Mobile Hotspot Network System for High-Speed Railway Communications Using Millimeter Waves

Abstract

We propose a millimeter wave (MMW)-based mobile hotspot network (MHN) system for application in high-speed railways that is capable of supporting a peak backhaul link throughput of 1 Gbps per train at 400 km/h. The MHN system can be implemented in subways and high-speed trains to support passengers with smart devices and provide access to the Internet. The proposed system can overcome the inherent high path loss in MMW through system designs and high antenna gains. We present a simulation of the system performance that shows that a fixed beamforming strategy can provide high signal-to-interference-plus-noise-ratio similar to those of an adaptive beamforming strategy, with the exception of 15% of the train path in which the network can use link adaptation with low-order modulation formats or trigger a handover to maintain the connection. We also demonstrate the feasibility of the MHN system using a test bed deployed in Seoul subway line 8. The backhaul link throughput varies instantaneously between 200 Mbps and 500 Mbps depending on the SNR variations while the train is running. During the field trial, the smartphones used could make connections through offloading.