Double-link beam tracking against human blockage and device mobility for 60-GHz WLAN

Abstract

Due to human blockage and device mobility, 60GHz wireless local-area network (WLAN) faces the challenge of communication-link outage. To cope with this problem, a double-link beam tracking scheme is proposed in this paper. This scheme includes a search strategy of transmission and alternative links, and an in-packet double-link tracking and switching method. The transmission and alternative links are simultaneously tracked against device mobility, through probing neighboring beams; once the human blockage is detected in transmission link, the system can thus switch to the alternative link directly. Besides, the proposed scheme finds the finish of human blockage quickly through in-packet double-link tracking, and enables the system to communication in the maximal received-power link. The comparison between the proposed scheme and the IEEE 802.11ad scheme is conducted. The comparison shows that the proposed scheme significantly reduces the probability of outage, and achieves an improved throughput.