Modeling Human Blockage at 5G Millimeter-Wave Frequencies

Millimeter-wave (mm-wave) spectrum unravels the humongous and accelerating demand for wireless data rates and, therefore, it will be a fundamental ingredient of the fifth-generation (5G) wireless technology. In case of mm-wave access links, humans are the most noticeable blockers of electromagnetic waves from access points to mobile stations and hence cause temporal variation in the radio channel. This article presents human blockage measurements in the anechoic chamber at 15, 28, and 60 GHz frequencies employing 15 human subjects of different sizes and weights. An effective 3-D human blockage model as a double-truncated multiple knife-edge (DTMKE) scheme is also proposed. By calculating diffraction from the DTMKE, the frequency, body orientation, and antenna height dependence of the blockage are most accurately reproduced compared to the existing models, such as absorbing double knife-edge model and third-generation partnership project (3GPP) human blockage model. The results demonstrate that the losses are proportional to the cross section of the human body with respect to the radio link. Furthermore, the blockage loss decreases as the height of the transmitting antenna increases.