Beam management requires effort for 6G golden band mobile networks
The Price of the Golden 6G Band: Evaluation of Beam Management Effort in FR3
Networking and Internet Architecture
Summary
The researchers studied a new 6G frequency band (called FR3) that promises better speeds and reliability than older bands. They found that to keep mobile connections fast and steady, the network must work hard to keep its antennas aimed correctly. Even though this band has better signal behavior than higher bands, changing and tracking antenna directions is still a big challenge. Their work shows that managing these antenna beams carefully is important for good 6G performance.
What this means in practice
- •For network engineers: Plan and optimize 6G gNodeBs deployment by accounting for beam management demands in the FR3 frequency band.
- •For mobile device designers: Design antenna systems that efficiently track and switch beams in 6G devices using insights on FR3 beam stability and management.
Authors
Clémence Altmeyerhenzien, Ljiljana Simić, Marina Petrova
Abstract
Frequency Range 3 (FR3), 7.125-24.25 GHz, regarded as the "golden band" for 6G networks, has less challenging propagation characteristics than FR2 while offering much wider bandwidth for high data rate applications than FR1. Reusing existing FR1 infrastructure for FR3 network deployments requires gNodeBs (gNBs) to employ antenna arrays and perform beam management, which has proven challenging at FR2. In this paper, we extensively study and characterize the beam management effort in an FR3 urban network, in terms of: beam alignment sensitivity, number of directional link opportunities, gNB handover and beam switch rates, and beam steering distance. Our results show that achieving a high and stable mobile throughput requires significant beam management effort across FR3 bands. While the beam tracking requirements are less stringent at the lower frequencies due to wider beams, the beam switching rate to a non-adjacent beam is relatively comparable at FR3 and FR2.