Broadband Millimeter-Wave Propagation Measurements and Models Using Adaptive-Beam Antennas for Outdoor Urban Cellular Communications

The spectrum crunch currently experienced by mobile cellular carriers makes the underutilized millimeter-wave frequency spectrum a sensible choice for next-generation cellular communications, particularly when considering the recent advances in low cost sub-terahertz/millimeter-wave complementary metal–oxide semiconductor circuitry. To date, however, little is known on how to design or deploy practical millimeter-wave cellular systems. In this paper, measurements for outdoor cellular channels at 38 GHz were made in an urban environment with a broadband (800-MHz RF passband bandwidth) sliding correlator channel sounder. Extensive angle of arrival, path loss, and multipath time delay spread measurements were conducted for steerable beam antennas of differing gains and beamwidths for a wide variety of transmitter and receiver locations. Coverage outages and the likelihood of outage with steerable antennas were also measured to determine how random receiver locations with differing antenna gains and link budgets could perform in future cellular systems. This paper provides measurements and models that may be used to design future fifth-generation millimeter-wave cellular networks and gives insight into antenna beam steering algorithms for these systems.

[1]  J. P. McGeehan,et al.  A spectrum efficient cellular base-station antenna architecture , 1992, IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium 1992 Digest.

[2]  Theodore S. Rappaport,et al.  Millimeter-Wave 60 GHz Outdoor and Vehicle AOA Propagation Measurements Using a Broadband Channel Sounder , 2011, 2011 IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference - GLOBECOM 2011.

[3]  Chiu Ngo,et al.  A practical SDMA protocol for 60 GHz millimeter wave communications , 2008, 2008 42nd Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems and Computers.

[4]  Theodore S. Rappaport,et al.  Analysis of CDMA cellular radio systems employing adaptive antennas in multipath environments , 1996, Proceedings of Vehicular Technology Conference - VTC.

[5]  Theodore S. Rappaport,et al.  Measurements and models for 38-GHz point-to-multipoint radiowave propagation , 2000, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications.

[6]  T.S. Rappaport,et al.  Radio-wave propagation for emerging wireless personal-communication systems , 1994, IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine.

[7]  S. Y. Seidel,et al.  Propagation measurements at 28 GHz to investigate the performance of local multipoint distribution service (LMDS) , 1995, Proceedings of GLOBECOM '95.

[8]  Sridhar Rajagopal,et al.  Antenna Array Design for Multi-Gbps mmWave Mobile Broadband Communication , 2011, 2011 IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference - GLOBECOM 2011.

[9]  Harry R. Anderson,et al.  Fixed Broadband Wireless System Design: Anderson/Fixed , 2003 .

[10]  Theodore S. Rappaport,et al.  Cellular broadband millimeter wave propagation and angle of arrival for adaptive beam steering systems (invited paper) , 2012, 2012 IEEE Radio and Wireless Symposium.

[11]  Theodore S. Rappaport,et al.  An advanced 3D ray launching method for wireless propagation prediction , 1997, 1997 IEEE 47th Vehicular Technology Conference. Technology in Motion.

[12]  Theodore S. Rappaport,et al.  A 38 GHz cellular outage study for an urban outdoor campus environment , 2012, 2012 IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC).

[13]  Z. Qing-ling,et al.  Rain Attenuation in Millimeter Wave Ranges , 2006, 2006 7th International Symposium on Antennas, Propagation & EM Theory.

[14]  P. B. Papazian,et al.  Study of the local multipoint distribution service radio channel , 1997, IEEE Trans. Broadcast..

[15]  Theodore S. Rappaport,et al.  Effects of multipath angular spread on the spatial cross-correlation of received voltage envelopes , 1999, 1999 IEEE 49th Vehicular Technology Conference (Cat. No.99CH36363).

[16]  A. Plattner,et al.  Indoor and outdoor propagation measurements at 5 and 60 GHz for radio LAN application , 1993, 1993 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium Digest.

[17]  Theodore S. Rappaport,et al.  Wireless communications - principles and practice , 1996 .

[18]  Theodore S. Rappaport,et al.  38 GHz and 60 GHz angle-dependent propagation for cellular & peer-to-peer wireless communications , 2012, 2012 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC).

[19]  Michael Yan Wah Chia,et al.  Propagation measurements and modeling of LMDS radio channel in Singapore , 2003, IEEE Trans. Veh. Technol..

[20]  S Saeidi,et al.  IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation , 2018, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[21]  David L. Jones.  Vegetation Loss Measurements at 9.6, 28.8, 57.6, and 96.1 GHz Through a Conifer Orchard in Washington State , 1989 .

[22]  R. Humpleman,et al.  Investigation of attenuation by rainfall at 60 GHz , 1978 .

[23]  T.M. Gallagher,et al.  Rough surface scattering from exterior walls at 28 GHz , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[24]  Zhouyue Pi,et al.  An introduction to millimeter-wave mobile broadband systems , 2011, IEEE Communications Magazine.

[25]  Harry R. Anderson,et al.  Fixed Broadband Wireless System Design , 2003 .

[26]  S. T..  Basic relationship between multipath angular spread and narrowband fading in wireless channels , 2004 .

[27]  Theodore S. Rappaport,et al.  Path loss, delay spread, and outage models as functions of antenna height for microcellular system design , 1994 .

[28]  Theodore S. Rappaport,et al.  In-building wideband partition loss measurements at 2.5 and 60 GHz , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications.

[29]  Theodore S. Rappaport,et al.  Wireless Communications: Principles and Practice (2nd Edition) by , 2012 .

[30]  Akihiro Kajiwara,et al.  LMDS radio channel obstructed by foliage , 2000, 2000 IEEE International Conference on Communications. ICC 2000. Global Convergence Through Communications. Conference Record.

[31]  Shiwen Mao,et al.  Multi-User Operation in mmWave Wireless Networks , 2011, 2011 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC).

[32]  E. Violette,et al.  Millimeter-wave propagation at street level in an urban environment , 1988 .

[33]  E. Violette.  Millimeter–Wave Urban and Suburban Propagation Measurements Using Narrow and Wide Bandwidth Channel Probes , 1985 .

[34]  Theodore S. Rappaport,et al.  State of the Art in 60-GHz Integrated Circuits and Systems for Wireless Communications , 2011, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[35]  Chin-Sean Sum,et al.  A Scalable Heuristic Scheduling Strategy for 60GHz WPAN STDMA System with Directional Antennas , 2010, 2010 IEEE International Conference on Communications.