TY - JOUR
T1 - Design aspects of short-range millimeter-wave networks
T2 - A MAC layer perspective
AU - Shokri-Ghadikolaei, Hossein
AU - Fischione, Carlo
AU - Popovski, Petar
AU - Zorzi, Michele
PY - 2016/5/1
Y1 - 2016/5/1
N2 - Increased density of wireless devices, ever growing demands for extremely high data rate, and spectrum scarcity at microwave bands make the millimeter-wave frequencies an important player in future wireless networks. However, millimeter-wave communication systems exhibit severe attenuation, blockage, and deafness, and may need microwave networks for coordination and fall-back support. To compensate for high attenuation, mmWave systems exploit highly directional operation, which in turn substantially reduces the interference footprint. The significant differences between millimeter-wave networks and legacy communication technologies challenge the classical design approaches, especially at the MAC layer, which has received comparatively less attention than PHY and propagation issues in the literature so far. In this article, the MAC layer design aspects of short-range millimeter- wave networks are discussed. In particular, we explain why current mmWave standards fail to fully exploit the potential advantages of short-range mmWave technology, and argue for the necessity of new collision-aware hybrid resource allocation frameworks with on-demand control messages, the advantages of a collision notification message, and the potential of multihop communication to provide reliable mmWave connections.
AB - Increased density of wireless devices, ever growing demands for extremely high data rate, and spectrum scarcity at microwave bands make the millimeter-wave frequencies an important player in future wireless networks. However, millimeter-wave communication systems exhibit severe attenuation, blockage, and deafness, and may need microwave networks for coordination and fall-back support. To compensate for high attenuation, mmWave systems exploit highly directional operation, which in turn substantially reduces the interference footprint. The significant differences between millimeter-wave networks and legacy communication technologies challenge the classical design approaches, especially at the MAC layer, which has received comparatively less attention than PHY and propagation issues in the literature so far. In this article, the MAC layer design aspects of short-range millimeter- wave networks are discussed. In particular, we explain why current mmWave standards fail to fully exploit the potential advantages of short-range mmWave technology, and argue for the necessity of new collision-aware hybrid resource allocation frameworks with on-demand control messages, the advantages of a collision notification message, and the potential of multihop communication to provide reliable mmWave connections.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84973127045&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/MNET.2016.7474349
DO - 10.1109/MNET.2016.7474349
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:84973127045
SN - 0890-8044
VL - 30
SP - 88
EP - 96
JO - IEEE Network
JF - IEEE Network
IS - 3
M1 - 7474349
ER -