Virtual Beamforming and User Scheduling for Sub-Array Architecture in mmWave Networks

Abstract

In this letter, we propose a virtual beamforming and user scheduling technique, namely VirtualBus which attains higher beamforming gain by generating narrower beams in a sub-array mmWave network architecture. These narrower beams are generated by making adjacent subsets of antenna elements connected to individual RF chains into a logical subset of antenna elements. The proposed VirtualBus technique is beneficial as well in a sense that it does not increase the hardware complexity of the sub-array architecture. Through simulations on the UMistreet canyon scenario, we verify that the proposed technique achieves higher sum of data delivery rates without sacrificing much fairness than the existing beamforming techniques that disregarded the virtual beamforming technique.