Simulation-Based Stochastic Blockage Model for Millimeter-wave Communication

Abstract: Recently, the growing demand for high data rates in wireless communication, together with the scarcity of spectrum in existing microwave bands, has motivated the use of millimeter-wave (mmWave) bands for 5G and future wireless communications. Even though mmWaves are potential candidates for fulfilling this rising demand, they come along with their own drawbacks that need to be addressed. Sensitivity to blockages is one of these drawbacks. It is a major channel impairment that is of concern in the design of mmWaves communication systems. As such, different industrial and academic research activities have been performed and are in progress for modeling and characterizing blockages in mmWave communication systems. However, most of the proposed blockage models failed to capture the temporal correlation of the blockages and the dynamics of the channel’s environment.In order to address this issue, this thesis work aims to develop a simple Stochastic Blockage Model for mmWave communication channels. The model uses two-states (ON and OFF states) to represent Line of Sight (LoS) and Non-Line of Sight (NLoS) conditions, respectively. Using simulation-based analysis, the behavior and probability of the LoS and the NLoS situations of a communication link over time have been analyzed. It is demonstrated that the proposed blockage model can capture the behaviors of the probability of a link being blocked or not in a dynamic environment. It was also found to be adequate to model and characterize the effects of blockage in mmWave communication systems. The accuracy of the model was evaluated to be satisfactory by validating the results against a benchmark which was derived from actual data. It is possible to characterize mmWave communication on a system-level by using this model. Thus, this work provides researchers with a simple simulation-based blockage model to help facilitate the study and design of mmWave communication systems.