A Flexible mmWave Layer 2 Protocol Implementation for Integrated Access and Backhaul Architecture

In this paper, we present a 3GPP-inspired hardware implementation for the out-of-band Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) network, which serves as solution to both coverage extension capacity boosting in 5G beyond networks. By employing an Ettus x310 software-defined radio (SDR) board, Pasternack’s 60 GHz Transmitter (Tx) waveguide module, Matlab TM software, design develop easy-to-use mmWave Layer 2 protocol. The proposed protocol decodes frequency range 1 (FR1) signal input at 3.5 GHz, is retransmitted UE (FR2) GHz. of protocol, least squares (LS) estimator adopted by considering demodulation reference (DM-RS) channel state information (CSI-RS) pilot symbols real-world environments. To alleviate performance degradation access link, phase noise cancellation (PNC) algorithm based on tracking (PT-RS) implemented node where PT-RS block structure introduced transmitter stage. We review evaluate key indicators (KPIs) real non-line-of-sight (NLOS) environments comparison between gNode-to-UE link carried out. Our results indicate that similar obtained with off-the-shelf equipment demonstrating right functionality developed algorithms. Experimental evidence superiority over gNodeB-to-UE (direct communication) best when PNC considered IAB architecture.