Millimeter Wave LOS Coverage Enhancements with Coordinated High-Rise Access Points

TL;DR

This paper explores how deploying high-rise access points alongside traditional low-rise ones can significantly improve line-of-sight coverage in millimeter wave 5G systems, enhancing data rates and user experience.

Contribution

It introduces a coordinated deployment strategy of high-rise and low-rise access points to enhance LOS probability in mm-wave 5G networks.

Findings

High-rise APs significantly increase LOS probability.

Coordinated deployment improves coverage compared to single-height setups.

Both irregular and regular deployment models are analyzed.

Abstract

Millimetre wave (mm-wave) communication is considered as one of the most important enablers for the fifth generation communication (5G) system to support data rate of Gbps and above. In some scenarios, it is crucial to maintain a line of sight (LOS) link for users enjoying 5G immersive experiences and thus requiring very high data rate. In this paper, we investigate the LOS probability in mm-wave systems. In particular, we study the impact of access point (AP) and blockage height on the LOS probability and propose a solution to effectively enhance the LOS coverage by using high-rise APs on top of low-rise APs normally installed on street furniture, e.g., lamp poles. Two deployment options are explored: 1) irregular deployment and 2) regular deployment, where LOS probability is derived for both cases. Simulation results show that the impact of AP height on LOS probability is significant and using coordinated high-rise APs jointly deployed with low-rise APs will substantially improve the LOS probability.