Interference and Blockage Prediction in mmWave-enabled HetNets

摘要

mmWave bands have large chunks of spectrum and are promising for satisfying the unprecedented cellular traffic demands of future cellular networks. Unfortunately, the characteristic that mmWaves have high attenuation against physical objects and even atmosphere hinder its feasibility. High gain directional antennas are required to combat the attenuation. However, user mobility might change the signal direction, introduce physical objects in the line-of-sight of the signal and might block the directional signal. Additionally, user mobility might also make two directional signals to interfere with one another. The blockage and interference incidents must be handled with care. In this paper, the mmWave-enabled HetNet cells record the fingerprints of the incidents and the cells' transmission parameters. When a user is moving, and the serving cell's transmission parameters are approaching a fingerprint, the HetNet takes necessary actions to mitigate interference or avoid disconnection before it happens. Our results show that for typical indoor scenarios, most of the blockage and interference can be predicted so that countermeasures can be applied in advance.