Some insights into the behaviour of millimetre wave spectrum on key 5G cellular KPIs

TL;DR

This paper evaluates millimeter-wave spectrum for 5G, analyzing coverage, capacity, and mobility KPIs, revealing increased challenges at higher frequencies but also potential solutions from ongoing research.

Contribution

It introduces a simplified figure of merit for assessing 5G KPIs in millimeter-wave spectrum and provides both simulation and analytical methods for evaluation.

Findings

Coverage and capacity decrease at higher frequencies

Mobility performance is analytically characterized

Challenges in mmWave deployment are addressable

Abstract

This invited paper discusses the challenging task of assessing the millmeter-wave spectrum for the use of 5G mobile systems. 3 key KPIs related to mobile systems, coverage, capacity and mobility are individually assessed and quantified with a simplistic figure of merit (FoM). The coverage and capacity KPIs are assessed through simulations while an analytical approach is developed for mobility. The key message is that the FoM degrades with the higher as the frequencies increase in this range. This indicates that there will be more challenges in deploying millimeter wave systems in higher frequencies, but these are not insurmountable. Many of these challenges are addressed in the mmMAGIC project and possible solutions are derived.