Field Experiments on 5G mmW Radio Access with Beam Tracking in Small Cell Environments

This paper presents field experiments on the downlink throughput performance of a beam tracking proof-of-concept system targeting 5G millimeter wave radio access in the following typical small cell environments: a courtyard, lobby, and underground parking area. The majority of the area in the tested environments is Line-Of-Sight (LOS) with cell radii of less than 60 m. The results show that the maximum throughput of over 2 Gbps is achieved in 87%, 40%, and 51% of each of the respective environments in the defined course. The beam tracking characteristics of each environment are nearly identical since the direct path is selected in LOS environments. Furthermore, under Non-LOS (NLOS) conditions, even though reflections degrade the signal quality, it is still possible for the user device (UD) to connect to the access point (AP) through the reflected paths. The NLOS connection is possible due to the relative position of the AP, UD, and reflectors in the environment.