Enabling Uncoordinated Spectrum Sharing in Millimeter Wave Networks Using Carrier Sensing

We propose using carrier sensing for distributed, interference management in a millimeter-wave (mmWave) cellular network where spectrum and base station sites are shared by multiple operators that do not coordinate among themselves. We describe important challenges in using traditional carrier sensing (CS) in this setting and propose enhanced protocols to address these challenges. We evaluate the coverage probability of our shared mmWave network using simulations and find that our enhancements lead to significant performance improvements over no CS as well as naive use of CS, for higher values of signal-to-interference and noise ratio (SINR). Interestingly, our evaluations also reveal that for lower values of SINR, not using any CS is the best strategy.