Millimeter-Wave Coordinated Multi-Point Scheme with Joint Transmission Under Tropical Rain Attenuation Evaluated on High-Resolution Radar Images

High-density mm-wave access networks are required to increase specific capacity (bps/km2). In addition to obstructions by buildings and objects around the Base Station (BS), tropical rain attenuation is also one of the phenomena that affects the power received by a User Equipment (UE) on the downlink. An evaluation of SINR performance on a high-density BS mm-wave access network that applies Coordinated Multi-Point with Joint Transmission (CoMP-JT) under spatially varying tropical rainfall conditions is reported. The evaluation has been carried out for two BS network configurations, namely square grid and random grid, by using high-resolution rain radar images so that realistic spatial variations of tropical rainfall have been obtained. BS networks with square grids have uniform density and, when CoMP-JT is applied, result in better SINR coverage than those with random grids. In square grid BS networks, the UEs with low data rate needs are more likely to be better served, but the serviceability level of UEs with a minimum SINR requirement of 3.959 dB cannot reach 100%. In a random grid configuration, the minimum SINR requirement in some areas is difficult to achieve due to the non-uniform BS density. Many BSs are often needed in CoMP-JT in order to achieve the desired minimum SINR. By following the method reported in this paper, the minimum criteria for mm-wave network operation can be estimated before the deployment phase.