Transmitter Beam Selection in Millimeter-Wave MIMO with In-Band Position-Aiding

Journal article, 2018

Emerging wireless communication systems will be characterized by a tight coupling between communication and positioning. This is particularly apparent in millimeter-wave (mm-wave) communications, where devices use a large number of antennas, and the propagation is well described by geometric channel models. For mm-wave communications, initial access, consisting in the beam selection and alignment of two devices, is challenging and time consuming in the absence of location information. Conversely, accurate positioning relies on high-quality communication links with proper beam alignment. This paper studies this interaction and proposes a new position-aided transmitter beam selection protocol, which considers the problem of joint communication and positioning in scenarios with direct line-of-sight and scattering. Simulation results show significant reductions in latency with respect to a standard protocol.