Multi-Backup Beams for Instantaneous Link Recovery in mmWave Communications

Abstract

In this paper, a novel link recover scheme is proposed for standalone (SA) millimeter wave communications. Once the main beam between the base station (BS) and the mobile station (MS) is blocked, then a bundle-beam is radiated that covers the spatial direction of the blocked beam. These beams are generated from an analog beamformer design that is composed of parallel adjacent antenna arrays to radiate multiple simultaneous beams, thus creating an analog beamformer of multiple beams. The proposed recovery scheme features instantaneous recovery times, without the need for beam scanning to search for alternative beam directions. Hence, the scheme features reduced recovery times and latencies, as opposed to existing methods.