CIF: Medium: Fundamental Properties of Millimeter Wave Networks: Signal, Interference, and Connectivity

蜂窝通信网络已经成为社会最重要和最复杂的技术之一。自2008年左右以来，移动数据使用量每年大约翻一番，相当于在十年内增长了1000倍。为了满足这种永不满足的需求，蜂窝系统需要更多的带宽。这需要更高的频率，因为10 GHz以下的闲置频谱非常少，特别是在城市地区的高峰期。在这里定义为25 GHz以上的“毫米波”(MmW)频谱中有大量使用较少的频谱。在25 GHz以上的移动数据通信中有许多基本的技术挑战，本项目的目标是探索这些基本挑战并建立新的工具来克服它们。通过为蜂窝通信网络提供一种全新的范例，开展的研究应该会对电信业和整个社会产生重大影响。除了理论上的贡献，调查人员还将通过他们众多的政府和行业合作伙伴，推行一项激进的技术过渡计划。该项目将开发新的数学和分析工具，以发现毫米波蜂窝网络的潜力。研究议程建立在这样一个信念之上，即为低频系统开发的丰富工具不足以捕捉关键的毫米波信号传播特征，特别是高方向性和阻塞性。研究被构建为三个相互关联的推力，每个推力都有几个建议的研究任务：毫米波信号强度、毫米波干扰和毫米波网络连通性。研究任务围绕跨越所有三个重点的几个技术主题统一：(1)3D建模毫米波网络，包括将开发统计阻塞模型并使用真实建筑数据验证的障碍；(2)在性能分析中考虑信号和干扰相关性，这将在毫米波中具有重要意义，因为它们的主要随机化因素是阻塞和波束对准，而不是衰落和阴影；(3)考虑和解决移动性对波束对准和网络连通性可能产生的严重影响。开发的理论将被用来设计有用的模型，并由真实的建筑数据进行参数化，以便于快速评估性能。实用的毫米波收发机的特性，如波束自适应、移动性和干扰消除，将被包括在内，并用于研究关键的设计权衡。本提案中开发的新数学框架将允许对毫米波蜂窝系统进行透明和全面的性能分析，并使新通信技术的开发和公平比较成为可能。

Cellular communication networks have become one of society's most important and complex technologies. Mobile data usage has been approximately doubling every year since about 2008, which corresponds to a 1,000 times increase over a decade. To meet this insatiable demand, much more bandwidth is required for cellular systems. This requires going to (much) higher frequencies, since there is very little unused spectrum below about 10 GHz, especially at peak times in urban areas. Significant amounts of lightly used spectrum is available in the "millimeter wave" (mmW) spectrum, defined here as being above 25 GHz. There are numerous fundamental technical challenges in mobile data communication above 25 GHz, and the goal of this project is to explore these fundamental challenges and build new tools to overcome them. The research undertaken should considerably impact the telecommunications industry and society as a whole, by enabling an entirely new paradigm for cellular communication networks. In addition to theoretical contributions, the investigators will pursue an aggressive technology transition plan through their numerous government and industry partners. This project will develop new mathematical and analysis tools that uncover the potential of mmW cellular networks. The research agenda is built on the belief that the wealth of tools developed for lower frequency systems are insufficient to capture key mmW signal propagation features, specifically high directionality and blockage. The research is structured as three inter-related thrusts, each with several proposed research tasks: mmW signal strength, mmW interference, and the mmW network connectivity. The research tasks are unified around several technical themes that cut across all three thrusts: (1) modeling mmW networks in 3D, including the obstacles for which statistical blocking models will be developed and validated with real building data; (2) accounting for signal and interference correlation in performance analysis, which will be significant in mmW due to their main randomizing factors being blocking and beam alignment rather than fading and shadowing; (3) accounting for and addressing the possibly severe effects of mobility on beam alignment and network connectivity. The developed theories will be used to devise useful models, parametrized by real building data to facilitate fast performance evaluation. Features of practical mmW transceivers like beam adaptation, mobility, and interference cancellation will be included and used to study key design tradeoffs. The new mathematical framework developed in this proposal will allow transparent and comprehensive performance analysis of mmW cellular systems, and enable the development and fair comparison of new communication techniques.