Providing Gbps/User Connectivity in WLANs

Providing high data rates to wireless users has long been a goal that has driven the development of new technologies and standards in the past decade. Now, with the opening up of the spectrum at 60 GHz, it has become possible to design WLANs that can meet the goal of Gbps/user connectivity. This paper examines several unique design challenges brought about because of the physical characteristics of this frequency band. We show that antenna geometry has a significant impact on throughput. Geometric SDMA algorithms are developed that yield an almost linear scaling of throughput with the number of users yielding 800 Mbps/user on average. We then explore the challenge of providing coverage in dead spots using the novel idea of passive reflectors. Finally, we examine the issue of power control and how the room geometry can be exploited to reduce the average energy/bit. The results presented are based on detailed PHY layer simulations of the 60 GHz system including accurate 3D beam patterns formed by the antennas.