次世代ネットワークに向けた信号の舵取りを行う(Surface steers signals for next-gen networks)

2023-04-202023-05-01

2023-04-19 プリンストン大学

The mmWall is an accordion-like array of 76 vertical panels that can both reflect and refract radio waves at frequencies above 24 gigahertz, the lower bound of mmWave signals.

プリンストン大学の研究チームが、超高速の5G通信をより良く届けるデバイス「mmWall」を開発したと発表した。これにより、高周波数で伝送する5G信号が壁や人などの障害物によって遮られる問題を克服できるとされる。
mmWallは約タブレットサイズで、窓に取り付けることで屋内外の送受信を効率的に行うことができる。デバイスは縦76枚の折りたたみパネルでできており、細い銅線が敷き詰められたメタアトムと呼ばれる材料で信号の経路を自由に変更できるようになっている。

＜関連情報＞

mmWall：次世代ミリ波ネットワークのための、ステアラブルでトランスフレクトなメタマテリアル表面 mmWall: A Steerable, Transflective Metamaterial Surface for NextG mmWave Networks

Kun Woo Cho, Princeton University; Mohammad H. Mazaheri, UCLA; Jeremy Gummeson, University of Massachusetts Amherst; Omid Abari, UCLA; Kyle Jamieson, Princeton University
The article was presented April 19 at the USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation

Abstract

Mobile operators are poised to leverage millimeter wave technology as 5G evolves, but despite efforts to bolster their reliability indoors and outdoors, mmWave links remain vulnerable to blockage by walls, people, and obstacles. Further, there is significant interest in bringing outdoor mmWave coverage indoors, which for similar reasons remains challenging today. This paper presents the design, hardware implementation, and experimental evaluation of mmWall, the first electronically almost-360-degree steerable metamaterial surface that operates above 24 GHz and both refracts or reflects incoming mmWave transmissions. Our metamaterial design consists of arrays of varactor-split ring resonator unit cells, miniaturized for mmWave. Custom control circuitry drives each resonator, overcoming coupling challenges that arise at scale. Leveraging beam steering algorithms, we integrate mmWall into the link layer discovery protocols of common mmWave networks. We have fabricated a 10 cm by 20 cm mmWall prototype consisting of a 28 by 76 unit cell array and evaluated it in indoor, outdoor-to-indoor, and multi-beam scenarios. Indoors, mmWall guarantees 91% of locations outage-free under 128-QAM mmWave data rates and boosts SNR by up to 15 dB. Outdoors, mmWall reduces the probability of complete link failure by a ratio of up to 40% under 0–80% path blockage and boosts SNR by up to 30 dB.