mmWave Wireless Personal Area Networks Research Articles

Blockage Aware Fair Scheduling with Differentiated Service Support in mmWave WPANs/WLANs

Millimeter Wave (mmWave) communications are evolving as a potential and promising technology to address the ever increasing mobile data rate requirements. This paper addresses fair scheduling in directional antenna based mmWave wireless personal and local area networks with non-uniform traffic demand. Due to their small wavelength, mmWave signals are susceptible to blockage. The proposed fair schedulers handle the link blockage problem through relaying, and are capable of providing end-to-end fair bandwidth allocation to relay flows. To achieve differentiated and fair service allocation to various regions of the network while using only limited flow related information, a service tag based scheduler is proposed in this paper. Then, the performance bounds on the minimum throughput and unfairness of this scheduler are obtained. To approximate the performance of the service tag based scheduler while minimizing the control overhead, a heuristic fair scheduler is also proposed. Results from extensive simulations conducted in a mmWave WPAN deployed to support high data rate applications show the performance advantages of the proposed schedulers, compared to existing fair schedulers, in terms of throughput and fairness.

High-Speed Concurrent Transmission Scheme for Full Duplex Multi-Hop Relay Assisted mmWave WPAN Networks

In this paper, we aim to boost the spacial utilization for the millimeter wave (mmWave) based wireless personal area network (WPAN) by developing a high-speed concurrent transmission (HSCT) scheme using full-duplexed multi-hop relay. We approach this task by two phases, i.e., the routing-path developing and multi-flow scheduling phases, respectively. In the first phase, we develop the routing path by taking the multiple high-rate hops into consideration. With the aid of full-duplex relay, using multiple high-rate hops can possibly be more efficient than the low-rate direct transmission. In the second phase, overlapping the scheduling round (SR) can more effectively utilize the full-duplex relay. Conventionally, the SR are arranged in the bumper-to-bumper fashion. Whereas, overlapping the SR can fully utilize the unoccupied time slots. Moreover, to maintain the transmission rate for the paths via multiple high-rate hops, the scheduling algorithm properly arranges concurrent transmissions to avoid intolerable amount of interference. Additionally, the variant prioritized flows are taken into account for designing the routing-path developing and multi-flow scheduling algorithms. The simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed HSCT scheme.

SINR-based scheduling in multi-path multi-hop multi-radio multi-channel mmWave WPANs

Millimeter wave (mmWave) communications is a prospective candidate technology for multi-gigabit rates multimedia applications. To combat the severe propagation attenuation of mmWave, the high gain directional antenna is commonly employed at the nodes. Moreover, exploiting multiple radios over multiple channels is also a promising technology to improve the throughput and delay performance of mmWave communications. In this paper, considering the signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) constraint, we develop a multi-path multi-hop multi-radio multi-channel (MPMH-MRMC) concurrent transmission scheduling algorithm to fully exploit spatial reuse in mmWave wireless personal area networks (WPANs). The problem of MPMH-MRMC scheduling is formulated as a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) to clear all the flows within a minimum number of time slots, which is generally NP-hard. We further propose a heuristic MPMH-MRMC scheme with low computational complexity to solve the problem. Finally, through extensive simulations, we demonstrate that MPMH-MRMC can significantly improve the network performance in terms of network throughput and transmission delay under various traffic patterns.

Boosting Spatial Reuse via Multiple-Path Multihop Scheduling for Directional mmWave WPANs

With huge unlicensed bandwidth available in most parts of the world, millimeter wave (mmWave) communications in the 60 GHz band has been considered as one of the most promising candidates to support multi-gigabit wireless services. Due to high propagation loss of mmWave channels, beamforming is likely to become adopted as an essential technique. Consequently, transmission in 60 GHz band is inherently directional. Directivity enables concurrent transmissions (spatial reuse), which can be fully exploited to improve network capacity. In this paper, we propose a multiple paths multi-hop scheduling scheme, termed MPMH, for mmWave wireless personal area networks, where the traffic across links of low channel quality is transmitted through multiple paths of multiple hops to unleash the potential of spatial reuse. We formulate the problem of multiple paths multi-hop scheduling as a mixed integer linear program (MILP), which is generally NP-hard. To enable the implementation of the multiple paths multi-hop transmission in practice, we propose a heuristic scheme including path selection, traffic distribution, and multiple paths multi-hop scheduling to efficiently solve the formulated problem. Finally, through extensive simulations, we demonstrate MPMH achieves near-optimal network performance in terms of transmission delay and throughput, and enhances the network performance significantly compared with existing protocols.

Toward Robust Relay Placement in 60 GHz mmWave Wireless Personal Area Networks with Directional Antenna

Multimedia streaming applications with stringent QoS requirements in 60 GHz mmWave wireless personal area networks (WPANs) demand high rate and low latency data transfer as well as little service disruption. In this paper, we consider the problem of robust relay placement in 60 GHz WPANs with directional antenna. Relays forward traffic from transmitter devices to receiver devices facilitating i) the primary communication path for non-line-of-sight (NLOS) transceiver pairs, and ii) secondary (backup) communication path for line-of-sight (LOS) or NLOS transceiver pairs. By incorporating a classic directional antenna model and characterizing the link contention, we formulate the robust minimum relay placement problem and the robust maximum utility relay placement problem with the objective to minimize the number of relays deployed and maximize the network utility, respectively. Efficient algorithms are developed to solve both problems and have been shown to incur less service disruption in presence of moving subjects that may block the LOS paths in the environment.

Blockage Robust and Efficient Scheduling for Directional mmWave WPANs

With the increase in emerging bandwidth-intensive applications, millimeter-wave (mmWave) communications in 60-GHz band have become a hot topic. There are two unique features that sharply distinguish mmWave wireless personal area networks (WPANs) from other networks using lower carrier frequencies. First, mmWave links use high-gain directional antennas to overcome the high propagation loss. Second, mmWave links are easily blocked by the human body and furniture. In this paper, we develop a blockage robust and efficient directional medium access control (MAC) protocol (BRDMAC), which overcomes the blockage problem by relaying. Relay selection and spatial reuse are jointly optimized to improve network performance. In BRDMAC, relay selection and transmission scheduling algorithms are proposed to compute near-optimal relay selection to maximize spatial reuse and compute near-optimal schedules with respect to the total transmission time, respectively. Finally, extensive simulation results show that BRDMAC performs better in terms of delay and throughput, compared with other existing protocols while attaining a good fairness performance.

Capacity Enhancement in 60 GHz Based D2D Networks by Relay Selection and Scheduling

Millimeter-wave or 60 GHz communication is a promising technology that enables data rates in multigigabits. However, its tremendous propagation loss and signal blockage may severely affect the network throughput. In current data-centric device-to-device (D2D) communication networks, the devices with intended data communications usually lay in close proximity, unlike the case in voice-centric networks. So the network can be visualized as a naturally formed groups of devices. In this paper, we jointly consider resource scheduling and relay selection to improve network capacity in 60 GHz based D2D networks. Two types of transmission scenarios are considered in wireless personal area networks (WPANs), intra and intergroup. A distributed receiver based relay selection scheme is proposed for intragroup transmission, while a distance based relay selection scheme is proposed for intergroup transmission. The outage analysis of our proposed relay selection scheme is provided along with the numerical results. We then propose a concurrent transmission scheduling algorithm based on vertex coloring technique. The proposed scheduling algorithm employs time and space division in mmWave WPANs. Using vertex multicoloring, we allow transmitter-receiver (Tx-Rx) communication pairs to span over more colors, enabling better time slot utilization. We evaluate our scheduling algorithm in single-hop and multihop scenarios and discover that it outperforms other schemes by significantly improving network throughput.

A two stage approach for channel transmission rate aware scheduling in directional mmWave WPANs

AbstractMillimeter wave (mmWave) communications in 60 GHz band have become a hot topic in wireless communications. New medium access control (MAC) protocols are needed because of the fundamental differences between mmWave communications and existing other communication systems. In mmWave wireless personal area networks, the channel transmission rates of links vary significantly because of the difference in the distance between nodes, the accuracy of beamforming, and the existence of obstructions. Owning to the directivity of mmWave links, spatial reuse should be exploited to improve network capacity. In this paper, we develop a channel transmission rate aware directional MAC protocol, termed RDMAC, in which both the multirate capability of links and spatial reuse are exploited to improve network performance. RDMAC has two stages. The first stage measures the channel transmission rates of links, and a heuristic algorithm is proposed to compute near‐optimal measurement schedules with respect to the total number of measurements. The second stage accommodates the traffic demand of links, and a heuristic transmission scheduling algorithm is proposed to compute near‐optimal transmission schedules with respect to the total transmission time. Simulations under various traffic modes show that compared with existing protocols, RDMAC has lower network latency, higher network throughput, and also a good fairness performance. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Analysis of directional neighbour discovery process in millimetre wave wireless personal area networks

The millimetre wave (mmWave) band offers the potential for multi-gigabit indoor wireless personal area networks (WPANs). However, it has problems such as a short wavelength. To compensate, utilisation of directional antennas at the physical layer is recommended. For communications using this band, neighbour discovery using directional antennas (D-ND) is one of the crucial steps. In this study, the D-ND process is analysed mathematically for mmWave WPANs based on the concept of an exclusive region, and the values that are derived from the effect of using directional antennas. Maximising the neighbour discovery probability for a given amount of time is considered as an objective function. Performance measures are derived in closed forms, such as the probability of discovering a device for one self-advertising packet and the power-efficient sojourn time of a device in one direction. Numerical results are obtained using parameters based on the IEEE 802.15.3c standard. The results show that the efficiency of the D-ND depends not only on how often devices transmit a self-advertising packet, but also on antenna properties such as beamwidth. The mathematical analysis provides a theoretical basis for the D-ND process, and the obtained results illustrate the physical layer impact on neighbour discovery.

Analysis of Resource Assignment for Directional Multihop Communications in mm-Wave WPANs

This paper presents an analysis of resource assignment for multihop communications in millimeter-wave (mmwave) wireless personal area networks. The purpose of this paper is to figure out the effect of using directional antennas and relaying devices (DEVs) in communications. The analysis is performed based on a grouping algorithm, categorization of the flows, and the relaying DEV selection policy. Three schemes are compared: direct and relaying concurrent transmission (DRCT), direct concurrent transmission (DCT), and direct nonconcurrent transmission (DNCT). Numerical results show that DRCT is better than DCT and DCT is better than DNCT for any antenna beamwidths under the proposed algorithm and policy. The results also show that using relaying DEVs increases the throughput up to 30% and that there is an optimal beamwidth that maximizes spatial reuse and depends on parameters such as the number of flows in the networks. This analysis can provide guidelines for improving the performance of mm-wave band communications with relaying DEVs.

An improved exclusive region scheduling algorithm‐based timeslot allocation scheme for mmWave WPANs

ABSTRACTThis article focuses on improving the system capacity of 60‐GHz wireless personal area networks (WPANs) and presents an effective time slot allocation scheme for spatial reuse, which combines the existing exclusive region (ER)‐based scheduling algorithm with simple power control. In the study, the concept of ER for concurrent transmissions is introduced first. Considering the large path loss in the millimeter‐wave band and the characteristics of typical indoor multipath channels, we generalize the signal propagation model as well as ER radius for 60‐GHz WPANs. Then, we propose an improved ER‐based scheduling algorithm, which employs power control instead of constant transmitting power. In this algorithm, devices are assumed to receive data at the receiver sensitivity, which refers to the minimum receiving power to ensure the reliability for communications. Implementation feasibility is provided within the current standards framework. Some more practical analysis based on the beamforming codebook specified by of the IEEE 802.15.3c standard is also developed. In addition, the impact of the antenna radiation efficiency and receiver sensitivity is discussed. Computer simulations validate the excellent performance of the proposed scheme, which can significantly improve the channel capacity under different antenna configurations. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Analysis of Directional Communication via Relaying Devices in mmWave WPANs

This letter analyzes the communication success probability of two randomly selected devices in mmWave wireless personal area networks (WPANs). Devices are randomly distributed in a piconet, each device is equipped with a directional antenna, and the antenna direction of each device is randomly chosen and fixed during the communication. The communication of the selected pair can be performed either directly or via relaying devices. In the analysis, the probability density function of the distance for devices is used and transmissions with ideal antenna and practical antenna are considered. Numerical results show an optimal beamwidth enables efficient spatial reuse to maximize the successful communication probability of a pair of devices. It also shows that the communication of a pair of devices is difficult when the directions of antennas of devices are fixed and the transmission through sidelobe of a transmitter gives a good effect in some circumstances. The obtained results will provide a criterion for the practical design of mmWave network systems, for implementing appliances using high data rate, and for developing the technology of mmWave band.

Performance Analysis of Directional CSMA/CA for IEEE 802.15.3c under Saturation Environments

In this paper, the directional carrier sense multiple access/collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) protocol in the immediate acknowledgement mode for IEEE 802.15.3c is analyzed under saturation environments. For the analysis, a sensing region and an exclusive region with a directional antenna are computed probabilistically and a Markov chain model in which the features of IEEE 802.15.3c and the effects of using directional antennas are incorporated is analyzed. An algorithm to find the maximal number of concurrently transmittable frames is proposed. The system throughput and the average transmission delay are obtained in closed forms. The numerical results show the impact of directional antennas on the CSMA/CA media access control (MAC) protocol. For instance, the throughput with a small beamwidth of antenna is more than ten times larger than that for an omnidirectional antenna. The overall analysis is verified by a simulation. The obtained results will be helpful in developing an MAC protocol for enhancing the performance of mmWave wireless personal area networks.

Performance Analysis of Directional CSMA/CA for IEEE 802.15.3c under Saturation Environments

In this paper, the directional carrier sense multiple access/collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) protocol in the immediate acknowledgement mode for IEEE 802.15.3c is analyzed under saturation environments. For the analysis, a sensing region and an exclusive region with a directional antenna are computed probabilistically and a Markov chain model in which the features of IEEE 802.15.3c and the effects of using directional antennas are incorporated is analyzed. An algorithm to find the maximal number of concurrently transmittable frames is proposed. The system throughput and the average transmission delay are obtained in closed forms. The numerical results show the impact of directional antennas on the CSMA/CA media access control (MAC) protocol. For instance, the throughput with a small beamwidth of antenna is more than ten times larger than that for an omnidirectional antenna. The overall analysis is verified by a simulation. The obtained results will be helpful in developing an MAC protocol for enhancing the performance of mmWave wireless personal area networks.

An Adaptive Allocation Algorithm Using Directional CSMA/CA over mmWave Wireless Personal Area Networks

Directional antennas have the considerable benefits of higher antenna gain, long transmission distance and spatial reuse compared to omni-antennas. To support a directional antenna, IEEE 802.15.3c specifies a high data transmission rate and short frequency range communication based on the characteristics of 60GHz band. However, the contention-based protocol of IEEE 802.15.3c may cause channel collisions and throughput degradation as the number of stations in the network increases. In order to resolve this problem and reduce channel access latency, we propose an adaptive allocation algorithm in which the contention window size for optimal transmission probability is derived after the directional information has been obtained by means of AP control procedures. Extensive simulations demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms the existing channel access scheme in IEEE 802.15.3c wireless personal area networks under different situations, especially when the number of contending stations is large.

Saturation performance analysis of directional CSMA/CA in mmWave WPANs

The millimeter-wave (mmWave) band offers the potential for multi-gigabit indoor wireless personal area networks (WPANs). However, there are problems such as the short wavelength and high propagation losses. In order to compensate for these, it is highly recommended to use directional antennas at the physical layer. In this paper, directional carrier sense multiple access/collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) is analyzed in IEEE 802.15.3c, a standard for mmWave WPANs, under a saturated environment. A Markov chain model is presented and analyzed for the no-acknowledgment (No-ACK) mode. For the analysis, the device interaction is considered using directional antennas over a shared channel. A Markov chain model is presented in which the features of IEEE 802.15.3c such as backoff counter freezing and the effects of using directional antennas are incorporated. The maximal number of frames that can be transmitted concurrently and successfully is derived by an algorithm, and the system throughput and the average transmission delay are obtained in the closed forms. Numerical results show that the effects of using directional antennas in CSMA/CA and the overall analysis are verified by the simulation. The obtained results illustrate the physical layer impact on the CSMA/CA medium access control protocol, and these insights can be helpful in developing a medium access control protocol for enhancing the performance of mmWave WPANs. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Power Controlled Concurrent Transmissions in mmWave WPANs

This letter considers power-controlled transmission from directional antennas in mmWave wireless personal area network (WPAN) systems. The attributes of these systems are studied; these include the number of concurrent transmissions and the power consumption with different system parameters, such as the antenna's beamwidth and radiating efficiency. Numerical results are presented to show that the power controlled transmission enables more concurrent transmissions than the non-power controlled transmission. The results also show that the number of concurrent transmissions increases as the beamwidth and the path loss component become smaller and the antenna's radiating efficiency increases. In addition, the power controlled system generally uses less power than the non-power controlled transmission set up; the overall analysis is verified by simulation.

Rex: A randomized EXclusive region based scheduling scheme for mmWave WPANs with directional antenna

Millimeter-wave (mmWave) transmissions are promising technologies for high data rate (multi-Gbps) Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs). In this paper, we first introduce the concept of exclusive region (ER) to allow concurrent transmissions to explore the spatial multiplexing gain of wireless networks. Considering the unique characteristics of mmWave communications and the use of omni-directional or directional antennae, we derive the ER conditions which ensure that concurrent transmissions can always outperform serial TDMA transmissions in a mmWave WPAN. We then propose REX, a randomized ER based scheduling scheme, to decide a set of senders that can transmit simultaneously. In addition, the expected number of flows that can be scheduled for concurrent transmissions is obtained analytically. Extensive simulations are conducted to validate the analysis and demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed REX scheduling scheme. The results should provide important guidelines for future deployment of mmWave based WPANs.

Demonstration of 60-GHz Link Using a 1.6-Gb/s Mixed-Mode BPSK Demodulator

A mixed-mode high-speed binary phase-shift keying (BPSK) demodulator for IEEE802.15.3c mm-wave wireless personal area network (WPAN) application is realized with 0.18-µm CMOS process. The proposed demodulator scheme does not require any analog-to-digital converters (ADC) and, consequently, can have advantages over the conventional schemes for high-data-rate demodulation. The demodulator core consumes 53.8mW from 2.5-V power supply while the chip area is 380×500µm2. The fabricated chip is verified by 60-GHz wireless link tests with 1.6-Gb/s data.

Resource Management and QoS Provisioning for IPTV over mmWave-based WPANs with Directional Antenna

There is an increasing interest in 60 GHz millimeter-wave (mmWave) communication technologies for multi-Gigabit wireless personal area networks (WPAN), aiming to support broadband multimedia applications. Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) is an emerging killer application which requires high data rate and stringent quality of services (QoS) in terms of delay and packet loss. In this paper, we propose a method to efficiently support high definition video flows in a mmWave-based WPAN with QoS guarantee, considering the characteristics of both the IPTV traffic and the mmWave communication technology. We first quantify the effective bandwidth of IPTV video sources using a simple, two-level Markov traffic model. Considering the overheads of the protocol stack in mmWave WPANs, we then quantify the minimum channel time needed for each IPTV flow. Since mmWave-based WPANs will deploy directional antennas to not only extend the transmission range, but also reduce the interference level to neighboring flows, we further propose an admission control scheme and scheduling algorithm to improve the network resource utilization by taking advantage of concurrent transmissions. Extensive simulations with NS-2 using real video traces have validated our analysis and demonstrated the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed schemes, which will be an enabling technology for future mmWave-based WPANs supporting IPTV services.