Achievable RF coverage and system capacity using millimeter wave cellular technologies in 5G networks

This paper presents the achievable radio frequency (RF) coverage and system capacity using mm-wave based cellular systems. It is shown that the RF coverage obtained in each cell are less amorphous in shape compared to the existing microwave bands, and therefore mm-wave based cellular systems will achieve better network-wide RF coverage than the existing micro-wave based cellular systems. It is also shown that realistic base station (BS) radius is about 200m, and that based on this cell size about five times the number of existing cell sites would be required in the mm-wave based network. This gives fourfold additional frequency re-use opportunities or system capacity enhancements over the current cellular capacity, but 400% additional investments must be made in new site acquisitions.