Abstract

Millimeter wave (mmWave) communications is viewed as the key enabler of 5G cellular networks due to vast spectrum availability that could boost peak rate and capacity. Due to increased propagation loss in mmWave band, transceivers with massive antenna array are required to meet link budget. While massive antenna arrays enable high gain, directionality and user multiplexing, practical realizations face many challenges in radio design and physical layer processing. In this talk, we first review emerging massive array architectures for mmWave communications and compare their performance, power consumption, and cost with comprehensive hardware block model under typical application use cases. We then discuss two important physical layer design aspects in mobile mmWave networks: directional link establishment via initial access and directional link maintenance via mmWave channel tracking. Lastly, we present the state-of-the-art designs of current mmWave standards, discuss their limitation and provide perspectives on innovative approaches for performance boosts and hardware improvements