BER of IEEE 802.11ad OFDM radios vs. carrier frequency in real 60 GHz indoor channels

Multi-gigabit 60 GHz radios are expected to match QoS requirements of modern multimedia applications. Several published standards were defined based on performance evaluations over standard channel models. Unfortunately, those models, and most models available in the literature, do not take into account the behavior of 60 GHz channels at different carrier frequencies, thus no guidelines are provided for the selection of the best suitable frequency band for a given service. This paper analyzes the impact of changes in multipath profiles, due to both frequency and distance, on the BER performance achieved by IEEE 802.11ad 60 GHz radios. Our analysis is based on real experimental channel impulse responses recorded through an indoor measurement campaign in seven sub-bands from 54 to 65 GHz with a break at 60 GHz at distances from 1 to 5 m. The small-scale fading is modeled by Rician distributions with K-factors extracted from experimental data, which are shown to give good agreement with the empirical distributions. A strong dependence of performance on both frequency and distance due to the sole multipath is observed, which calls for an appropriate selection of the best suitable frequency band according to the service required by the current session over the 802.11ad link.