Indoor coverage is a major challenge for 5G millimeter waves (mmWaves). In this paper, we address this problem through a novel theoretical framework that combines stochastic indoor environment modeling with advanced physical propagation simulation. This approach is particularly adapted to investigate indoor-to-indoor 5G mmWave propagation. Its system implementation, so-called iGeoStat, generates parameterized typical environments that account for the indoor spatial variations, then simulates radio propagation based on the physical interaction between electromagnetic waves and material properties. This framework is not dedicated to a particular environment, material, frequency or use case and aims to statistically understand the influence of indoor environment parameters on mmWave propagation properties, especially coverage and path loss. Its implementation raises numerous computational challenges that we solve by formulating an adapted link budget and designing new memory optimization algorithms. The first simulation results for two major 5G applications are validated with measurement data and show the efficiency of iGeoStat to simulate multiple diffusion in realistic environments, within a reasonable amount of time and memory resources. Generated output maps confirm that diffusion has a critical impact on indoor mmWave propagation and that proper physical modeling is of the utmost importance to generate relevant propagation models.
This paper presents the realization of a wireless Gigabit Ethernet communication system operating in the 60 GHz band. The system architecture uses a single carrier modulation. A differential encoded binary phase shift keying modulation and a differential demodulation scheme are adopted for the intermediate frequency blocks. The baseband blocks use Reed- Solomon RS (255, 239) coding and decoding for channel forward error correction (FEC). First results of bit error rate (BER) measurements at 875 Mbps, without channel coding, are presented for different antennas.
Indoor areas, such as offices and shopping malls, are a natural environment for initial millimeter-wave (mmWave) deployments. While we already have the technology that enables us to realize indoor mmWave deployments, there are many remaining challenges associated with system-level design and planning for such. The objective of this article is to bring together multiple strands of research to provide a comprehensive and integrated framework for the design and performance evaluation of indoor mmWave systems. The paper introduces the framework with a status update on mmWave technology, including …
This paper provides indoor reflection, scattering, transmission, and large-scale path loss measurements and models, which describe the main propagation mechanisms at millimeter wave and Terahertz frequencies. Channel properties for common building materials (drywall and clear glass) are carefully studied at 28, 73, and 140 GHz using a wideband sliding correlation based channel sounder system with rotatable narrow-beam horn antennas. Reflection coefficient is shown to linearly increase as the incident angle increases, and lower reflection loss (e.g., stronger reflections) are observed as freque…
Millimeter Wave (mm-w), especially the 60 GHz band, has been receiving much attention as a key enabler for the 5G cellular networks. Beamforming (BF) is tremendously used with mm-w transmissions to enhance the link quality and overcome the channel impairments. The current mm-w BF mechanism, proposed by the IEEE 802.11ad standard, is mainly based on exhaustive searching the best transmit (TX) and receive (RX) antenna beams. This BF mechanism requires a very high setup time, which makes it difficult to coordinate a multiple number of mm-w Access Points (APs) in mobile channel conditions as a 5G …
University of Trento（特伦托大学）；Lund University（隆德大学）；University of Padova（帕多瓦大学）
The commercial availability of low-cost millimeter wave (mmWave) communication and radar devices is starting to improve the penetration of such technologies in consumer markets, paving the way for large-scale and dense deployments in fifth-generation (5G)-and-beyond as well as 6G networks. At the same time, pervasive mmWave access will enable device localization and device-free sensing with unprecedented accuracy, especially with respect to sub-6 GHz commercial-grade devices. This paper surveys the state of the art in device-based localization and device-free sensing using mmWave communication…
Recently, applications of millimeter (mm) waves for high-speed broadband wireless local area network communication systems in indoor environment are increasingly gaining recognition as it provides gigabit-speed wireless communications with carrier-class performances over distances of a mile or more due to spectrum availability and wider bandwidth requirements. Collectively referred to as E-Band, the millimeter wave wireless technology present the potential to offer bandwidth delivery comparable to that of fiber optic, but without the financial and logistic challenges of deploying fiber. This p…
Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz（阿瓦兹沙希德·查姆兰大学）；Virginia Tech（弗吉尼亚理工大学）；Kyung Hee University（庆熙大学）；University of Oulu（奥卢大学）
In this paper, a novel framework for guaranteeing ultra-reliable millimeter wave (mmW) communications using multiple artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) is proposed. The use of multiple AI-powered RISs allows changing the propagation direction of the signals transmitted from a mmW access point (AP) thereby improving coverage particularly for non-line-of-sight (NLoS) areas. However, due to the possibility of highly stochastic blockage over mmW links, designing an intelligent controller to jointly optimize the mmW AP beam and RIS phase shifts is a daun…
Widespread adoption of indoor positioning systems based on WiFi fingerprinting is at present hindered by the large efforts required for measurements collection during the offline phase. Two approaches were recently proposed to address such issue: crowdsourcing and RSS radiomap prediction, based on either interpolation or propagation channel model fitting from a small set of measurements. RSS prediction promises better positioning accuracy when compared to crowdsourcing, but no systematic analysis of the impact of system parameters on positioning accuracy is available. This paper fills this gap…
Path-loss modelling in deep-indoor scenarios is a difficult task. On one hand, the theoretical formulae solely dependent on transmitter-receiver distance are too simple; on the other hand, discovering all significant factors affecting the loss of signal power in a given situation may often be infeasible. In this paper, we experimentally investigate the influence of deep-indoor features such as indoor depth, indoor distance and distance to the closest tunnel corridor and the effect on received power using NB-IoT. We describe a measurement campaign performed in a system of long underground tunne…
In the current development of new technologies, the world of communications is experiencing significant growth thanks to the integration of wireless communications in millimeter band. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to assess the contribution that the use of a metallic reflector panel can introduce to indoor radio coverage at 60 GHz in an NLOS (corridor) configuration. The results obtained by measurement show that the use of such a panel can lead to a significant path loss reduction up to 12 dB, which improves the reception power.
Future generations of wireless networks will offer newfangled performance via unprecedented solutions: the metasurface innovation will drive such a revolution by posing control onto the surrounding propagation environment, always portrayed as a tamper-proof black-box. The RIS technology, envisioned as the discrete version of a metasurface, can be dynamically configured to alter the propagation properties of the impinging signals by, e.g., steering the corresponding beams towards defined directions. This will unlock new application opportunities and deliver advanced end-user services. However, …
SenseRay-3D: Generalizable and Physics-Informed Framework for End-to-End Indoor Propagation Modeling
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Sheffield（电气与电子工程学院，谢菲尔德大学）；Department of Computer Science, Brunel University London（计算机科学系，布伦尔大学伦敦分校）；Ranplan Wireless Network Design Ltd.（Ranplan无线网络设计有限公司）；R&D Department, Cambridge AI+ Ltd.（剑桥AI+有限公司研发部）；R&D Department, Ranplan Wireless Network Design Ltd.（Ranplan无线网络设计有限公司研发部）
The millimeter-wave (mmWave) technology, recently standardized by IEEE 802.11ad, is emerging as an attractive alternative to the traditional 2.4/5GHz wireless systems, promising multi-Gigabit wireless throughput. However, the high attenuation and vulnerability to blockage of 60 GHz links have limited its applications (until recently) to short-range, line-of-sight, static scenarios. On the other hand, the question of whether it is feasible to build general-purpose WLANs out of mmWave radios in dynamic indoor environments with non-line-of-sight links remains largely unanswered. In this paper, th…
The terahertz (THz) band, 0.1-10 THz, has sufficient resources not only to satisfy the 5G requirements of 10 Gbit/s peak data rate but to enable a number of tempting rate-greedy applications. However, the THz band brings novel challenges, never addressed at lower frequencies. Among others, the scattering of THz waves from any object, including walls and furniture, and ultra-wideband highly-directional links lead to fundamentally new propagation and interference structures. In this article, we review the recent progress in THz propagation modeling, antenna and testbed designs, and propose a ste…
3GPP NR V2X represents the new 3GPP standard for next-generation vehicular systems which, among other innovations, supports vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) operations in the millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum to address the communication requirements of future intelligent automotive networks. While mmWaves will enable massive data rates and low latency, the propagation characteristics at very high frequencies become very challenging, thereby calling for accurate performance evaluations as a means to properly assess the performance of such systems. Along these lines, in this paper MilliCar, the new ns-…
Mobile operators are poised to leverage millimeter wave technology as 5G evolves, but despite efforts to bolster their reliability indoors and outdoors, mmWave links remain vulnerable to blockage by walls, people, and obstacles. Further, there is significant interest in bringing outdoor mmWave coverage indoors, which for similar reasons remains challenging today. This paper presents the design, hardware implementation, and experimental evaluation of mmWall, the first electronically almost-360 degree steerable metamaterial surface that operates above 24 GHz and both refracts or reflects incomin…
University of Trento（特伦托大学）；North Carolina State University（北卡罗来纳州立大学）
Millimeter wave (mmWave) localization algorithms exploit the quasi-optical propagation of mmWave signals, which yields sparse angular spectra at the receiver. Geometric approaches to angle-based localization typically require to know the map of the environment and the location of the access points. Thus, several works have resorted to automated learning in order to infer a device's location from the properties of the received mmWave signals. However, collecting training data for such models is a significant burden. In this work, we propose a shallow neural network model to localize mmWave devi…
Wireless indoor coverage and data capacity are important aspects of cellular networks. With the ever-increasing data traffic, demand for more data capacity indoors is also growing. The lower frequencies of the legacy frequency bands of macro outdoor cells manage to provide coverage inside buildings, however, new frequencies foreseen for the 5th generation (5G) of mobile communications in the millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum penetrate very poorly into buildings. Therefore, a massive densification of the network would require to deploy a large number of indoor small cells, which would lead to h…
The spectrum-rich millimeter wave (mmWave) frequencies have the potential to alleviate the spectrum crunch that the wireless and cellular operators are already experiencing. However, compared with traditional wireless communication in the sub-6 GHz bands, due to small wavelengths most objects such as human body, cause significant additional path losses (up to 20dB), which can entirely break the mmWave link. Also, mmwave links suffer from limited range of communication. In this paper, we resort to network layer solutions to demonstrate the benefits of multi-hop routing in mitigating the blockag…
Millimeter wave (mmWave) communication has attracted increasing attention as a promising technology for 5G networks. One of the key architectural features of mmWave is the use of massive antenna arrays at both the transmitter and the receiver sides. Therefore, by employing directional beamforming (BF), both mmWave base stations (MBSs) and mmWave users (MUEs) are capable of supporting multi-beam simultaneous transmissions. However, most researches have only considered a single beam, which means that they do not make full potential of mmWave. In this context, in order to improve the performance …
Ultra-low latency and high reliability communications are the two defining characteristics of Tactile Internet (TI). Nevertheless, some TI applications would also require high data-rate transfer of audio-visual information to complement the haptic data. Using Millimeter wave (mmWave) communications is an attractive choice for high datarate TI applications due to the availability of large bandwidth in the mmWave bands. Moreover, mmWave radio access is also advantageous to attain the airinterface-diversity required for high reliability in TI systems as mmWave signal propagation significantly dif…
The increasing demand for ultra-high throughput in ultra-dense networks might take a toll on 5G capacity. Moreover, with Internet-of-Things (IoT) and the growing use-cases for indoor killer-applications, it will be necessary to look beyond 5G technologies. One such promising technology is to move higher in the frequencies, such as the THz ($300$ $GHz$-$10$ $THz$) spectrum. THz has a massive number of greenfield-contiguous channels ranging from $10$ $GHz$ to $200$ $GHz$ (best case), which was not available in the traditional radio frequency (RF) or millimeter wave (mmWave) bands. Although THz h…
One major bottleneck in the practical implementation of received signal strength (RSS) based indoor localization systems is the extensive deployment efforts required to construct the radio maps through fingerprinting. In this paper, we aim to design an indoor localization scheme that can be directly employed without building a full fingerprinted radio map of the indoor environment. By accumulating the information of localized RSSs, this scheme can also simultaneously construct the radio map with limited calibration. To design this scheme, we employ a source data set that possesses the same spa…
In this paper, we study probabilistic time-of-arrival (ToA) and angle-of-arrival (AoA) joint localization in real indoor environments. To mitigate the effects of multipath propagation, the joint localization algorithm incorporates into the likelihood function Gaussian mixture models (GMM) and the Von Mises-Fisher distribution to model time bias errors and angular uncertainty, respectively. We evaluate the algorithm performance using a proprietary prototype deployed in an indoor factory environment with infrastructure receivers in each of the four corners at the ceiling of a 10 meter by 20 mete…
Waves on the Walls: Empirical Characterization of mmWave Lateral Waves for Enhanced Indoor Coverage
School of Computing, University of Nebraska–Lincoln（内布拉斯加大学林肯分校计算学院）；Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, The Pennsylvania State University（宾夕法尼亚州立大学电气与计算机工程）
The 6th generation of wireless communication (6G) is envisioned to give rise to various technologies for improving the end-to-end communication performance, where the communication is envisioned to utilize wireless signals in the millimeter wave (mmWave) frequencies and above. Among others, these technologies comprise Intelligent Reflective Surfaces (IRSs) and Mobile Relays (MRs), whose envisaged roles include mitigating the negative effects of Non-Line-of-Sight (NLoS) connectivity, in particular at mmWave and higher frequencies. The core idea behind these technologies is to use cooperative ne…
Millimeter-wave (mmWave) communication is one of the cornerstone innovations of fifth-generation (5G) wireless networks, thanks to the massive bandwidth available in these frequency bands. To correctly assess the performance of such systems, however, it is essential to have reliable channel models, based on a deep understanding of the propagation characteristics of the mmWave signal. In this respect, ray tracers can provide high accuracy, at the expense of a significant computational complexity, which limits the scalability of simulations. To address this issue, in this paper we present possib…
