2,931 research outputs found
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
Robust Location-Aided Beam Alignment in Millimeter Wave Massive MIMO
Location-aided beam alignment has been proposed recently as a potential
approach for fast link establishment in millimeter wave (mmWave) massive MIMO
(mMIMO) communications. However, due to mobility and other imperfections in the
estimation process, the spatial information obtained at the base station (BS)
and the user (UE) is likely to be noisy, degrading beam alignment performance.
In this paper, we introduce a robust beam alignment framework in order to
exhibit resilience with respect to this problem. We first recast beam alignment
as a decentralized coordination problem where BS and UE seek coordination on
the basis of correlated yet individual position information. We formulate the
optimum beam alignment solution as the solution of a Bayesian team decision
problem. We then propose a suite of algorithms to approach optimality with
reduced complexity. The effectiveness of the robust beam alignment procedure,
compared with classical designs, is then verified on simulation settings with
varying location information accuracies.Comment: 24 pages, 7 figures. The short version of this paper has been
accepted to IEEE Globecom 201
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