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Millimeter-Wave Mobile Communications for 5G: Challenges and Opportunities

Conference Paper · June 2016

DOI: 10.1109/APS.2016.7696210

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Millimeter-Wave Mobile Communications for 5G:
Challenges and Opportunities
Fatimah Al-Ogaili and Raed M.Shubair
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Khalifa University, UAE
{fatema.alogaili; raed.shubair} @kustar.ac.ae
Abstract—The bandwidth shortage experienced by wireless
communication has motivated the use of the under-utilized
millimeter-wave (mmWave) spectrum for future 5G broad-
band mobile communication networks. Successful deployment
of mmWave mobile communication systems requires sufficient
knowledge of the mmWave propagation channel. This paper
discusses the characteristics of the mmWave propagation chan-
nel, and highlights the main challenges, solutions and benefits
associated with the use of mmWaves. The paper also discusses
some open research topics that are crucial for the development
of 5G mmWave mobile communications.
Index Terms—5G, millimeter wave, massive MIMO, small cells,
cellular system.
I. I NTRODUCTION
Mobile communication is deliberated as one of the fastest
developing segment of the communications industry. The evo-
lution of wireless data applications and increasing popularity
of smart devices have led to a massive proliferation in mobile
data traffic, creating radical challenges for mobile service
providers [1]. With the advent of Internet of Things (IoT) and
realistic UHD services, it is foreseen that mobile traffic will
witness 1000 fold increase by the year 2020. This spectacular
rise calls for drastic improvement in mobile network capacity
beyond the current 3G/4G networks to the next generation of
wireless radio standards [1].
The forthcoming 5th generation (5G) is considered as an
integrative system that combines the already deployed wireless
communication systems namely, the LTE and Wi-Fi under a
brand new air interface. Basically, new network requirements
are expected to arise due to the massive growth expected in
connected devices as well as the substantial increment in the
traffic volume anticipated in the near future. Based on the
fundamental technical challenges derived from user-related
concerns, end-user Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are
utilized to suggest candidate solutions that assess radio link
requirements. These KPIs are characterized with a number
of specifications including traffic volume density, latency,
reliability, experienced end-user throughput and availability
[2]. In fact, new systems that cleverly use the evolved tech-
nologies and combine novel techniques, are the ones that form
foundations for the 5G. Specifically, the three most significant
candidate technologies which boost the performance of the 5G
cellular networks are the extensively increased bandwidth, the
massively parallel communication as well as the ultra-dense
networks [2].
Most of the existing mobile communication systems nowa-
days are deployed in sub-3GHz spectrum that is known to
1
be heavily crowded. In order to provide the required data
rates and throughput and to avoid congestion, the attention of
radio system designers has moved toward higher frequencies.
The mmWave band (30 to 300 GHz) offers a vast amount of
spectrum out of which an approximate of 100 GHz spectrum
is available for mobile communication use. Coupled with
Massive MIMO and femtocells, mmWaves can be the key
solution for future 5G mobile communication. Nevertheless,
some issues and questions must be addressed in order for such
system to become a reality [3].
This paper presents an overview of mmWave mobile com-
munication for 5G cellular systems. The rest of the paper
is organized as follows. Section II presents the millimeter
wave characteristics and propagation. The main challenges and
existing solutions are addressed in Section III. The section
also discuses open research issues and future directions to
be investigated. Finally, the conclusions are summarized in
Section V.
II. MM WAVE C HARACTERISTICS AND P ROPAGATION
Millimeter-wave (mmWave) cellular systems, that operate
in the 30-300 GHz band, seems to be an auspicious candidate
for next-generation 5G cellular system, which is expected
to support data rates of multiple Gb/s. However, employing
mmWave requires dealing with the propagation attributes and
the channel impairments of the high frequency bands. Major
impediments of mmWave propagation are higher path loss
due to higher carrier frequency, reduced scattering which in
turns reduces the available diversity, and increased effect of
blockage as a result of weaker non-line-of-sight paths. In
addition, the effect of noise power is more pronounced due
to the usage of larger bandwidths.
A. Path Loss
The free space path loss is dependent on the carrier fre-
quency fc . Increasing the carrier frequency will reduce the
antenna size. As a result the effective aperture of the antenna
scales by a factor of 4π λ2
, while the free space path loss
grows with fc 2 . Hence, increasing the carrier frequency fc
from 3 to 30 GHz, will correspondingly add a power loss of
20 dB regardless of the transmitter-receiver distance. However,
for increased frequency, keeping a constant antenna aperture
at one end of the link will prevent the free path loss from
changing. Additionally, keeping the antenna aperture constant
at both ends will surprisingly reduce the free path loss with
fc 2 [4].

TABLE I
T HE PROPAGATION CHARACTERISTICS OF MM WAVE COMMUNICATIONS IN DIFFERENT BANDS [4].
B. Blockage
Microwave signals are less vulnerable to blockages but they
fade due to diffraction. In contrast, mmWave exposes prismatic
propagation and suffers less diffraction than the microwave
signals, making them much more susceptible to blockages.
This will result in a nearly bimodal channel according to the
lack and existence of line-of-sight. Recent studies [4] show
that, with the increase in the transmitter and receiver distance
the path loss increases to 20 dB/decade under line-of-sight
propagation, but descents to 40 dB/decade plus an added
blocking loss of 15-40 dB for non-line of sight [4]. Thus, the
connection set will shift from being usable to unusable based
on the presence of blockages. This will result in a large scale
drawback that cannot be bypassed with small scale diversity
countermeasures [4].
C. Atmospheric and Rain Absorption
A major impediment to mmWave communications is at-
tenuation due to rain, foliage, and atmospheric absorption.
Atmospheric attenuation due to oxygen absorption or heavy
rain can be on the order of 10-20 dB/km. For example, within
the 60-GHz band, the absorption due to air and rain is notable,
especially the 15 dB/km oxygen absorption [2] [4]. Yet, this
problem can be avoided through the employment of small size
cells as described in section III.
Table I summarizes the propagation characteristics of
mmWave communications in different bands with respect to
the path loss exponent (PLE) under LOS and NLOS channels,
the rain attenuation at 200 m, and the oxygen absorption at
200 m. It can be noticed that the 28 GHz and 38 GHz bands
at the range of 200 m suffer from low rain attenuation and
oxygen absorption, while their effect is significant in the 60
GHz and 73 GHz bands [4]. It can be also seen that the NLOS
transmission has additional propagation loss compared with
the LOS transmission in all four categories [4].
III. E XISTING S OLUTIONS AND F UTURE D IRECTIONS
Solution to the aforementioned problems must be consid-
ered. Researchers have found that mmWave coupled with two
other symbiotic technologies, namely, Massive MIMO and
femto cells can achieve an optimal robust system.
A. Massive MIMO and Beamforming
To achieve a high signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) uniformly
throughout a cell, mmWave networks must leverage electron-
ically steerable directional antennas with high gain, meaning
that they must pre-code or beam-form data on large antenna
arrays. The small wavelength will allow array of practical
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dimension to include orders of magnitude more elements than
the current arrays. This will provide enough gain that will
overcome the path-loss and ensure high SNR output [5] [6].
B. Ultra Dense Networks (small cell deployment)
In order to overcome blockages, and coupled with the
use of adaptive steerable arrays, mmWave networks can also
be made very dense and can benefit from the current trend
moving cellular system to a more heterogeneous infrastructure
that includes small cells and relays. Small size cells known
as femto and pico cells allow higher frequency reuse rates
with range of 10-200 m. Actually, the atmospheric absorption
nature of the mmWave will efficiently increase the isolation
of each cell by further attenuating the background interference
from more distant base stations [4] [6].
Future directions suggests a more in depth study of the
Massive MIMO system in which a number of issues must
be addressed: hybrid (analogue and digital) beam-forming,
hardware components design and fabrication, software defined
architecture, control mechanism as well as heterogeneous
networking [4].
IV. C ONCLUSION
In this paper, an overview of the millimeter wave as a
promising technology for the 5G cellular system is provided.
The main propagation challenges of the mmWave are ad-
dressed and potential solutions were presented. It is concluded
that while significant challenges remain, the combination of
mmWaves, Massive MIMO and Small cells can be regarded as
a key technology solution for the 5G mobile communications.
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