Millimeter wave is an essential 5G technology enabler and a complementary building block
of a high performance 5G system. Today, it is already delivering extreme capacity
and multi-Gigabit per second speeds for enhanced
mobile broadband. But its role will expand as we pave the way to the future of 5G and beyond.
In this video, we will focus on several key areas of millimeter wave evolution.
At Qualcomm Technologies, we are committed to making millimeter wave a commercial success.
One common challenge that operators face is how to arrive at the most efficient network topology.
Today, I will share with you two compelling illustrations
of how millimeter wave networks can be planned and deployed intelligently ensuring good coverage and
exceptional mobile user experience. Our approach involves three steps. First, we create a digital
twin of our targeted deployment based on readily available databases such as Google Street View.
Then, we simplify our digital model using machine learning based object recognition clustering and
pruning for computational efficiency. Last, we jointly evaluate placement location
and the different millimeter wave infrastructure options to arrive at the most optimal topology.
Here we see an outdoor coverage designed for an approximately 1.5 square kilometer area
of downtown Philadelphia. We can specify design constraints, such as types of millimeter wave
infrastructure available, from small cells and IAB, to simple and smart repeaters. Their cost ratios
and the level of coverage desired. Our approach then jointly determines optimum locations
and the type of node to deploy at each selected location, based on these constraints. Here we see
how an operator can evaluate cost and performance benefits of deploying simple and smart repeaters
along with small cells. A well-planned network can greatly enhance user experience even in
challenging settings. In this illustration, the user traverses through urban streets. Coverage and high
data rates are insured by various small cells and smart repeaters. Beam management algorithms and
protocols in the network and device allow the user to seamlessly and dynamically connect to the best
nodes and beams; thereby, ensuring a consistently high level of performance. In conclusion, we are
taking a comprehensive approach to designing and optimizing 5G millimeter wave networks. We combine
machine learning and optimization techniques to greatly simplify the network planning process.
Our scalable methodology extends to other deployment settings and joint designs with
sub-7 Gigahertz frequency bands to deliver compelling user experience at achievable costs.
We continue to drive foundational enhancements to 5G millimeter wave systems.
This demonstration showcases mobility enhancements that can further improve performance, which is
especially important for demanding use cases such as mobile VR, where any lag or service interruption
can have significant impact to user experience. Here is the setup of our system simulation. We use
an example deployment in frankfurt which operates in the 26 Gigahertz band with 400 Megahertz of
bandwidth. We have a mobile VR user that travels across the city on various predetermined routes.
The network is loaded with other millimeter wave devices to emulate real life network conditions.
In the baseline scenario, the system utilizes L3 mobility management in
which the VR device experiences a longer handover latency when it moves from one
cell to the next, resulting in lags and even interrupted services.
With L1/L2 mobility management, inter-cell handovers can be better managed; thereby,
minimizing impacts to the application performance. We can see in the GUI that the user experience
is superior with L1/L2 mobility, as confirmed by the user perceived downlink data throughput.
Whereas L3 mobility experiences throughput dips during handovers. In conclusion, improvements in
mobility play an important role in ensuring the quality of services of the applications.
We will continue to drive new enhancements to millimeter wave systems, so stay tuned for more.
We've also been working on improving how spectrum can be shared between users for better spectrum
utilization and quality of service. Licensed spectrum provides good quality of service
but it's often underutilized. Shared spectrum with dynamic access improves spectrum
utilization but it's reliant on connectivity to access control infrastructure and databases
for the coordinated allocation of channels, which adds operational overhead and complexity. Finally,
unlicensed spectrum with uncoordinated sharing offers deployment flexibility and the least
operational complexity or overhead, but access to the channel is never guaranteed, and quality of
service degrades with network load. We demonstrate a new technology-neutral method for sharing the 37
to 37.6 Gigahertz frequency band, by allocating priority licenses for primary use instead of
exclusive use. We also allow license holders to access other channels with secondary priority,
without degrading their service. We mitigate interference by using long-term sensing,
or LTS, where devices transmit periodic signals for other operators to detect. When one or more
operators use secondary channels and their beams overlap, they receive one of the periodic signals
transmitted by the interfered devices. The operators then suspend the secondary channels and devices
continue operating without interference, and with high quality of service on their primary channels.
Looking at the airport terminal simulation scenario with two operators each with six gNodeB, 200
Megahertz bandwidth, and 32 antenna elements,
we see spectrum sharing offers significantly higher network capacity than the unshared spectrum
baseline but LTS sharing offers much higher quality of service for a better user experience.