementation for millimeter wave beamforming. We explore the suitability of millimeter wave beamforming methods, both, existing and proposed till midyear 2015, and identify the exciting new prospects unfolding in this domain.

Beamforming for Millimeter Wave Communications: An Inclusive Survey

The 60 GHz spectrum gives us the opportunity to deliver gigabit rates to users in a WLAN (wireless local area network) setting. The constrained propagation of signals at this frequency band ensures limited coverage which in turn enables the construction of very efficient STDMA (spatial time division multiple access) schedules. In this paper we study the achievable aggregate capacity in a room when using two types of smart antenna arrays - linear and circular. Using detailed Matlab simulations, we show that with just 400 MHz of the spectrum, aggregate data rates of 9 Gbps (4.5 Gbps) can be achieved with linear (circular) arrays. We also study the energy efficiency of the communication and show that the energy/bit is as low as 0.2 times 10-10 (0.2 times 10-9)Joules/Bit by using variable transmit powers at different parts of the room. Finally, we study the problem of coverage due to blocking of the LoS (line of sight) path. To mitigate this problem we study the use of static reflectors and show that coverage in the entire room can indeed be maintained.

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Empirical capacity of mmWave WLANS

A User Equipment (UE) device operates to directly determine a target small cell for access or handover with the assistance of a macro cell network. The UE directly generates the connection and selects which small cell to access from among a subset of small cells chosen of a set of candidate small cells. The UE is provided dedicated assistance information from the evolved node B (eNB) or macro network device. The dedicated assistance information enables the UE to measure data from the candidate small cells within a heterogeneous network environment. The UE shares the measured data and connects directly to the selected small cell for an access or handover operation.

Mobile communication in macro-cell assisted small cell networks

A User Equipment (UE) may be connected to multiple Enhanced Node Bs (eNBs). The multiple connection allows a UE to have an EPS bearer with multiple bearer paths, one routed through each of the eNBs. One eNB may implement a decision module to switch the bearer path to route incoming packets along a selected bearer path in order to achieve objectives such as maintaining Quality of Service (QoS) for the EPS bearer and/or maximizing overall network throughput. The eNB may gather information and metrics influencing these objectives from the other eNB and UE in order to make better bearer path decisions. The split bearer allows the UE to implement reduced protocol layers and reconfigure the protocol layers to match the bearer path selected by the eNB.

Eps bearer splitting for dual connectivity devices

Embodiments of a base station and method for early handover using uplink channel characteristics in a wireless network are generally described herein. In some embodiments, a method for handover determination is performed by an enhanced node B (eNB) operating as a serving cell base station. In these embodiments, a handover decision is based on a signal level of unlink transmissions of user equipment (UE) measured at a target cell base station in addition to signal levels of downlink signals of the target cell base station and downlink signals of a serving cell base station measured at the UE.

Base station and method for early handover using uplink channel characteristics

Technology for using an open mobile alliance (OMA) management object (MO) for congestion control in mobile networks is described. A novel type of OMA MO for application specific access control (ASAC) can include internet protocol (IP) flow descriptions that can be used to characterize applications with fine granularity. Priorities can be assigned to IP flows based on the IP flow descriptions. A user equipment (UE) can receive such an OMA MO and also receive application-barring information regarding a congestion level in a mobile network with which an application at the UE wishes to connect. The UE can have a connectivity manager (CM) that determines whether to allow the application to establish a connection with the mobile network based on the priority level of the application's associated IP flow and the application-barring information.

Candy Yiu

Papers

Empirical capacity of mmWave WLANS

Mobile communication in macro-cell assisted small cell networks

Eps bearer splitting for dual connectivity devices

Base station and method for early handover using uplink channel characteristics

Use of an oma management object to support application-specific congestion control in mobile networks