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Comparative Evaluation of Millimeter-Wave Beamsteering Algorithms Using Outdoor Phased Antenna Array Measurements | IEEE Conference Publication | IEEE Xplore

Comparative Evaluation of Millimeter-Wave Beamsteering Algorithms Using Outdoor Phased Antenna Array Measurements

Publisher: IEEE

Abstract:

The use of high-gain directional communications is key to enable the capacity enhancement of millimeter-wave (mm-wave) for 5G-and-beyond networks. However, robust mm-wave...View more

Abstract:

The use of high-gain directional communications is key to enable the capacity enhancement of millimeter-wave (mm-wave) for 5G-and-beyond networks. However, robust mm-wave coverage using directional beams entails significant beamsteering effort for maintaining precise beam alignment between the base station and the user. Numerous mm-wave beamsteering algorithms have been proposed in the literature, but verified largely using statistical channel models or limited measurements. Importantly this still leaves open the question of whether these studies can be directly translated to real outdoor mm-wave network deployments. In this paper, we present the results of the first extensive comparative evaluation of eight state-of-the-art mm-wave beamsteering algorithms based on outdoor mm-wave measurements using phased antenna arrays. We collect received signal strength data over fine-grained 3D angular orientations for 78 spatially-dense user positions in a European city, comprising an open-source dataset of over 421,000 individual measurements. We then perform an empirical evaluation of the beamsteering algorithms in the context of link establishment for static and link maintenance for mobile users. Overall, our results show that these state-of-the-art mm-wave beamsteering algorithms, when tested on real measurement data, perform far from optimal and worse than originally reported. A key takeaway from our evaluation is that the practical feasibility of beamsteering algorithms strongly depends on the trade-off between the incurred beam training delay and the antenna gains facilitated in the initial beam training stage which limit the established link budget. Our study of link maintenance for mobile users showed significant deviations from the maximum achievable performance for all algorithms, including those that leverage correlation of the mm-wave sparse link opportunities or historical link information for link recovery. This shows that, to enable seamless connectivity in fut...
Date of Conference: 20-23 September 2022
Date Added to IEEE Xplore: 25 October 2022
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Publisher: IEEE
Conference Location: Stockholm, Sweden

I. Introduction

The use of millimeter-wave (mm-wave) spectrum is seen as key for unlocking the full potential of 5G-and-beyond cellular networks, offering a large amount of continuous wide bandwidth for capacity enhancements [1]. However, the move to mm-wave frequencies comes with significant challenges in terms of increased propagation losses, blockage susceptibility and a limited multipath environment [2]. Multi-antenna arrays can compensate this by electronically steering the antenna beams with the required gains in the desired directions. However, the use of directional pencil-beam communications makes mm-wave coverage heavily reliant on either line-of-sight (LOS) or strong non-LOS (NLOS) links, where the distinct link opportunities become sparse, both in numbers and angular reach [3]. Novel beam management approaches are thus required for addressing the challenge of high and robust coverage for future mm-wave mobile networks.

References

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