Rate-Optimizing Beamsteering for Line-of-Sight Directional Radios with Random Scheduling

Fifth Generation (5G) mobile networks aim to exploit the huge amount of spectrum in the millimeter wave (mmWave) or Terahertz bands to increase communication capacity. mmWave and Terahertz radios fundamentally differ from existing wireless systems in terms of directivity, propagation loss, and blockage sensitivity. Traditional sub-6 GHz radios are not as sensitive to physical obstruction or blockage since they are equipped with omni-directional antennas; however, they cannot attain the service quality provided by systems equipped with directional antennas with high directive gains and low directional propagation loss. We explore high frequency mmWave/Terahertz antennas as part of a network, where nodes/antennas communicate with each other by steering their beams, following a random communication schedule. We systematically structure the random scheduling of nodes and design the corresponding throughput expressions. We investigate the result of optimally steering main lobe beams of these antennas, and its effect on the network capacity.