Analysis of Millimeter-Wave Multi-Hop Networks With Full-Duplex Buffered Relays

Abstract

The abundance of spectrum in the millimeter-wave (mm-wave) bands makes it an attractive alternative for future wireless communication systems. Such systems are expected to provide data transmission rates in the order of multi-gigabits per second in order to satisfy the ever-increasing demand for high rate data communication. Unfortunately, mm-wave radio is subject to severe path loss, which limits its usability for long-range outdoor communication. In this paper, we propose a multi-hop mm-wave wireless network for outdoor communication, where multiple full-duplex buffered relays are used to extend the communication range, while providing end-to-end performance guarantees to the traffic traversing the network. We provide a cumulative service process characterization for the mm-wave propagation channel with self-interference in terms of the moment generating function of its channel capacity. Then, we then use this characterization to compute probabilistic upper bounds on the overall network performance, i.e., total backlog and end-to-end delay. Furthermore, we study the effect of self-interference on the network performance and propose an optimal power allocation scheme to mitigate its impact in order to enhance network performance. Finally, we investigate the relation between relay density and network performance under a sum power constraint. We show that increasing relay density may have adverse effects on network performance, unless the self-interference can be kept sufficiently small.