The millimeter wave (mmWave) bands offer the possibility of orders ofmagnitude greater throughput for fifth generation (5G) cellular systems.However, since mmWave signals are highly susceptible to blockage, channelquality on any one mmWave link can be extremely intermittent. This paperimplements a novel dual connectivity protocol that enables mobile userequipment (UE) devices to maintain physical layer connections to 4G and 5Gcells simultaneously. A novel uplink control signaling system combined with alocal coordinator enables rapid path switching in the event of failures on anyone link. This paper provides the first comprehensive end-to-end evaluation ofhandover mechanisms in mmWave cellular systems. The simulation frameworkincludes detailed measurement-based channel models to realistically capturespatial dynamics of blocking events, as well as the full details of MAC, RLCand transport protocols. Compared to conventional handover mechanisms, thestudy reveals significant benefits of the proposed method under severalmetrics.
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