Sensor Assisted Movement Identification and Prediction for Beamformed 60 GHz Links

Abstract

The 60 GHz frequency band promises very high data rates - in the order of Gb/s - due to the availability of high bandwidth. However, high free-space path loss makes it necessary to employ beamforming capable directional antennas. When beamforming is used, the links are sensitive to misalignment in antenna directionality because of movement of devices. To identify and circumvent the misalignments, we propose to use the motion sensors (i.e., accelerometer and gyroscope) which are already present in most of the modern mobile devices. By finding the extent of misaligned beams, corrective actions are carried out to reconfigure the antennas. Motion sensors on mobile devices provide means to estimate the extent of misalignments. We collected real data from motion sensors and steer the beams appropriately. The results from our study show that the sensors are capable of detecting the cause of errors as translational or rotational movements. Furthermore it is also shown that the sensor data can be used to predict the next location of the user. This can be used to reconfigure the directional antenna to switch the antenna beam directions and hence avoid frequent link disruptions. This decreases the number of beam searches thus lowering the MAC overhead.