Millimeter wave cellular channel models for system evaluation

The huge amount of (potentially) available spectrum makes millimeter wave (mmWave) a promising candidate for fifth generation cellular networks. Unfortunately, differences in the propagation environment as a function of frequency make it hard to make comparisons between systems operating at mmWave and microwave frequencies. This paper presents a simple channel model for evaluating system level performance in mmWave cellular networks. The model uses insights from measurement results that show mmWave is sensitive to blockages revealing very different path loss characteristics between line-of-sight (LOS) and non-line-of-sight (NLOS) links. The conventional path loss model with a single log-distance path loss function and a shadowing term is replaced with a stochastic path loss model with a distance-dependent LOS probability and two different path loss functions to account for LOS and NLOS links. The proposed model is used to compare microwave and mmWave networks in simulations. It is observed that mmWave networks can provide comparable coverage probability with a dense deployment, leading to much higher data rates thanks to the large bandwidth available in the mmWave spectrum.