Three-dimensional millimetre-wave beam tracking based on smart phone sensor measurements and direction of arrival/time of arrival estimation for 5G networks

The narrow millimetre-wave beam in future 5G networks is easily interrupted by the movement of mobile handsets including both location change and self-rotation. In this study, a three-dimensional beam tracking method is proposed to achieve beam alignment between the access node and the user node (UN). A gradient descent algorithm is employed for self-rotation tracking based on measurements obtained by the three smart phone sensors (gyroscope, accelerometer and magnetometer) embedded in the micro-electro-mechanical system. An extended Kalman filtering -based location tracking algorithm is also incorporated into the design by combining the data from the direction of arrival and time of arrival estimation results of the UN since accurate UN location information is also crucial in the beam tracking process. Moreover, an operation protocol is developed to coordinate the tracking process and tested in different scenarios.