A Survey of Millimeter-Wave Communication: Physical-Layer Technology Specifications and Enabling Transmission Technologies

Abstract

Millimeter-wave (mmWave) frequency bands, which offer abundant underutilized spectral resources, have been explored and exploited in the past several years to meet the requirements of emerging wireless services highlighted by high data rates, ultrareliability, and ultralow delivery latency. Yet, the unique characteristics of mmWave, e.g., continuous wide bandwidth, large path, and penetration losses, along with hardware constraints, call for innovative technologies for mmWave communication. Recently, an extensive amount of work on mmWave communication has been carried out by researchers and practitioners from both academia and industry, and various technologies have been developed for mmWave communication systems to fulfill the full potential of mmWave frequency bands. In this article, we present a comprehensive survey of the standardization of mmWave communication, the latest progress and outcomes of the research on mmWave communication technologies, and the emerging applications of mmWave communication. In particular, we provide a timely and in-depth summary of the state-of-the-art technology specifications of mmWave communication with an emphasis on the physical (PHY) layer. Then, we elaborate on a number of well-established or promising antenna architectures in mmWave communication systems and investigate the enabling PHY layer transmission technologies. Finally, we show some existing and emerging applications of mmWave communication and discuss the potential open research issues.