The document discusses millimeter wave (mmwave) communications, encompassing their frequency range, characteristics, and applications, including their potential in 5G networks. Key challenges such as propagation loss, sensitivity to blockage, and the necessity for high-density infrastructure are highlighted, alongside existing solutions such as beamforming and macro diversity. The conclusion emphasizes the promise of mmwave communications in significantly enhancing capacity for future mobile networks.

1. Millimeter Waves
(mmWaves)
By: Belal Essam
7 August 2016

2. Agenda
• mmWave In Brief
• Motivation
• mmWave Characteristics
• Existing Solutions
• Applications of mmWave Communications
• Key Player in mmWave Comm. Research
• Conclusion
• References
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3. mmWave In Brief
• Millimeter-wave frequencies often refer to the frequency range
from 30GHz to 300GHz.
• Such frequencies are designated as Extremely high frequency (EHF)
band.
• The wavelength of which is between 10mm to 1mm.
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4. Motivation
• Growing Devices • Growing Traffic
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5. Why mmWave
Frequencies ?
mmWave Spectrum still
undeveloped
More bandwidth is
available at these
frequencies
Efficient frequency
reuse due to high
attenuation
Inherent security and
privacy because of
narrow beam widths
and limited range
Practical antenna array
on chip is feasible due
to extremely small
wavelengths
@ 60 GHz
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6. mmWave Characteristics
• mmWave characterization should be considered in the design of
network architectures and protocols to fully exploit its potential.
1. mmWave communications suffer from huge propagation loss, due
to the high carrier frequency.
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7. mmWave Characteristics
2. The rain attenuation and atmospheric absorption characteristics of
mmWave propagation limit the range of mmWave communications.
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8. mmWave Characteristics
3. Besides, mmWave communications are sensitive to blockage by
obstacles such as humans and furniture , due to weak diffraction
ability.
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9. mmWave Characteristics
• Researchers in [1] conducted propagation measurements in a realistic
indoor environment in the presence of human activity, and the results
show that the channel is blocked for about 1% or 2% of the time for
one to five persons.
• Taking human mobility into consideration, mmWave links are
intermittent.
• [1] S. Collonge, G. Zaharia, and G. E. Zein, “Influence of human activity on wide-band
characteristics of the 60GHz indoor radio channel,” IEEE Trans. Wirel. Commun., vol. 3, no. 6, pp.
2369–2406, 2004.
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10. Existing Solutions
• To combat severe propagation loss, beamforming (BF) has been
adopted as an essential technique where with a small wavelength,
electronically steerable antenna arrays can be realized on chip.
• With smaller cell sizes , the rain attenuation and atmospheric
absorption do not create significant additional path loss for cell sizes
on the order of 200 m.
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11. Existing Solutions
• To tackle the sensitivity to blockage by obstacles:
1. Building blockage
High density of infrastructure required to
cover areas around buildings.
2. Body blockage
Macro diversity where users associate with
multiple base stations.
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12. Existing Solutions
3. Hand blockage
Array diversity on the handset.
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13. Applications of mmWave Communications
• Small Cell Access
With huge bandwidth, mmWave small cells are able to provide the multi-gigabit
rates.
• Cellular Access
It is shown that mmWave for 5G cellular access have the potential for high
coverage and capacity as long as the infrastructure is densely deployed.
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14. Applications of mmWave Communications
• Based on the extensive propagation measurement campaigns at mmWave
frequencies, the feasibility and efficiency of applying mmWave communications
in the cellular access have been demonstrated at 28 GHz and 38 GHz with the cell
sizes at the order of 200 m.
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15. Applications of mmWave Communications
• Wireless Backhaul
With small cells densely deployed in the next generation of cellular systems (5G),
it is costly to connect 5G base stations (BSs) to the other 5G BSs and to the
network by fiber based backhaul. In contrast, high speed wireless backhaul is
more cost-effective, flexible, and easier to deploy.
wireless backhaul in mmWave bands provides several-Gbps data rates and can
be a promising backhaul solution for small cells.
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16. Applications of mmWave Communications
• The Pig Picture:
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17. Key Player in mmWave Comm. Research
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18. Conclusion
• With the potential to offer orders of magnitude greater capacity over
current communication systems, mmWave communications become
a promising candidate for the 5G mobile networks.
• The characteristics of mmWave communications promote the
redesign of architectures and protocols to address the challenges,
including integrated circuits and system design, interference
management and spatial reuse, anti-blockage, etc.
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19. References
• Niu, Yong, et al. "A survey of millimeter wave communications (mmWave) for 5G:
opportunities and challenges." Wireless Networks 21.8 (2015): 2657-2676.
• Theodore (Ted) S. Rappaport. “Millimeter Wave Wireless Communications: The
Renaissance of Computing and Communications.” International Conference on
Communications, Keynote presentation Sydney, Australia, 2014.
• Robert W. Heath. “Millimeter wave as the future of 5G.” Wireless Networking and
Communications Group, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The
University of Texas at Austin, 2015.
• Yu, Yikun, Baltus, Peter G.M., van Roermund, Arthur H.M. “Integrated 60GHz RF
Beamforming in CMOS.” Springer, 2011.
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