Analysis of self-body blocking effects in millimeter wave cellular networks

Abstract

The millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum is a strong candidate carrier frequency for access channels in fifth generation cellular networks. Unfortunately, the human body heavily attenuates mmWave signals. This paper evaluates the impact of self-body blocking (the blocking of the direct link by the handset user's body) in mmWave cellular networks using a stochastic geometric network model. A mathematical model for self-body blocking is proposed, allowing for position changes, and used to compute signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) distributions with two possible user association rules. The results characterize how self-body blocking impacts the SINR coverage. Even including self-body blocking, mmWave cellular systems can still outperform convention systems at lower frequencies, in terms of the achievable rate, due to the larger bandwidth.