Architecture considerations for 60 GHz wireless networks

Abstract

Providing high data rates to wireless users has long been a goal that has driven the development of new technologies and standards in the past decade. Now, with the opening up of the spectrum at 60 GHz, it has become possible to design WLANs that can meet the goal of Gbps/user connectivity. This paper examines several unique design challenges brought about because of the physical characteristics of this frequency band. We show that antenna geometry has a significant impact on throughput. This result is obtained when we utilize realistic 3D beam patterns, rather than the common 2D approximation. Indeed, the maximum average throughput for a linear antenna array of 8 Gbps (using only 640 MHz of spectrum) is more than double that obtained with a circular array consisting of the same number of antenna elements. We explore the challenge of providing coverage in dead spots using the novel idea of passive reflectors.