Design Aspects of Short Range Millimeter Wave Networks: A MAC Layer Perspective

TL;DR

This paper discusses the unique MAC layer challenges and design considerations for short-range millimeter wave networks, emphasizing the need for collision-aware resource allocation and multihop communication to enhance reliability.

Contribution

It highlights the limitations of current standards and proposes new collision-aware hybrid resource allocation frameworks and multihop strategies for mmWave MAC layer design.

Findings

Current standards do not fully exploit mmWave advantages

Collision notification messages improve network performance

Multihop communication enhances reliability in mmWave networks

Abstract

Increased density of wireless devices, ever growing demands for extremely high data rate, and spectrum scarcity at microwave bands make the millimeter wave (mmWave) frequencies an important player in future wireless networks. However, mmWave communication systems exhibit severe attenuation, blockage, deafness, and may need microwave networks for coordination and fall-back support. To compensate for high attenuation, mmWave systems exploit highly directional operation, which in turn substantially reduces the interference footprint. The significant differences between mmWave networks and legacy communication technologies challenge the classical design approaches, especially at the medium access control (MAC) layer, which has received comparatively less attention than PHY and propagation issues in the literature so far. In this paper, the MAC layer design aspects of short range mmWave networks are discussed. In particular, we explain why current mmWave standards fail to fully exploit the potential advantages of short range mmWave technology, and argue for the necessity of new collision-aware hybrid resource allocation frameworks with on-demand control messages, the advantages of a collision notification message, and the potential of multihop communication to provide reliable mmWave connections.