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Journal ArticleDOI

Millimeter-Wave Cellular Wireless Networks: Potentials and Challenges

05 Feb 2014-Vol. 102, Iss: 3, pp 366-385
TL;DR: Measurements and capacity studies are surveyed to assess mmW technology with a focus on small cell deployments in urban environments and it is shown that mmW systems can offer more than an order of magnitude increase in capacity over current state-of-the-art 4G cellular networks at current cell densities.
Abstract: Millimeter-wave (mmW) frequencies between 30 and 300 GHz are a new frontier for cellular communication that offers the promise of orders of magnitude greater bandwidths combined with further gains via beamforming and spatial multiplexing from multielement antenna arrays. This paper surveys measurements and capacity studies to assess this technology with a focus on small cell deployments in urban environments. The conclusions are extremely encouraging; measurements in New York City at 28 and 73 GHz demonstrate that, even in an urban canyon environment, significant non-line-of-sight (NLOS) outdoor, street-level coverage is possible up to approximately 200 m from a potential low-power microcell or picocell base station. In addition, based on statistical channel models from these measurements, it is shown that mmW systems can offer more than an order of magnitude increase in capacity over current state-of-the-art 4G cellular networks at current cell densities. Cellular systems, however, will need to be significantly redesigned to fully achieve these gains. Specifically, the requirement of highly directional and adaptive transmissions, directional isolation between links, and significant possibilities of outage have strong implications on multiple access, channel structure, synchronization, and receiver design. To address these challenges, the paper discusses how various technologies including adaptive beamforming, multihop relaying, heterogeneous network architectures, and carrier aggregation can be leveraged in the mmW context.
Citations
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Proceedings ArticleDOI
21 May 2017
TL;DR: The designed 5G-Crosshaul architecture, two selected SDN/NFV applications targeting for cost-efficient resource and energy usage: the Resource Management Application (RMA) and the Energy Management and Monitoring Application (EMMA).
Abstract: The integration of both fronthaul and backhaul into a single transport network (namely, 5G-Crosshaul) is envisioned for the future 5G transport networks. This requires a fully integrated and unified management of the fronthaul and backhaul resources in a cost-efficient, scalable and flexible way through the deployment of an SDN/NFV control framework. This paper presents the designed 5G-Crosshaul architecture, two selected SDN/NFV applications targeting for cost-efficient resource and energy usage: the Resource Management Application (RMA) and the Energy Management and Monitoring Application (EMMA). The former manages 5G-Crosshaul resources (network, computing and storage resources). The latter is a special version of RMA with the focus on the objectives of optimizing the energy consumption and minimizing the energy footprint of the 5G-Crosshaul infrastructure. Besides, EMMA is applied to the mmWave mesh network and the high speed train scenarios. In particular, we present the key application design with their main components and the interactions with each other and with the control plane, and then we present the proposed application optimization algorithms along with initial results. The first results demonstrate that the proposed RMA is able to cost-efficiently utilize the Crosshaul resources of heterogeneous technologies, while EMMA can achieve significant energy savings through energy-efficient routing of traffic flows. For experiments in real system, we also set up Proof of Concepts (PoCs) for both applications in order to perform real trials in the field.

15 citations


Cites methods from "Millimeter-Wave Cellular Wireless N..."

  • ...The probability of success for mmWave links is obtained combining the work done in Table 1 [7] and Eq....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The paper proposed a goal attainment algorithm that achieves up to a seven-fold decrease in the mean deviation from a preset SE objective and 50% savings in EE, compared to the achievable performance under a constant transmit power and bandwidth allocation scheme.
Abstract: The spectral efficiency (SE) and energy efficiency (EE) performance of a millimeter-wave (mmWave) cellular network is studied where a user device can associate with a base station (BS) or another user for device-to-device (D2D) communication based on an interference-aware D2D distance threshold. Using the tools of stochastic geometry, the mean interference, coverage probability, area SE, and network EE are derived under the proposed association scheme. Performance of the proposed scheme is compared with that of the minimum path loss (Min PL)-based and maximum biased-received-power (Max BRP)-based association schemes. The proposed scheme is shown to give the best coverage probability performance in noise-limited networks, while the three schemes converge in performance in interference-limited networks in the high coverage threshold regime (>20 dB). Further, the proposed scheme achieves up to 60% increase in the area SE and EE, compared to the Min PL-based scheme that gives the next best performance. Lastly, the paper proposed a goal attainment algorithm that achieves up to a seven-fold decrease in the mean deviation from a preset SE objective and 50% savings in EE, compared to the achievable performance under a constant transmit power and bandwidth allocation scheme.

15 citations

Proceedings ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper presents possible simplifications that can reduce the complexity of ray tracing in the mmWave environment, without significantly affecting the accuracy of the model, and evaluates the effect of such simplifications on linklevel metrics.
Abstract: Millimeter-wave (mmWave) communication is one of the cornerstone innovations of fifth-generation (5G) wireless networks, thanks to the massive bandwidth available in these frequency bands. To correctly assess the performance of such systems, however, it is essential to have reliable channel models, based on a deep understanding of the propagation characteristics of the mmWave signal. In this respect, ray tracers can provide high accuracy, at the expense of a significant computational complexity, which limits the scalability of simulations. To address this issue, in this paper we present possible simplifications that can reduce the complexity of ray tracing in the mmWave environment, without significantly affecting the accuracy of the model. We evaluate the effect of such simplifications on link-level metrics, testing different configuration parameters and propagation scenarios.

15 citations


Cites background from "Millimeter-Wave Cellular Wireless N..."

  • ...signals in these frequency bands, however, complicate the design of reliable communication systems [5]....

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Proceedings ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors improve the channel model abstraction of the mmWave module for ns-3, by introducing the support of a more realistic antenna array model, compliant with 3GPP NR requirements, and of multiple antenna arrays at the base stations and mobile handsets.
Abstract: The next generation of cellular networks (5G) will exploit the mmWave spectrum to increase the available capacity. Communication at such high frequencies, however, suffers from high path loss and blockage, therefore directional transmissions using antenna arrays and dense deployments are needed. Thus, when evaluating the performance of mmWave mobile networks, it is necessary to accurately model the complex channel, the directionality of the transmission, but also the interplay that these elements can have with the whole protocol stack, both in the radio access and in the higher layers. In this paper, we improve the channel model abstraction of the mmWave module for ns-3, by introducing the support of a more realistic antenna array model, compliant with 3GPP NR requirements, and of multiple antenna arrays at the base stations and mobile handsets. We then study the end-to-end performance of a mmWave cellular network by varying the channel and antenna array configurations, and show that increasing the number of antenna arrays and, consequently, the number of sectors is beneficial for both throughput and latency.

15 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a generalized user association scheme that can cover many path-loss-based user association schemes is proposed, and its related probabilistic properties that facilitate the derivations of the coverage probability and link rate are derived.
Abstract: In this paper, we first introduce a generalized modeling and analysis framework to explore the fundamental interactions between user association, coverage probability, and link rate in a millimeter-wave (mmWave) heterogeneous cellular network (HetNet), in which there are multiple tiers of the ultra-high-frequency (UHF) macrocell and small-cell base stations (BSs) and a single tier of mmWave small-cell BSs. A generalized user association scheme that can cover many path-loss-based user association schemes is proposed, and its related probabilistic properties that facilitate the derivations of the coverage probability and link rate are derived. The derived general expressions of the coverage and link rate not only shed light on how to design user association functions in order to maximize the coverage and link rate but also show that it is impossible to devise a user association scheme that maximizes the coverage and link rate at the same time. Namely, there exists a fundamental tradeoff between the coverage and link rate in mmWave HetNets with distinct bandwidths in the UHF and mmWave bands while a user is mymargin associating with a BS. We characterize the coverage-optimal and rate-optimal user association schemes and numerically validate their performances and show the coverage-rate tradeoff problem.

15 citations

References
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Book
15 Jan 1996
TL;DR: WireWireless Communications: Principles and Practice, Second Edition is the definitive modern text for wireless communications technology and system design as discussed by the authors, which covers the fundamental issues impacting all wireless networks and reviews virtually every important new wireless standard and technological development, offering especially comprehensive coverage of the 3G systems and wireless local area networks (WLANs).
Abstract: From the Publisher: The indispensable guide to wireless communications—now fully revised and updated! Wireless Communications: Principles and Practice, Second Edition is the definitive modern text for wireless communications technology and system design. Building on his classic first edition, Theodore S. Rappaport covers the fundamental issues impacting all wireless networks and reviews virtually every important new wireless standard and technological development, offering especially comprehensive coverage of the 3G systems and wireless local area networks (WLANs) that will transform communications in the coming years. Rappaport illustrates each key concept with practical examples, thoroughly explained and solved step by step. Coverage includes: An overview of key wireless technologies: voice, data, cordless, paging, fixed and mobile broadband wireless systems, and beyond Wireless system design fundamentals: channel assignment, handoffs, trunking efficiency, interference, frequency reuse, capacity planning, large-scale fading, and more Path loss, small-scale fading, multipath, reflection, diffraction, scattering, shadowing, spatial-temporal channel modeling, and microcell/indoor propagation Modulation, equalization, diversity, channel coding, and speech coding New wireless LAN technologies: IEEE 802.11a/b, HIPERLAN, BRAN, and other alternatives New 3G air interface standards, including W-CDMA, cdma2000, GPRS, UMTS, and EDGE Bluetooth wearable computers, fixed wireless and Local Multipoint Distribution Service (LMDS), and other advanced technologies Updated glossary of abbreviations and acronyms, and a thorolist of references Dozens of new examples and end-of-chapter problems Whether you're a communications/network professional, manager, researcher, or student, Wireless Communications: Principles and Practice, Second Edition gives you an in-depth understanding of the state of the art in wireless technology—today's and tomorrow's.

17,102 citations


"Millimeter-Wave Cellular Wireless N..." refers background in this paper

  • ...Also, the human body and many outdoor materials being very reflective, allow them to be important scatterers for mmW propagation [28], [30]....

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  • ...However, these measurements were performed in an outdoor campus setting with much lower building density and greater opportunities for LOS connectivity than would be found in a typical urban deployment....

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  • ...Despite the potential of mmW cellular systems, there are a number of key challenges to realizing the vision of cellular networks in these bands: • Range and directional communication: Friis’ transmis- sion law [54] states that the free space omnidirectional path loss grows with the square of the…...

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The motivation for new mm-wave cellular systems, methodology, and hardware for measurements are presented and a variety of measurement results are offered that show 28 and 38 GHz frequencies can be used when employing steerable directional antennas at base stations and mobile devices.
Abstract: The global bandwidth shortage facing wireless carriers has motivated the exploration of the underutilized millimeter wave (mm-wave) frequency spectrum for future broadband cellular communication networks. There is, however, little knowledge about cellular mm-wave propagation in densely populated indoor and outdoor environments. Obtaining this information is vital for the design and operation of future fifth generation cellular networks that use the mm-wave spectrum. In this paper, we present the motivation for new mm-wave cellular systems, methodology, and hardware for measurements and offer a variety of measurement results that show 28 and 38 GHz frequencies can be used when employing steerable directional antennas at base stations and mobile devices.

6,708 citations


"Millimeter-Wave Cellular Wireless N..." refers background or methods in this paper

  • ...In both 28- and 73-GHz measurements, each point was classified as either being in a NLOS or LOS situation, based on a manual classification made at the time of the measurements; see [26] and [28]–[33]....

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  • ...• Empirical NYC: These curves are based on the omnidirectional path loss predicted by our linear model (1) for the mmW channel with the parameters from Table 1, as derived from the directional measurements in [26]....

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  • ...Details of the measurements can be found in [26], [28]– [33], [81]....

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  • ...This tremendous potential has led to considerable recent interest in mmW cellular both in industry [7]–[9], [18], [19] and academia [20]–[26], with a growing belief that mmW bands will play a significant role in beyond 4G and 5G cellular systems [27]....

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  • ...In particular, we survey our own measurements [26], [28]–[33] made in New York City (NYC) in both 28- and 73-GHz bands and the statistical models for the channels developed in [34]....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The gains in multiuser systems are even more impressive, because such systems offer the possibility to transmit simultaneously to several users and the flexibility to select what users to schedule for reception at any given point in time.
Abstract: Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology is maturing and is being incorporated into emerging wireless broadband standards like long-term evolution (LTE) [1]. For example, the LTE standard allows for up to eight antenna ports at the base station. Basically, the more antennas the transmitter/receiver is equipped with, and the more degrees of freedom that the propagation channel can provide, the better the performance in terms of data rate or link reliability. More precisely, on a quasi static channel where a code word spans across only one time and frequency coherence interval, the reliability of a point-to-point MIMO link scales according to Prob(link outage) ` SNR-ntnr where nt and nr are the numbers of transmit and receive antennas, respectively, and signal-to-noise ratio is denoted by SNR. On a channel that varies rapidly as a function of time and frequency, and where circumstances permit coding across many channel coherence intervals, the achievable rate scales as min(nt, nr) log(1 + SNR). The gains in multiuser systems are even more impressive, because such systems offer the possibility to transmit simultaneously to several users and the flexibility to select what users to schedule for reception at any given point in time [2].

5,158 citations


"Millimeter-Wave Cellular Wireless N..." refers background in this paper

  • ...These multiple antenna systems can be used to form very high gain, electrically steerable arrays, fabricated at the base station (BS), in the skin of a cellphone, or even within a chip [6], [10]–[17]....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe five technologies that could lead to both architectural and component disruptive design changes: device-centric architectures, millimeter wave, massive MIMO, smarter devices, and native support for machine-to-machine communications.
Abstract: New research directions will lead to fundamental changes in the design of future fifth generation (5G) cellular networks. This article describes five technologies that could lead to both architectural and component disruptive design changes: device-centric architectures, millimeter wave, massive MIMO, smarter devices, and native support for machine-to-machine communications. The key ideas for each technology are described, along with their potential impact on 5G and the research challenges that remain.

3,711 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The technical and business arguments for femtocells are overview and the state of the art on each front is described and the technical challenges facing femtocell networks are described and some preliminary ideas for how to overcome them are given.
Abstract: The surest way to increase the system capacity of a wireless link is by getting the transmitter and receiver closer to each other, which creates the dual benefits of higher-quality links and more spatial reuse. In a network with nomadic users, this inevitably involves deploying more infrastructure, typically in the form of microcells, hot spots, distributed antennas, or relays. A less expensive alternative is the recent concept of femtocells - also called home base stations - which are data access points installed by home users to get better indoor voice and data coverage. In this article we overview the technical and business arguments for femtocells and describe the state of the art on each front. We also describe the technical challenges facing femtocell networks and give some preliminary ideas for how to overcome them.

3,298 citations


"Millimeter-Wave Cellular Wireless N..." refers background in this paper

  • ...Heterogeneous networks, or HetNets, have been one of the most active research areas in cellular standards bodies in the last five years [45], [48], [67], [68], with the main focus being intercell interference coordination and load balancing....

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