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.
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Patent•
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe a system that performs operations including detecting a signal degradation of guided electromagnetic waves bound to a transmission medium without utilizing an electrical return path, adjusting an alignment of at least a portion of fields of the guided electromagnetic wave to mitigate the signal degradation.
Abstract: Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, a system that performs operations including detecting a signal degradation of guided electromagnetic waves bound to a transmission medium without utilizing an electrical return path, the guided electromagnetic waves having a non-optical frequency range, and adjusting an alignment of at least a portion of fields of the guided electromagnetic waves to mitigate the signal degradation. Other embodiments are disclosed.
185 citations
TL;DR: A novel communication framework to enable CST in DSS systems by employing a power control-based SI mitigation scheme is proposed and a throughput performance analysis of this proposed framework is carried out.
Abstract: Full-duplex (FD) wireless technology enables a radio to transmit and receive on the same frequency band at the same time, and it is considered to be one of the candidate technologies for the fifth generation (5G) and beyond wireless communication systems due to its advantages, including potential doubling of the capacity and increased spectrum utilization efficiency. However, one of the main challenges of FD technology is the mitigation of strong self-interference (SI). Recent advances in different SI cancellation techniques, such as antenna cancellation, analog cancellation, and digital cancellation methods, have led to the feasibility of using FD technology in different wireless applications. Among potential applications, one important application area is dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) in wireless systems particularly 5G networks, where FD can provide several benefits and possibilities such as concurrent sensing and transmission (CST), concurrent transmission and reception, improved sensing efficiency and secondary throughput, and the mitigation of the hidden terminal problem. In this direction, first, starting with a detailed overview of FD-enabled DSS, we provide a comprehensive survey of recent advances in this domain. We then highlight several potential techniques for enabling FD operation in DSS wireless systems. Subsequently, we propose a novel communication framework to enable CST in DSS systems by employing a power control-based SI mitigation scheme and carry out the throughput performance analysis of this proposed framework. Finally, we discuss some open research issues and future directions with the objective of stimulating future research efforts in the emerging FD-enabled DSS wireless systems.
185 citations
Cites background from "Millimeter-Wave Cellular Wireless N..."
...However, several research challenges including propagation-related issues such as shadowing and mobility aspects, hardware imperfections like power amplifier non-linearity, and the need of high processing power and large antenna arrays have to be addressed to enable the operation of future cellular communications in mmWave bands [8]....
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...In addition, several survey and overview papers exist in the area of 5G enabling technologies such as massive MIMO [7], [59]–[61], mmWave [7], [8], [62], Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) [63], [64], cellular and heterogeneous networks [65]–[67], Internet of Things (IoT) [70]–[73], Machine to Machine (M2M) communication [68]–[70] and Device to Device (D2D) communication [74]....
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the secrecy performance of mmWave cellular networks under a stochastic geometry framework and derived the average number of perfect communication links per unit area in both noncolluding and colluding eavesdroppers scenarios.
Abstract: Recent studies show that millimeter wave (mmWave) communications can offer orders of magnitude, which increases in the cellular capacity. However, the secrecy performance of an mmWave cellular network has not been investigated so far. Leveraging the new path-loss and blockage models for mmWave channels, which are significantly different from the conventional microwave channel, this paper comprehensively studies the network-wide physical layer security performance of the downlink transmission in an mmWave cellular network under a stochastic geometry framework. We first study the secure connectivity probability and the average number of perfect communication links per unit area in a noise-limited mmWave network for both non-colluding and colluding eavesdroppers scenarios, respectively. Then, we evaluate the effect of the artificial noise (AN) on the secrecy performance, and derive the analysis result of average number of perfect communication links per unit area in an interference-limited mmWave network. Numerical results demonstrate the network-wide secrecy performance, and provide interesting insights into how the secrecy performance is influenced by various network parameters: antenna array pattern, base station intensity, and AN power allocation.
179 citations
TL;DR: This work investigates the performance of mixed-ADC massive MIMO systems over the Rician fading channel, which is more general for the 5G scenarios like Internet of Things, and reveals the tradeoff between the achievable rate and the energy efficiency.
Abstract: The practical deployment of massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) in the future fifth generation (5G) wireless communication systems is challenging due to its high-hardware cost and power consumption. One promising solution to address this challenge is to adopt the low-resolution analog-to-digital converter (ADC) architecture. However, the practical implementation of such architecture is challenging due to the required complex signal processing to compensate the coarse quantization caused by low-resolution ADCs. Therefore, few high-resolution ADCs are reserved in the recently proposed mixed-ADC architecture to enable low-complexity transceiver algorithms. In contrast to previous works over Rayleigh fading channels, we investigate the performance of mixed-ADC massive MIMO systems over the Rician fading channel, which is more general for the 5G scenarios like Internet of Things. Specially, novel closed-form approximate expressions for the uplink achievable rate are derived for both cases of perfect and imperfect channel state information (CSI). With the increasing Rician K-factor, the derived results show that the achievable rate will converge to a fixed value. We also obtain the power-scaling law that the transmit power of each user can be scaled down proportionally to the inverse of the number of base station (BS) antennas for both perfect and imperfect CSI. Moreover, we reveal the tradeoff between the achievable rate and the energy efficiency with respect to key system parameters, including the quantization bits, number of BS antennas, Rician K-factor, user transmit power, and CSI quality. Finally, numerical results are provided to show that the mixed-ADC architecture can achieve a better energy-rate tradeoff compared with the ideal infinite-resolution and low-resolution ADC architectures.
178 citations
Cites background from "Millimeter-Wave Cellular Wireless N..."
...Moreover, recent works reveal that LoS (or near-LoS) signal propagation is mostly relied on in massive MIMO [22]–[24] or millimeterwave communications [6], [25], [26]....
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TL;DR: A comprehensive survey of the interplay between NOMA and many existing wireless technologies and emerging ones including multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), massive MIMO, millimeter wave communications, cognitive and cooperative communications, visible light communications, physical layer security, energy harvesting, wireless caching, and so on.
Abstract: Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) has been widely recognized as a promising way to scale up the number of users, enhance the spectral efficiency, and improve the user-fairness in wireless networks, by allowing more than one user to share one wireless resource. NOMA can be flexibly combined with many existing wireless technologies and emerging ones including multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), massive MIMO, millimeter wave communications, cognitive and cooperative communications, visible light communications, physical layer security, energy harvesting, wireless caching, and so on. Combination of NOMA with these technologies can further increase scalability, spectral efficiency, energy efficiency, and greenness of future communication networks. This paper provides a comprehensive survey of the interplay between NOMA and the above technologies. The emphasis is on how the above techniques can benefit from NOMA and vice versa. Moreover, challenges and future research directions are identified.
175 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 communicationsnow 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 technologytoday'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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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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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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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
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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