MAC-layer integration of multiple radio bands in indoor millimeter wave networks

The abundant bandwidth at 60 GHz band (around 7 GHz) offers the potential for multi-Gbps indoor wireless connections for bandwidth-intensive applications. However, 60 GHz millimeter wave (mmWave) links are highly susceptible to blockage since it is difficult to diffract around obstacles. In this paper, we propose multi-radio band integration framework to have 2.4/5 GHz band assist mmWave band to prevent drastic data rate reduction. Specifically, the problem of multi-radio band integration with TDMA-based MAC is formulated as an optimization problem. We decompose the problem into two subproblems: radio band selection and space-time scheduling. Firstly, considering network load and mmWave channel status, we define start-integration threshold and stop-integration threshold to select an active radio band for data transmission. Secondly, a space-time scheduling scheme is proposed to allow multiple flows over different radio bands operate concurrently to exploit the spatial reuse. Simulation results of the proposed multi-radio band integration mechanism demonstrate significant improvements of network connectivity and the number of supported traffic flows.