Accounting for Blockage and Shadowing at 60-GHz mmWave Mesh Networks: Interference Matters

Abstract

This paper focuses on performance analysis of millimeter wave (mmWave) communications. We investigate how the interference behaves in the outdoor mesh network operating at 60-GHz when blockage and shadowing are present, using probability of collision as a metric, under both protocol model and physical model. In contrast with reported results in mmWave mesh network at 60-GHz advocating that the interference has only a marginal effect, our results show that for a short-range link of 100 m, the collision probability gets considerably large (beyond 0.1) at signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) of interest. Compensation or compromise should be made in order to maintain a low probability of collision, either by reducing transmitter node density which is at the cost of network connectivity, or by switching to a compact linear antenna array with more flat-top elements, which places a more stringent requirement in device integration techniques.