Understanding End-to-End Effects of Channel Dynamics in Millimeter Wave 5G New Radio

A critical challenge for wireless communications in the millimeter wave (mmWave) bands is blockage. MmWave signals suffer significant penetration losses from many common materials and objects, and small changes in the position of obstacles in the environment can cause large variations in the channel quality. This paper provides a measurement-based study of the effects of human blockage on an end-to-end application over a mmWave cellular link. A phased array system is used to measure the channel in multiple directions almost simultaneously in a realistic indoor scenario. The measurements are integrated into a detailed ns-3 simulation that models both the latest 3GPP New Radio beam search procedure as well as the internet protocol stack. The measurement-based simulation illustrates how recovery from blockage depends on the path diversity and beam search.