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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TL;DR: The limitations of recent technology solutions for the future demands are shown and the need for more innovative breakthrough solutions is highlighted, including the excellence of centralized macro sites as a principal capacity layer instead of micro cells, small cells, or femto cells.
Abstract: The evolution of mobile networks has been extremely fast during the last decade However, the advancements in the technological ways of improving the system capacity are not enough for the data revolution we have witnessed in the last couple of years, and for the data traffic forecast made by the professionals for the next decade Several recent technological enhancements may double the network capacity, or may even increase the system capacity 5–10 times, but still it is far away from the expected “need for a thousandfold more capacity” The fifth Generation (5G) of mobile networks with a slogan of thousandfold more capacity has compelled the research community to think in an “Innovative Way” and to think “Outside the box” The aim of this article is first to show the limitations of recent technology solutions for the future demands, and thus to highlight the need for more innovative breakthrough solutions The excellence of centralized macro sites is argued as a principal capacity layer instead of micro cells, small cells, or femto cells Moreover, it is also argued that an ultimate need for innovative antenna solutions for macro sites is required instead of traditional antenna array technologies
1 citations
TL;DR: In this article , an optimal successive hybrid beamformer technique is proposed for unicast and multicast scenarios which relies on the optimal minimum variance distortionless response (MVDR), while successively ensuring orthogonality to the previously scheduled users/user groups.
Abstract: Hybrid precoders and combiners are designed for cooperative cell-free multi-user millimeter wave (mmWave) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) cellular networks for low complexity interference mitigation. Initially, we derive an optimal hybrid transmit beamformer (HTBF) for a broadcast scenario considering both total and per access point (AP) power constraints. Next, an optimal successive hybrid beamformer technique is proposed for unicast and multicast scenarios which relies on the optimal minimum variance distortionless response (MVDR). We demonstrate that it mitigates both the interuser and intergroup interference, while successively ensuring orthogonality to the previously scheduled users/user groups. Furthermore, it is shown theoretically that the proposed schemes are capable of supporting a large number of users. Subsequently, a Bayesian learning (BL) based method is conceived for jointly designing the RF and baseband precoders/combiners for the various scenarios considered. Furthermore, we also conceive the uplink counterpart of our HTBF scheme, which is based on maximizing the signal-to-interference-plus noise ratio (SINR) of each individual user. Finally, the efficacy of the proposed schemes is characterized by our extensive simulation results in terms of cancelling the interuser/intergroup interference, which improves the spectral efficiency.
1 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: MilliSlice is introduced, a cross-carrier scheduling policy that exploits the diversity of the carriers and maximizes their utilization, thus simultaneously guaranteeing high throughput for the eMBB slices and low latency and high reliability for the URLLC flows.
Abstract: The ever increasing number of connected devices and of new and heterogeneous mobile use cases implies that 5G cellular systems will face demanding technical challenges. For example, Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communication (URLLC) and enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) scenarios present orthogonal Quality of Service (QoS) requirements that 5G aims to satisfy with a unified Radio Access Network (RAN) design. Network slicing and mmWave communications have been identified as possible enablers for 5G. They provide, respectively, the necessary scalability and flexibility to adapt the network to each specific use case environment, and low latency and multi-gigabit-per-second wireless links, which tap into a vast, currently unused portion of the spectrum. The optimization and integration of these technologies is still an open research challenge, which requires innovations at different layers of the protocol stack. This paper proposes to combine them in a RAN slicing framework for mmWaves, based on carrier aggregation. Notably, we introduce MilliSlice, a cross-carrier scheduling policy that exploits the diversity of the carriers and maximizes their utilization, thus simultaneously guaranteeing high throughput for the eMBB slices and low latency and high reliability for the URLLC flows.
1 citations
Cites background from "Millimeter-Wave Cellular Wireless N..."
...mmWave communications are another key enabler of 5G, which will exploit the currently unused, vast portion of the radio spectrum that lies in the bands between 30 and 300 GHz to provide multi-gigabit-per-second throughput to mobile users [5]....
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..., mmWave and sub-6-GHz) or in unlicensed and licensed bands (thanks to the extension of NR-U in the 60 GHz band) [22], [23], in order to increase the throughput and improve the reliability of transmissions [5]....
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11 Oct 2021
TL;DR: In this article, the authors proposed a novel technique for inter-user distance estimation that uses low-resolution and high-resolution beam energy-based images as location fingerprints to estimate the distance between each pair of users.
Abstract: Accurate localization of devices in 5G cellular networks is of that utmost importance. This is because location information is a key component of a variety of new emerging applications. In particular, collocation (or co-location) refers to the idea of identifying devices that are located within a certain range from one another. In this paper, we propose a novel technique for inter-user distance estimation that uses low-resolution and high-resolution beam energy-based images as location fingerprints. Our approach uses the beam energy-based images generated by different users to estimate the distance between each pair of them. Nevertheless, we explore the idea of using a deep learning technique referred to as super resolution applied on low-resolution beam energy-based images to enhance their resolution, thus identify collocated users with an accuracy comparable to that of higher resolution ones. More specifically, throughout our experiments, we generate images of resolution $4\times 4$ and $8\times 8$ and use these for distance estimation between users. Afterwards, we apply super resolution on images with size $4\times 4$ to improve their resolution, and compare their results to the ones obtained with the original $8\times 8$ images. For an area roughly equal to $60\times 30\ \mathrm{m}$ , our proposed approach reaches an average mean squared error equal to 0.13 m. We also demonstrate how our proposed approach outperforms the conventional ones that rely on user location detection to measure the inter-user distance.
1 citations
TL;DR: In this paper , a massive MIMO system with uniform circular and cylindrical antenna arrays is studied and favorable propagation property is rigorously shown to hold asymptotically in LOS environment for a fixed antenna spacing and under some mild conditions.
Abstract: Massive MIMO systems with uniform circular and cylindrical antenna arrays are studied. Favorable propagation property is rigorously shown to hold asymptotically in LOS environment for a fixed antenna spacing and under some mild conditions. The analysis is based on a novel method using a Bessel function expansion, a new bounding technique and a simplified representation of inter-user interference for array geometries obeying Kronecker structure.
1 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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