Hybrid Spectrum Access for mmWave Networks

TL;DR

This paper investigates a hybrid spectrum access scheme for mmWave networks, combining exclusive and pooled spectrum to optimize usage and address spectrum scarcity at high frequencies.

Contribution

It introduces a novel hybrid spectrum access approach for mmWave bands, combining exclusive and pooled spectrum to improve efficiency.

Findings

Hybrid spectrum access shows promising performance benefits.

Preliminary results support further exploration of the approach.

Motivates comprehensive studies on technical and non-technical aspects.

Abstract

While spectrum at millimeter wave (mmWave) frequencies is less scarce than at traditional frequencies below 6 GHz, still it is not unlimited, in particular if we consider the requirements from other services using the same band and the need to license mmWave bands to multiple mobile operators. Therefore, an efficient spectrum access scheme is critical to harvest the maximum benefit from emerging mmWave technologies. In this paper, motivated by previous results where spectrum pooling was proved to be more feasible at high mmWave frequencies, we study the performance of a hybrid spectrum scheme where exclusive access is used at frequencies in the 20/30 GHz range while spectrum pooling/unlicensed spectrum is used at frequencies around 70 GHz. Our preliminary results show that hybrid spectrum access is a promising approach for mmWave networks, and motivate further studies to achieve a more complete understanding of both technical and non technical implications.