On Bounds of Spectral Efficiency of Optimally Beamformed NLOS Millimeter Wave Links

TL;DR

This paper develops a mathematical framework to evaluate the spectral efficiency of optimally beamformed NLOS mmWave links, providing bounds and insights into the impact of beam training overhead on throughput.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to bound spectral efficiency of NLOS mmWave links with optimal analog beamforming using an extended Saleh-Valenzuela model.

Findings

Bounds closely match simulation results in practical scenarios.

Optimal beamwidth maximizes link throughput considering beam training overhead.

Framework effectively models beamformed NLOS mmWave links.

Abstract

Beamforming is an indispensable feature for millimeter wave (mmWave) wireless communications in order to compensate for the severe path loss incurred due to high frequency operation. In this paper, we introduce a novel framework to evaluate the spectral efficiency (SE) of non-line-of-sight(NLOS) mmWave links with optimal analog beamforming. Optimality here implies the joint selection of antenna beams at the transmitter and receiver which simultaneously maximize the received power. We develop a mathematical framework based on the extended Saleh-Valenzuela channel model to embody the impact of optimal analog beamforming into the performance metrics for NLOS mmWave links. Practical mmWave channels are characterized by sparsity in terms of number of multi-path components; we exploit this feature to derive upper and lower bounds on SE of beamformed directional links. Simulation results reveal that the proposed approach is fairly accurate to model beamformed links in most practical operating scenarios. We also study the impact of overhead due to antenna beam training on the throughput (TP) of a link and obtain an approximate solution for optimal antenna half power beamwidth which maximizes TP.