Consider cellular systems based in the millimeter wave (mmWave) bands, between 30 and 300 GHz, where the available bandwidths are much wider than todays cellular networks. Indeed, available spectrum at these frequencies can be easily 200 times greater than all cellular allocations today under 3 GHz. Moreover,the very small wavelengths of mmWave signals combined with advances in low-power CMOS RF circuits enable large numbers of miniaturized antennas to be placed in small dimensions. These multiple antenna systems can be used to form very high gain, electrically steerable arrays, fabricated at the base station, in the skin of a cellphone, or even within a chip. Due to the limited range of mmWave signals, the proposal envisions cellular systems based on large numbers of mmWave picocells (100 to 200m radius), each using highly directional antennas for improved range and spatial separation. Combining dramatically increased bandwidths with spatial multiplexing gains from the high-dimensional multiple antenna transmissions such mmWave picocellular systems offer the possibility of of 1000 times more capacity than current commercial networks.
This project will provide a basis for bringing mmWave technologies to a multiuser, multi-cellular setting and enable mmWave systems for wide-area networks with mobility. The enhanced throughput gains that could approach 1000x current wireless cellular network throughputs would revolutionize the wireless broadband industry and lead to improved delivery of network services to users.
Featured Group Publications
F. Gomez-Cuba, E. Erkip, S. Rangan and J.Gonzalez-Castano, “Capacity scaling of cellular networks: Impact of bandwidth, infrastructure density and number of antennas,” IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, vol. 17, no.1, pp. 652-666, January 2018.
S. Rangan, T. S. Rappaport and E. Erkip. “Millimeter Wave Cellular Networks: Potentials and Challenges,” Proceedings of the IEEE, v.102, 2014.
F. Gomez-Cuba and S. Rangan and E. Erkip. “Scaling Laws for Infrastructure Single and Multihop Wireless Networks in Wideband Regimes,” Proc. IEEE Int. Symp. Information Theory (ISIT), 2014, p. 76–80.
M. R. Akdeniz, Y. Liu, M. K. Samimi, S. Sun, S. Rangan, T. S. Rappaport, E. Erkip. “Millimeter Wave Channel Modeling and Cellular Capacity Evaluation,” IEEE JSAC Special Issue on 5G Communications, 2014.