Opp-relay

Managing directionality and mobility issues of millimeter-wave via D2D communication

Conference Paper (2017)
Author(s)

Gek Hong Sim (Technische Universität Darmstadt)

Arash Asadi (Technische Universität Darmstadt)

Adrian Loch (IMDEA Networks Institute)

Matthias Hollick (Technische Universität Darmstadt)

Joerg Widmer (IMDEA Networks Institute)

Affiliation
External organisation
DOI related publication
https://doi.org/10.1109/COMSNETS.2017.7945370
More Info
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Publication Year
2017
Language
English
Affiliation
External organisation
Pages (from-to)
144-151
ISBN (electronic)
9781509042500

Abstract

The directionality of millimeter-Wave (mm-Wave) communication results in challenging network dynamics and thus complex system design. A key problem with such networks is human blockage, which is highly detrimental since absorption at mm-Wave frequencies is extremely high. This poses a significant challenge for the state-of-the-art technologies in 5G networks such as Device-to-Device (D2D) communication. Essentially, the aforementioned dynamics hinder direct communication between devices. Existing protocols in the mm-Wave band such as IEEE 802.11ad address this problem using relays. However, the complexity relay discovery in these protocols grows linearly with the number of users, Hence, these approaches are infeasible for crowded areas such as malls or busy pedestrian streets. In this paper, we present a lightweight relaying mechanism called Opp-Relay that builds on the existing D2D features of the 3GPP standard to opportunistically discover an mm-Wave enabled relay. Specifically, we provide an algorithm to compute the optimal beamwidth for opportunistic discovery of a relay in dense and dynamic network environments. We validate our approach in practice using our experimental testbed operating in the 60 GHz band. Our experiments demonstrate that choosing a suitable beamwidth to discover and communicate with a relay node is crucial. Moreover, we show that our relaying mechanism significantly reduces the complexity of relay discovery.

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