Experimental Validation of Single BS 5G mmWave Positioning and Mapping for Intelligent Transport

TL;DR

This paper experimentally validates the feasibility of single BS 5G mmWave positioning and mapping using real-world data, highlighting potential and limitations in outdoor environments.

Contribution

It provides the first practical validation of theoretical single BS positioning methods at mmWave frequencies with real 5G hardware and outdoor testing.

Findings

Positioning is feasible with a single 5G mmWave BS.

Performance is limited by infrastructure knowledge and multipath conditions.

Real outdoor data confirms theoretical potential and challenges.

Abstract

Positioning with 5G signals generally requires connection to several base stations (BSs), which makes positioning more demanding in terms of infrastructure than communications. To address this issue, there have been several theoretical studies on single BS positioning, leveraging high-resolution angle and delay estimation and multipath exploitation possibilities at mmWave frequencies. This paper presents the first realistic experimental validation of such studies, involving a commercial 5G mmWave BS and a user equipment (UE) development kit mounted on a test vehicle. We present the relevant signal models, signal processing methods (including channel parameter estimation and position estimation), and validate these based on real data collected in an outdoor science park environment. Our results indicate that positioning is possible, but the performance with a single BS is limited by the knowledge of the position and orientation of the infrastructure and the multipath visibility and diversity.