WNCG Profs. François Baccelli, Jeff Andrews and Robert Heath were recently awarded a $1,000,000 research grant from the National Science Foundation for research on Millimeter Wave (mmW) cellular networks. The project is entitled "Fundamental Properties of Millimeter Wave Networks: Signal, Interference, and Connectivity” and will develop new mathematical and analysis tools to uncover the potential of mmW cellular networks. The research will focus on: modeling mmW networks in 3D, including the obstacles for which statistical blocking models will be developed and validated with real building data; accounting for signal and interference correlation in performance analysis, which will be significant in mmW due to their main randomizing factors being blocking and beam alignment rather than fading and shadowing; and accounting for and addressing the possibly severe effects of mobility on beam alignment and network connectivity.
