Macro cellular network transition from traditional frequency range to 28 GHz millimeter wave frequency band

The target of this article is to analyze the impact of transition from cellular frequency band i.e. 2.1 GHz to Millimeter Wave (mmWave) frequency band i.e. 28 GHz. A three dimensional ray tracing tool "sAGA" was used to evaluate the performance of the macro cellular network in urban/dense-urban area of the Helsinki city. A detailed analysis of user experience in terms of signal strength and signal quality for outdoor and indoor users is presented. Indoor users at different floors are separately studied in this paper. It is found that in spite of considering high system gain at 28 GHz the mean received signal power is reduced by almost 16.5 dB compared with transmission at 2.1 GHz. However, the SINR is marginally changed at higher frequency. Even with 200 MHz system bandwidth at 28 GHz, no substantial change is witnessed in signal quality for the outdoor and upper floor indoor users. However, the users at lower floors show some sign of degradation in received signal quality with 200 MHz bandwidth. Moreover, it is also emphasized that mobile operators should take benefit of un-utilized spectrum in the mmWave bands. In short, this paper highlights the potential and the gain of mmWave communications.