Millimeter-Wave Distributed Antenna Systems for Interactive Virtual Reality: Reducing blockage and exposure and enhancing robustness with (air-filled) substrate-integrated waveguide antennas. [Bioelectromagnetics]

In this column article, millimeter-wave (mmWave)-over-fiber-based distributed antenna systems (DASs) are showcased to realize reliable high-data-rate wireless links for demanding applications, such as interactive virtual reality, where line-of-sight blockage due to the presence of the user’s own body and external (human) blockers frequently occurs. Distributed architectures, such as DASs, pose a good solution to alleviate these losses, while keeping the background exposure low. Additionally, [air-filled (AF)] substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) antenna topologies are compared to dipole and patch antennas and are found to be more robust in close proximity to the body, in terms of both bioelectromagnetic (bio-EM) effects and communication performance. Finally, a practical demonstration of a mmWave DAS with head-mounted user equipment (UE) exhibits reliable 12-Gb/s wireless links in the n257 band under full rotation and head tilting of the user. By leveraging distributed multiple-input, multiple-output (DMIMO) techniques, the throughput can even be raised to 24 Gb/s.