An mmWave wireless communication and radar detection integrated network for railways

作者：Yan Li^*; Fang Xuming; Li Hengchao; Li Chao

来源：IEEE 83rd Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC Spring), 2016-05-15 to 2016-05-18.

• mmWave
• 5G wireless communications
• radar detections
• railways
• train operation safety

With large available continuous bandwidth, millimeter wave (mmWave) bands hold promise as a carrier frequency for fifth generation (5G) wireless communications. Moreover, mmWave bands also play an important role in radar detections. Based on this observation, we propose an mmWave wireless communication and radar detection integrated network architecture for railways, not only to increase the capacity of railway wireless communication systems, but also to realize train operation environment detection to enhance train operation safety. To overcome the aggravated path loss in mmWave bands, directional beamforming is generally used to concentrate signal radiation energy both in wireless communications and radar detections. Nevertheless, for wireless communications, the signaling blind zone of directional beamforming makes it less effective in wireless link establishment and maintenance. Therefore, in this proposed integrated network, two frequency bands are employed, where omnidirectionally radiated licensed lower frequency bands carry critical signaling and data, and mmWave bands are time-division multiplexed to transmit large-volume communication data for trains, or to perform environment detection for enhancing train operation safety. To mitigate handovers and to increase baseband processing resource utilization in railway scenarios, the proposed integrated network is deployed based on the cloud radio access network (C-RAN) architecture, where both licensed lower frequency band radio remote units (RRUs) and mmWave band RRUs are connected to a building baseband unit (BBU) pool through high-speed backhauls. Besides, physical (PHY) frame structures and up/downlink communication signaling procedures are designed for this proposed integrated network. Performance analysis results have demonstrated that the proposed integrated network can highly increase the capacity for railway wireless communication systems and achieve high distance and angular resolution for radar detections.

• 出版日期2016
• 单位西南交通大学