Millimeter-wave Wireless LAN and its Extension toward 5G Heterogeneous Networks

TL;DR

This paper reviews millimeter-wave WLANs, highlights the importance of AP coordination for high capacity, and proposes architectures for integrating mmw WLANs into future 5G heterogeneous networks.

Contribution

It introduces two architectures for coordinated mmw WLANs and discusses their integration with 5G HetNet architectures, advancing high-capacity wireless communication.

Findings

Demonstrated the current status of mmw WLANs with a WiGig AP prototype.

Highlighted the necessity of coordinated AP transmissions for capacity enhancement.

Proposed architectures for mmw WLAN coordination and integration into 5G HetNets.

Abstract

Millimeter-wave (mmw) frequency bands, especially 60 GHz unlicensed band, are considered as a promising solution for gigabit short range wireless communication systems. IEEE standard 802.11ad, also known as WiGig, is standardized for the usage of the 60 GHz unlicensed band for wireless local area networks (WLANs). By using this mmw WLAN, multi-Gbps rate can be achieved to support bandwidth-intensive multimedia applications. Exhaustive search along with beamforming (BF) is usually used to overcome 60 GHz channel propagation loss and accomplish data transmissions in such mmw WLANs. Because of its short range transmission with a high susceptibility to path blocking, multiple number of mmw access points (APs) should be used to fully cover a typical target environment for future high capacity multi-Gbps WLANs. Therefore, coordination among mmw APs is highly needed to overcome packet collisions resulting from un-coordinated exhaustive search BF and to increase the total capacity of mmw WLANs. In this paper, we firstly give the current status of mmw WLANs with our developed WiGig AP prototype. Then, we highlight the great need for coordinated transmissions among mmw APs as a key enabler for future high capacity mmw WLANs. Two different types of coordinated mmw WLAN architecture are introduced. One is the distributed antenna type architecture to realize centralized coordination, while the other is an autonomous coordination with the assistance of legacy Wi-Fi signaling. Moreover, two heterogeneous network (HetNet) architectures are also introduced to efficiently extend the coordinated mmw WLANs to be used for future 5th Generation (5G) cellular networks.