Proof of Concept of Optimum Radio Access Technology Selection Scheme with Radars for Millimeter-Wave Networks

Abstract

SUMMARY With the rapid increase in the amount of data communication in 5G networks, there is a strong demand to reduce the power of the entire network, so the use of highly power-e ffi cient millimeter-wave (mm-wave) networks is being considered. However, while mm-wave communication has high power e ffi ciency, it has strong straightness, so it is di ffi cult to secure stable communication in an environment with blocking. Especially when considering use cases such as autonomous driving, continuous communication is required when transmitting streaming data such as moving images taken by vehicles, it is necessary to compensate the blocking problem. For this reason, the authors examined an optimum radio access technology (RAT) selection scheme which selects mm-wave communication when mm-wave can be used and select wide-area macro-communication when mm-wave may be blocked. In addition, the authors implemented the scheme on a prototype device and conducted field tests and confirmed that mm-wave communication and macro communication were switched at an appropriate timing.