Millimeter wave (MMW) communications for fifth generation (5G) mobile networks

Abstract

Millimeter wave (MMW) communication is envisioned to satisfy the need of high data rate wireless links for next generation 5G networks in addition of addressing the spectrum scarcity and capacity limitations of current wireless systems and enable a plethora of applications in near future. However the field of MMW communication is still in its infancy because of the various technical challenges faced in its practical implementation due to the fundamentally different propagation characteristics in this frequency band. The treatment of these challenges has initiated a lot of research activities. In this paper the MMW propagation characteristics have been studied in the context of free space loss, atmospheric loss and foliage loss and the effect of these losses on the performance of the MMW communication channel has been examined through simulation studies. Further in this paper the performance evaluation of the MMW communication link for different data rates for various Line of Sight (LOS) and Non-Line of Sight (NLOS) cases in a highly dense communication network scenario and the impact of various parameters on the performance of the communication channel are analyzed.