Millimeter-Wave System for High-Speed Train Communications Between Train and Trackside: System Design and Channel Measurements

This paper introduces the design of a 41 GHz mmWave system dedicated for high-speed train communications between train and trackside. A novel frame structure is provided for the acquirement of channel state information as well as for the transmission of user data. Based on the proposed design principles, a system prototype has been established and employed in extensive measurement campaigns. The channel measurement results obtained from a recent measurement campaign under high-speed mobile conditions where the relative velocity between the transmitter and the receiver reaches 170 km/h are presented in this paper. Channel characteristics, including the power delay profile, RMS delay spread, fade depth, small-scale fading statistics, Ricean K factor, autocovariance function, coherence time, level crossing rate, and average fading duration are analyzed in detail. Moreover, the bit-error-rate performance for the proposed system under the channel whose characteristics are obtained from the measurements is simulated. Based on the simulation results, the key parameters for the proposed frame structure are determined to improve the system's robustness in fast varying channels and in the mean time achieve high spectrum efficiency. Besides, the throughput of the system prototype recorded during the transmission of three high-definition video streams is presented. Finally, the outage probability as a function of transmission distance and path loss exponent is estimated based on the channel measurement results.