Millimeter Wave Ad Hoc Networks: Noise-limited or Interference-limited?

In millimeter wave (mmWave) communication systems, narrow beam operations overcome severe channel attenuations, reduce multiuser interference, and thus introduce the new concept of noise-limited mmWave wireless networks. The regime of the network, whether noise-limited or interference-limited, heavily reflects on the medium access control (MAC) layer throughput and on proper resource allocation and interference management strategies. Yet, alternating presence of these regimes and, more importantly, their dependence on the mmWave design parameters are ignored in the current approaches to mmWave MAC layer design, with the potential disastrous consequences on the throughput/delay performance. In this paper, tractable closed-form expressions for collision probability and MAC layer throughput of mmWave networks, operating under slotted ALOHA and TDMA, are derived. The new analysis reveals that mmWave networks may exhibit a non-negligible transitional behavior from a noise-limited regime to an interference-limited regime, depending on the density of the transmitters, density and size of obstacles, transmission probability, beamwidth, and transmit power. It is concluded that a new framework of adaptive hybrid resource allocation procedure, containing a proactive contention-based phase followed by a reactive contention-free one with dynamic phase durations, is necessary to cope with such transitional behavior.Comment: accepted in IEEE GLOBECOM'1

Resource Allocation for Device-to-Device Communications in Multi-Cell Multi-Band Heterogeneous Cellular Networks

Heterogeneous cellular networks (HCNs) with millimeter wave (mm-wave) communications are considered as a promising technology for the fifth generation mobile networks. Mm-wave has the potential to provide multiple gigabit data rate due to the broad spectrum. Unfortunately, additional free space path loss is also caused by the high carrier frequency. On the other hand, mm-wave signals are sensitive to obstacles and more vulnerable to blocking effects. To address this issue, highly directional narrow beams are utilized in mm-wave networks. Additionally, device-to-device (D2D) users make full use of their proximity and share uplink spectrum resources in HCNs to increase the spectrum efficiency and network capacity. Towards the caused complex interferences, the combination of D2D-enabled HCNs with small cells densely deployed and mm-wave communications poses a big challenge to the resource allocation problems. In this paper, we formulate the optimization problem of D2D communication spectrum resource allocation among multiple micro-wave bands and multiple mm-wave bands in HCNs. Then, considering the totally different propagation conditions on the two bands, a heuristic algorithm is proposed to maximize the system transmission rate and approximate the solutions with sufficient accuracies. Compared with other practical schemes, we carry out extensive simulations with different system parameters, and demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed scheme. In addition, the optimality and complexity are simulated to further verify effectiveness and efficiency.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technolog

Resource Allocation for Device-to-Device Communications Underlaying Heterogeneous Cellular Networks Using Coalitional Games

Heterogeneous cellular networks (HCNs) with millimeter wave (mmWave) communications included are emerging as a promising candidate for the fifth generation mobile network. With highly directional antenna arrays, mmWave links are able to provide several-Gbps transmission rate. However, mmWave links are easily blocked without line of sight. On the other hand, D2D communications have been proposed to support many content based applications, and need to share resources with users in HCNs to improve spectral reuse and enhance system capacity. Consequently, an efficient resource allocation scheme for D2D pairs among both mmWave and the cellular carrier band is needed. In this paper, we first formulate the problem of the resource allocation among mmWave and the cellular band for multiple D2D pairs from the view point of game theory. Then, with the characteristics of cellular and mmWave communications considered, we propose a coalition formation game to maximize the system sum rate in statistical average sense. We also theoretically prove that our proposed game converges to a Nash-stable equilibrium and further reaches the near-optimal solution with fast convergence rate. Through extensive simulations under various system parameters, we demonstrate the superior performance of our scheme in terms of the system sum rate compared with several other practical schemes.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figure

Millimeter Wave Cellular Networks: A MAC Layer Perspective

The millimeter wave (mmWave) frequency band is seen as a key enabler of multi-gigabit wireless access in future cellular networks. In order to overcome the propagation challenges, mmWave systems use a large number of antenna elements both at the base station and at the user equipment, which lead to high directivity gains, fully-directional communications, and possible noise-limited operations. The fundamental differences between mmWave networks and traditional ones challenge the classical design constraints, objectives, and available degrees of freedom. This paper addresses the implications that highly directional communication has on the design of an efficient medium access control (MAC) layer. The paper discusses key MAC layer issues, such as synchronization, random access, handover, channelization, interference management, scheduling, and association. The paper provides an integrated view on MAC layer issues for cellular networks, identifies new challenges and tradeoffs, and provides novel insights and solution approaches.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables, to appear in IEEE Transactions on Communication

Exploiting Device-to-Device Communications to Enhance Spatial Reuse for Popular Content Downloading in Directional mmWave Small Cells

With the explosive growth of mobile demand, small cells in millimeter wave (mmWave) bands underlying the macrocell networks have attracted intense interest from both academia and industry. MmWave communications in the 60 GHz band are able to utilize the huge unlicensed bandwidth to provide multiple Gbps transmission rates. In this case, device-to-device (D2D) communications in mmWave bands should be fully exploited due to no interference with the macrocell networks and higher achievable transmission rates. In addition, due to less interference by directional transmission, multiple links including D2D links can be scheduled for concurrent transmissions (spatial reuse). With the popularity of content-based mobile applications, popular content downloading in the small cells needs to be optimized to improve network performance and enhance user experience. In this paper, we develop an efficient scheduling scheme for popular content downloading in mmWave small cells, termed PCDS (popular content downloading scheduling), where both D2D communications in close proximity and concurrent transmissions are exploited to improve transmission efficiency. In PCDS, a transmission path selection algorithm is designed to establish multi-hop transmission paths for users, aiming at better utilization of D2D communications and concurrent transmissions. After transmission path selection, a concurrent transmission scheduling algorithm is designed to maximize the spatial reuse gain. Through extensive simulations under various traffic patterns, we demonstrate PCDS achieves near-optimal performance in terms of delay and throughput, and also superior performance compared with other existing protocols, especially under heavy load.Comment: 12 pages, to appear in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technolog

MAC Aspects of Millimeter-Wave Cellular Networks

The current demands for extremely high data rate wireless services and the spectrum scarcity at the sub-6 GHz bands are forcefully motivating the use of the millimeter-wave (mmWave) frequencies. MmWave communications are characterized by severe attenuation, sparse-scattering environment, large bandwidth, high penetration loss, beamforming with massive antenna arrays, and possible noise-limited operation. These characteristics imply a major difference with respect to legacy communication technologies, primarily designed for the sub-6 GHz bands, and are posing major design challenges on medium access control (MAC) layer. This book chapter discusses key MAC layer issues at the initial access and mobility management (e.g., synchronization, random access, and handover) as well as resource allocation (interference management, scheduling, and association). The chapter provides an integrated view on MAC layer issues for cellular networks and reviews the main challenges and trade-offs and the state-of-the-art proposals to address them