Millimeter Wave Mobile Communications for 5G: Propagation, System Design and Performance

Recent years have seen considerable increase in activities related to 5G definition and associated research. While a number of novel use cases and services are being contemplated, there is consensus that data demand will continue to grow, putting further pressure on already congested spectrum. Millimeter-wave bands have been cited as having the potential to alleviate some of this pressure. This talk will cover the opportunities and challenges with mobile communications in the millimeter wave band for the deployments and use cases of interest. Specifically, the talk will first cover material and channel propagation measurements highlighting the contrast with sub-6GHz propagation. With those observations, a number of system design principles and associated device/component level requirements will be outlined and, where appropriate, 3GPP 5G NR support for these designs will be highlighted. Taking some of the design principles and component level considerations into account, coverage and capacity modeling results will be presented. Finally, some over-the-air test results from our prototype system at 28GHz will also be presented.