Uncoordinated Spectrum Sharing in Millimeter Wave Networks Using Carrier Sensing

TL;DR

This paper introduces enhanced carrier sensing protocols for uncoordinated spectrum sharing in millimeter-wave networks, analyzing their impact on coverage probability using stochastic geometry, and finds that CS improves coverage at high SINR but not at low SINR.

Contribution

It is the first to analyze carrier sensing in shared mmWave networks with multiple operators and base station sharing, providing a stochastic geometry framework for coverage analysis.

Findings

Enhanced CS improves coverage at high SINR levels.

No CS performs better at low SINR levels.

Proposed protocols outperform no CS in certain conditions.

Abstract

We propose using Carrier Sensing (CS) for distributed interference management in millimeter-wave (mmWave) cellular networks where spectrum is shared by multiple operators that do not coordinate among themselves. In addition, even the base station sites can be shared by the operators. We describe important challenges in using traditional CS in this setting and propose enhanced CS protocols to address these challenges. Using stochastic geometry, we develop a general framework for downlink coverage probability analysis of our shared mmWave network in the presence of CS and derive the downlink coverage probability expressions for several CS protocols. To the best of our knowledge, our work is the first to investigate and analyze (using stochastic geometry) CS for mmWave networks with spectrum and BS sites shared among non-coordinating operators. We evaluate the downlink coverage probability of our shared mmWave network using simulations as well as numerical examples based on our analysis. Our evaluations show that our proposed enhancements lead to an improvement in downlink coverage probability, compared to the downlink coverage probability with no CS, for higher values of signal-to-interference and noise ratio (SINR). Interestingly, our evaluations also reveal that for lower values of SINR, not using any CS is the best strategy in terms of the downlink coverage probability.