System Evaluation for Millimeter-Wave Radio Access Network

The abundant spectrum in millimeter wave (mmWave) bands provides an opportunity for fifth generation (5G) cellular communication systems to enhance their mobile broadband services. mmWave communication is therefore considered as one of the key features of 5G cellular radio access network (RAN). However, the deployment of mmWave cellular RAN faces challenges due to mmWave radio propagation characteristics such as pathloss, blockage and penetration loss. In this paper, we investigate the performance of mmWave cellular RAN using system level simulations based on the 3GPP evaluation methodology and applying techniques such as cell densification, wireless backhaul, and sub-6 GHz and mmWave dual access.